Richard Walter's SCREENWRITING provides an excellent overview from the outline to the query letter process.

For a scholarly source into character and motive, try Lajos Egri's THE ART OF DRAMATIC WRITING

For insight into the hero's journey and storytelling myth, Joseph Campbell's THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES which inspired George Lucas and STAR WARS.

MELODRAMA: Thomas Hardy - TESS, JUDE THE OBSURE - the dialogue is often very cinematic, but it is the plot that really moves.

HUMOR: John Kennedy Toole - CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES, a one-man wrecking crew, buffoonery and gaseous wit, a "vehicle" for a comic actor.

Joseph Heller - CATCH 22 for absurd plotting and ensemble writing - a forerunner of situation comedy - the humor is derived from the situation and milieu - Heller writes, "There was only one catch and that was Catch 22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions... If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to... "That's some catch, that Catch 22," he [Yossarian observed] "It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

Charles Bukowski - In all his fiction, he uses setting to depict character - the reader's sympathies are drawn out of the dregs of the protagonist's skid row life.

DIALOGUE: Mark Twain's HUCK FINN - use of vernacular and regional dialect. Twain and Oscar Wilde created the pseudo-intellectual paradox. Twain writes on fighting, "Thrusting my nose firmly between his teeth, I threw him heavily to the ground on top of me."

THEATRICAL DIALOGUE: Eugene O'Neil's ICEMAN COMETH for barroom humor and raw realism - a predecessor to the slang of Mamet.

MEMOIR: John Bayley's ELEGY FOR IRIS - two writers, husband and wife, and their stuggle with Alzheimer's. Poignant commentary on the lifestyle of the writer.

Some other highly regarded films for the writer...

MARTY - a great dialogue movie by Paddy Chayefsky, the great screenwriter who never directed. It was made for television.

PAT GARRET AND BILLY THE KID - underrated humor, redefined a genre, a British comedy of manners, very detailed into the life of a cowboy - how does a sheriff walk down the stairs after a night with four whores - James Coburn ambles gingerly.

THE THIRD MAN - bringing out a main character late in a film, building suspense, giving the audience just enough to chew - classic economy of plot.

UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST Adaptations - don't get tied to the text. These screenwriters dared to expand on the original material and further enhance its spirit.

NASHVILLE, SHORT CUTS - drama in all its complicated humanity, what Paul Thomas Anderson valiantly but couldn't quite accomplish in MAGNOLIA. Murmured naturalistic dialogue and seamless transitions - should be given full attention on the big screen.