Every award-winning short film begins life with a clever idea, a good story and a screenplay. Patrick Nash analyses the process of writing short film screenplays and gives advice on:

- Story and structure
- Ideas generation
- Plot and pace
- Screenplay format
- Dos and don'ts
- Eliciting emotion
- Dialogue and subtext
- Character design
- Protagonists and antagonists
- Character motivation and goals
- Conflict, obstacles and stakes
- Clichés and Stereotypes
- Beginnings, middles and ends
- Hooking the viewer
- Screenplay competitions
- Loglines, outlines and synopses
- Rewriting and length
- Practicalities and budgetsThe book also includes a number of award-winning scripts and interviews, advice and contributions from their award-winning screenwriters and a discussion of the benefits to writers of writing short screenplays.