This unusual screenwriting book takes up where William Froug's earlier books left off. It offers the reader a tapestry of short essays and in-depth interviews with top screenwriters. Froug's essays cover such topics as avoiding the obvious, the birth of ideas, the process of rewriting, dealing with writer's block, creativity and spontaneity, handling rejection, breaking the screenwriting "rules, " and episodic forms. The interview subjects are: Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption), Callie Khourie (Thelma & Louise), Eric Roth (Forrest Gump), Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (A Room with a View), David Peoples (The Unforgiven), Janet People (12 Monkeys), Bo Goldman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Laurence Dworet (Outbreak), Stuart Kaminsky (Once Upon a Time in America), Larry Gelbart (Tootsie). Zen and the Art of Screenwriting is a fresh, insightful, informative and entertaining read for both novice and veteran screenwriters. William Froug is an Emmy-winning writer-producer whose television credits include "Playhouse 90" and "The Twilight Zone" He was named Producer of the Year in 1956 by the Producers Guild of America and received the Writers Guild of America's Valentine Davies Award in 1987. He is a professor emeritus at UCLA, where he founded the present Film and Television Writing Program.