Part I: General Considerations
1. Impolite Language: Seven Naughty Words: Entertainment; Commercialism; Voyeurism; Contrivance; Exploitation; Hollywood; Audience
2. Essential Principles: Audience: The Status of the Observer; Conflict: Violence and Sex; Credibility: What Is Real and What Is Reel

Part II: Nuts and Bolts
3. Story: Tale Assembly: Beginnings: Tone, Introducing the Protagonist, Time Lock, Exposition; Middles: Wrinkles and Reversals, Predictability, Coincidence, The Big Gloom; Endings: Ambiguity, Positive and Negative Space, Gravity—ause and Effect, Choices—Subtle and Unsubtle, Theme—The So-what Test
4. Character: Only Human, Humans Only: Development; Sympathy; Stereotypes; Keep Character Descriptions Brief; Use Sensible Names; Invent
5. Dialogue: Talk Is Cheap: Avoid Reality; Economize; No Repeats; No Chitchat; Get to the Point; Exclude Dialect; Use the Rhythm Method; Don't Underscore; ...Avoid... Ellipses; Avoid Parenthetical Directions; Avoid Funny Punctuation; Avoid Long Speeches; Argue
6. Action and Setting: Little Things Mean a Lot: Avoid Static Situations: Telephones; Cars; Restaurants and Bars; Hotels, Apartments, Offices; Give the Actors Something to Do; Integration
7. Format: Sight and Sound: No High-Tech Jargon; Master Scenes Only; Numbers; Cover; Binding; Title; No Character or Cast Lists; Effects—Fades, Cuts, Dissolves; P.O.V.; Avoid "We See" and "We Hear"; Present Tense Only; Theatrical Films Versus Movies for Television; Spelling (and Punctuation) Count(s)!; Flashback; Cheating; Gentle Reminders for Readers; Montage; Upper Case and Lower

Part III: The Writing Habit
8. Writer's Block and Tackle: Ideas; Writer's Block; Working Methods; Writing Venue; Outline vs. Treatment; Scene Cards; Rewriting; Experimentation; Word Processing

Part IV: The Business
9. Script Sales Strategies: Dollars for Dreams: Too Much Savvy; Representation; Good Faith; Acquiring an Agent; Speculating; Hollywood Nightmares and Myths; Agents and the Law; Agency Contracts; Releases; Purchase, Option, and Turnaround; Packaging; The Writers Guild; The Gatekeeper Theory; Professionalism; A Secret among Writers; A Final Solution to the Agent Problem

Conclusion—The Whole Picture
10. Emotion: Ego, Criticism, Rejection and Heartache