GIVING THE PHONE MENU SOMETING TO GRAB JEESH!
The Blog, aka —
Thoughts on Things Screenwriting
Five Instant Logline Fixes
Five Instant Logline FixesTHE BAD NEWS: If you’re making these 5 mistakes, you’re not ready for prime time. THE GOOD NEWS: Correcting these 5 mistakes will rocket your logline quality up so fast NASA might ask to read your script. 1: KILL THE METAPHORS: Metaphors...
Save It For The Director
Save It For the DirectorI see advice online sometimes to screenwriters, "Don't do that, that's the director's job." Most recently, I saw it about putting music in a script. Other times I see it about defining perspective [shots or angles] in a script, or sometimes...
Five Instant Action Fixes
Five Instant Action FixesTHE BAD NEWS: If you’re making these 5 mistakes writing screenplays, you’re not ready for prime time. THE GOOD NEWS: Correcting these 5 mistakes will rocket your script quality up so fast NASA might ask to read your script. KILL FORMS...
Writing Above the Line
WRITING ABOVE THE LINE —Invariably, at the end of any interview, the interviewer will pause and then say, “What advice would you give newer writers trying to break in?” This used to seem like an impossibly broad question. Seriously? You want me to sum everything up in...
Character Hacks
Turning a story a little on its head considering it from different angles character-wise can give you new insights into story.
Does that mean you should go that extreme on a character change?
No. Not always. But, maybe. Maybe the story will get a lot more interesting stepping outside of the “Village of the Happy Nice People” zone.
Saving Face
SAVING FACE —This is not my usual "cool find" but I want to put it out there because we are coming up on pitching classes and Zoom meetings. People say odd things about me, like "Max doesn't age." That is not true. (Dear Knees, I am so sorry for the wrongs I did you...
Withholding, It Is Not Just For Breakfast Any More…
Characters, like people, presenting themselves to a room full of strangers, withhold. They want to make a good impression. To be liked. Respected…
Movie Moments
MOVIE MOMENTS —I saw this post from Vivashwan Chudhary on LinkedIn talking about "a simple way of testing whether your film idea will work or not." He was talking about a writer who pitched him an idea, but "didn’t want to waste time spending six months on writing a...
Three Reasons Someone Might Not Read Your Screenplay
3 Reasons Someone Might Not Read Your Screenplay.... . NUMBER 1: You Have No Idea In Hell Whom You Are Talking To – And You Don’t Try To Find Out Before Shooting Off Your Mouth. A. LOT. This happened to me a while back. I had been working on and researching the...
Free Book Chapter!
FREE BOOK CHAPTER! Ooh la la! That is right. You get a free chapter, Pitching a Spec Script, from The New Screenwriter's Survival Guide just for filling out that form. Yay! The catch? You go on the mailing list. But if you hate it you can always unsubscribe....
Friends With Benefits!
FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS! [not those benefits, fresh!] REFER A FRIEND! — GET 20% OFF — Know a screenwriter who hasn't taken Max classes but you know they'd love and benefit from them? Refer them and you both get 20% off your next class or consult! What about a...
The Writer’s Press Kit
The Writer’s Press Kit This is one from a while back but it still applies because I have been trying to build a press section for AFW and it is hard going. Seriously. It's like trying to pick axe stone. Because nobody has a press page on their blog or site or really a...
NEW VIDEO COURSE! MASTERING STORY MOMENTUM!
MASTERING STORY MOMENTUM! YAY! THAT. IS. A. WRAP! The new video online master screenwriting class Mastering Story Momentum is done! Loaded! Ready for viewing! (This one fought me some during editing, okay, fought me a lot, during editing. And wow am I tired of looking...
New Six Week Master Class! The Voice Class!
THE VOICE CLASS! YAY! I have been threatening to launch a new six week online master class for a while now and it is here! Yay! The Voice Class is an accelerated screenwriting master class studying online with author & award winning screenwriter Max Adams. Nothing...
The After Party!
The After Party is a private online screenwriting group comprised of 5150 Workshop members and alumni and AFW students and course alumni.
GAME OVER!
I had to kill the Dino game…
The New Screenwriter’s Survival Guide
The New Screenwriter's Survival Guide — by Max Adams THE NEW SCREENWRITER'S SURIVIVAL GUIDE is the follow up edition to THE SCREENWRITER'S SURIVAL GUIDE by author & award winning screenwriter Max Adams. It's been a while since publication and we're not supporting...
The Impetus to Produce
Guest Post from Screenwriter Terry Rossio A friend completed a historical drama and was brainstorming with me on ways to get the material out there and read by the right people. I introduced her to Terry Rossio, who knows a hell of a lot about getting material...
Lucky Number 13
Lucky Number 13 When a writer hires me to review material, it’s important to note, the writer is not paying for a "read." I can read a script in an hour. Two hours if the script is too long. [Too long means 200 pages. Um. Everybody hates you, 200 script pages people....
