Crafting Short Screenplays That Connect: A Closer Look.Reviewed by C J Singh (Berkeley, CA).Claudia H Johnson's insight of the connect-disconnect pattern in storytelling came first to my attention in the early editions of Janet Burroway's classic textbooks Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft and the more recent Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft (See my detailed reviews of the current editions of both books on amazon.)In "Writing Fiction," 1994 edition, Burroway wrote: "I'm indebted to dramatist Claudia Johnson's crucial insight...whereas the hierarchical or vertical nature of narrative, the power struggle, has long been acknowledged, there also appears in all narrative a horizontal pattern of connection and disconnection between characters, which is the main source of its emotional effect."As organizer of our writing group CreativeWritersBerkeley (now a meetup), I have long been using the earlier editions of Claudia Johnson's screenwriting as well as Burroway's fiction-craft books as the major texts.Introducing CRAFTING SHORT SCREENPLAYS THAT CONNECT, fourth edition, Johnson describes Burroway's immediate appreciation of her insight when she went to see her: "This is big - the other half of Aristotle" (p xxiv). Both are professors at Florida State University. Johnson's book was first published in 2000. It received considerable acclaim.On the fourth edition's jacket, Linda Seger, author of several books on screenwriting, notes: "Claudia Johnson leads the reader through the process of writing the short film, along the way illuminating something much bigger - how to write great drama in any form." Burroway has been right all along in her fiction-writing textbooks.The new edition expands expository chapters, adds several short films, presents ten screenplays by her students, and provides access to their films at the companion website. Several of these plays won multiple awards including the Student-Emmy Awards.Here are some of the highlights of the four parts of the nearly 400-page book.PART I, Preparing to Write the Short Screenplay, four brief chapters.On page 11, appears an excellent exercise "Connecting to Self" that asks the reader to write down top five answers to each of the ten questions:"What I Love;What I Hate;What I Fear;What I Believe;What I Value;What I Want;What I Know About;People Who Made a Difference in My Life;Discoveries That Made a Difference in My Life;Decisions That Made Difference in My Life"The above exercise can open the path to writing from the heart. It's similar to the Step 1 exercise "Write Something That May Change Your Life" in John Truby's highly regarded The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller . (See my detailed review on amazon.) Truby exhorts, "Do some self-exploration, something most writers, incredibly enough, never do."PART II, Aspects of the Craft, five chapters.The fifth chapter, Story and Screenplay, claims "Everything You Need to Know You Can Learn" from one scene in Charlie Chaplin's "City Lights." As a fan of Charlie Chaplin geAfter reading Johnson's masterly four-page analysis of this scene and as a fan of Chaplin's genius and after reading Johnson's 4-page detailed analysis of the scene, I agree with her: "You can't learn everything you need to know, but you can get pretty close if you pay close attention" to it (p 53).6. The chapter, Character, cites excerpts from the works of Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," William Goldman's "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," George Lucas's "American Graffiti," Ray Bradbury's "Zen in the Art of Writing," Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters" as well as several of her students' works.7. The chapter, Structure, questions Syd Field's paradigm of a rigid three-act structure and plot points in favor of William Goldman's advice of flexibility: "The proper structure should be for the particular script you are writing." Highly instructional in this chapter is the description of one of Johnson's students, Brian Gutierrez Arramayo's struggle. He tried to adhere to the Field paradigm in the first fourteen drafts of his screenplay "Intercambio." In the fifteenth draft, observes Johnson, "Getting back to the heart of the story - - and getting in touch with his own heart - - gave Brian the confidence he needed to replace his longer, expositional, Paradigm-perfect Act One attempts with a brief opening scene that deftly sets up Cristina's circumstances, want, and intention" (p 81).8. The chapter, Dialogue, includes effective and entertaining examples from screenplays such as Susannah Grant's "Erin Brokovich," Robert Benton's "Kramer vs Kramer," and Woody Allen & Marshall Brickaman's "Annie Hall."PART III, Five (Not So) Easy Screenplays are exercises.Each chapter includes guidelines to do the exercise and presents examples from classic as well as students' screenplays.9. The chapter, The Discovery, exercise: "Write a three-page screenplay about a character making a discovery that makes a difference to the character" (p 113).10. The Decision, exercise: "Write a three-to-five page screenplay about a character making a decision that makes a difference to the character" (p 123).11. The Boxing Match, exercise: "Write a five-page screenplay about a character (A) who wants something that a second character (B) does not want to give" (p 133)12. The Improbable Connection, exercise: "Write a seven-page screenplay about two characters who initially feel no connection whatsoever -- a connection between them is highly improbable -- but by the end of the screenplay they have come to feel a authentic connection" (p 145).13. The Long Short Screenplay, exercise: "Write the best ten-page (or shorter) screenplay you can -- using the techniques you have learned to tell a good story that makes us connect -- a pattern of human change that makes a difference to your main character. And to us" (p 153).PART IV, Eleven Screenplays That Make It Look Easy.14, "Chillin' Out" - a webisode15, "Intercambios" - a Latina defrauded at bank.16, "Underground" - an African-American man, trying to protect his daughter, lynched in 1850.17, "Tough Crowd" - a screenplay.18, "Kosher" - a lovely comedy of a 6-year old couple "getting married."19, "My Josephine" - a screenplay.20, "A Work in Progress" - a screenplay.21, "Lena's Spaghetti" - a screenplay.22, "Cool Breeze and Buzz" - a screenplay.23, "The Making of `Killer Kite' " - a mockumentary.24, "Slow Dancin' Down the Aisles of Quickcheck" - a screenplay.ALl of the above ten short films can be viewed in less than three hours total.-------------ACCESSIBLE BY COPYING and PASTING THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR WEB BROWSER:routledgetextbooks.com/textbooks/9780415735476/-------------------My top three choices are:1. "Kosher."2. "Intercambios";3. "Underground".You are invited to list your top three choices in the Comments section below.I look forward to using the fourth edition as one of the two major texts at the CreativeWritersBerkeley meetup.Five shining stars for the screenplays and films.