Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
"The most exciting thing about Dara's remarkable technique is the way it enhances the creative process. It helps writers identify and express the deeper themes of the story, which gives the structure greater depth and meaning. This is a book you can read with each script you write, as both guide and inspiration. It is more than a unique approach to story. It is an understanding of the transformational process that is life." - Girl Interrupted, The Waiting Room
"Dara Marks covers everything a writer needs to know about how to take passion and turn it into a meaningful story for an audience. What’s more, she does it with the intelligence, clarity, and generosity of a true teacher. Inside Story is an excellent addition to any writer’s library." - Everbody Loves Raymond, Coach
"Dara Marks has written a breakthrough book on the art of crafting extraordinary stories. Inside Story takes you where few other books about writing can—inside not only the structure and substance of great stories but also inside the writer’s heart, mind and soul from which great stories spring. With skill and penetrating insight, Dara Marks will transform forever the way you understand the deepest layers of crafting a story. In the process, you’ll learn important truths about writing that compelling screenplay, stage play, or novel and you’ll learn important truths about yourself. If they gave an Oscar for the best book on screenwriting, Dara Marks would be the odds on favorite to win it for Inside Story." - The Hero With an African Face, The Long Mile
"They say you can’t learn screenwriting from a book. They were right - until Inside Story. This is a book every screenwriter must read before writing the words: “Fade In...” Frankly, the only problem I had with Inside Story is that it’s hard to type with one hand while you’re holding this book in the other. " - The Main Event, Who's That Girl?, former Head Writer, Saturday Night Live
"Nobody can give a writer talent, but Dara Marks can guide us through the craft of telling our stories in the most thoughtful and thought-provoking way. She teaches us to mine our ideas and bring them home. " - Beaches, Larry: The King of Rock and Roll
"Replete with examples from both classic and contemporary films, Dara Marks’ Inside Story offers fresh insights into screenwriting structure, enabling writers to better hone their craft and elevate their art." - UCLA Screenwriting Chairman
"Study this book. Memorize it. Keep it by your computer. There are a lot of books about structure, but this book guides you on how to go beyond all those formulaic and false external structural guidelines and leads you on a deep journey inside the heart and soul of your story." - Screenwriting From the Soul, How to Adapt Anything into a Screenplay
"Dara Marks has done it!!! Just when one thinks there can be nothing new to say about screenwriting, along comes Dara Marks with Inside Story! This newest screenwriting book is for you!!! Dara's wisdom creates a veritable smorgasbord of adjectives: comprehensive, entertaining, challenging, qualitative. Her book also contains the best writing advice of all, “Dare to be guided by your passion." That's as good as it gets and Dara's Inside Story is as good as it gets. Write on, Dara!!!!" - Chairman Emeritus and Professor of Screenwriting, UCLA Department of Film and Television
"I just finished reading this remarkable book. At one point it made me cry, it is so beautiful. I had no idea a book on writing could affect me this way…. Dara’s heart, her wise heart, is reflected on every page. How painful but exhilarating a journey she must’ve had to write this." - Romancing the Stone (uncredited), Mary Tyler Moore, The Fanelli Boys
"This book is fantastic! I wish I had read it before we started writing our last film, Simple Things. As I read Inside Story, I'm already thinking through my next movies, clarifying the protagonist and centering on the theme. This is so helpful! Dara identifies what is missing in the heart of most of our modern stories and she shows us how to reclaim it. This not only help us write better stories, but in so doing we will develop a better understanding of ourselves and others. Bravo, Dara!" - Simple Things
Discography
Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc
Whether you're a beginning screenwriter or an A-list Academy Award winner, all writers struggle with the same thing: to get to the great script inside.
Step by step, Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc guides you through an extraordinary new process that helps identify your thematic intention - what your story is really about - and teaches you how to turn that intention into the driving force behind all your creative choices. The result is a profound relationship between the movement of the plot and the internal development of character, which is the foundation for the transformational arc.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Dara Marks, Ph.D., is a writer and leading international script consultant who has devoted the last twenty years to the development of a groundbreaking approach to the theory of the transformational arc and screenplay structure. Her unique method of story analysis has earned her top ratings by Creative Screenwriting Magazine as the best consultant in the business. She has worked with most major Hollywood studios and many independent filmmakers and has recently received a doctorate degree in Mythological Studies from Pacifica Graduate Institute. Dara is a highly sought after keynote speaker whose work is committed to the idea that a culture speaks through its stories. She offers workshops, seminars, and script development services. Dara lives in Ojai, California, with her husband and son.
Links