Parentheticals AKA The Kiss O’ Death
I’ve been reviewing formatting assignments in a beginning screenwriting class and I want to say something about parentheticals. Just. Don’t.
Logline Contortions Ahhhh!
The Logline, AKA Contortions of the Modern Day Screenwriteer So I am talking to my students about pitching. And I’m talking about pulling information for a short one liner describing story. And someone gets stuck. In every pitch, the short pitch, the medium...
The Pitch!
THE PITCH — Is a siren's song. A seduction. It is a story that you spin for people that they hear and see as a movie — A movie they want to make.WHAT A PITCH IS AND ISN'T All pitches are Sales, with a capital S. There are different kinds of pitches. One is a sales...
Talking Heads
TALKING HEADS Talking heads is a term that, as I was told in the film school trenches, relates back to the early days of television when news was delivered by a solitary news announcer sitting behind a desk reading news reports to the camera off a sheet of paper. If...
The Wrong Questions
The Wrong Questions, AKA The Facebook "Producer" I post some of my screenwriting info about classes and such on Facebook in a couple screenwriting groups. The screenwriting groups have really scattered membership. Some people there are new and just learning. Some are...
Cue Sound Test
So you know I’ve been working on these video classes since, well maybe since before Jesus was born I do not know I am losing track of time here at this point but a long long long long time. Ahh! But! I think I have nailed sound and lighting (light a candle for me) and...
This Ain’t Legos
THIS IS A MOVIE I was talking to a writer in a lab, it was The Logline Lab and that's a lab very much focused on what is driving story, for whom, and on putting the pieces together for reps and development executives and talent Reps and development and talent need,...
Genre!
Genre — Is an odd animal that throws a lot of newer writers. It's a classification that really is for all intents and purposes a marketing term. It's how businesses tell a prospective customer who is looking for a story for entertainment and escape what sort of story...
Write Like a Pro if You Want to Be a Pro
Author and award winning screenwriter Max Adams talks about screenwriting — and about some of the more than bad advice you are going to get out there on the internet. [video width="800" height="800"...
Dialogue Prompts are a Device of the Devil
Dialogue prompts in back and forth non-conflict exchanges between characters in screenplays are a fast road to flat, wooden ping pong exchanges between characters.
THE SCREENWRITER’S LOOKBOOK
The Screenwriter's Lookbook The key word in “lookbook” is “look.” For an artist (“artist” means you, writers) that means something someone may look at that conveys a sense of the film. Imagery, tone, big story moments that will be powerful on a screen — the...
It’s The Concept, Stupid
Studios might be more inclined to take a look at a Thanksgiving script if something about the story concept stood out. Like, location and genre —
Passive VOICE
I get into trouble sometimes with students. I will tell a student something doesn’t work. The student will say, “Gotcha.” I will think all is well —
HIGH CONCEPT WRITING: THE CRICHTON MODEL
If there is one writer who regularly nailed high concept [and did it over and over again] it was Michael Crichton.
The Logline; Or, Contortions of the Modern Day Screenwriter
In every pitch, the short pitch, the medium pitch, the long pitch, the phone pitch, the lunch pitch, the elevator pitch, the wow nice to see you in line at the store pitch — in every pitch — you have to be able to —
A Rose by Any Other Name
One of my most consistent comments on scripts is, I have difficulty differentiating between characters because characters have similar names.
One Script
ONE SCRIPT is your break in script, your calling card script, your sample script, possibly your get signed and get sold and get produced and get a screen credit script.
Talking Heads
Talking heads is a term that, as I was told in the film school trenches, relates back to the early days of television when news was delivered by a solitary news announcer sitting behind a desk reading news reports to the camera off a sheet of paper.
DISCOMFORT
I enjoy Mark Wildman’s clips and I’ve always believed this particular clip, about becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable, has a lot of carry over into writing.
GOAL VS TASK
One thing to keep in mind plotting a story is that there is a difference between a primary story goal and tasks protagonists undertake to achieve the primary story goal.
FIVE KICK ASS FEMALE CHARACTER INTRODUCTIONS
There is a real problem out there with female character introductions. Well, with character introductions in general — but especially female characters. Take a look at how a few of the masters did it right —
SOUTH PARK WRITERS SHARE THEIR WRITING RULE #1
This is a great presentation from South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker on plotting using the key words “but” and “therefore.” It’s brilliant. Watch it.
RETURN OF THE SCREENWRITER’S UNIFORM
The original screenwriter’s uniform blog post is lost in the interwebs somewhere (how does this happen?) but it keeps coming up in conversation.
RECOMMENDED SCREENWRITING BOOKS
Screenwriting books you should have on your shelf according to author and award winning screenwriter Max Adams.
ACTOR BAIT
There’s a great anecdote in the book “Your Screenplay Sucks: 100 Ways to Make It Great.”It’s the year 2000 and William Akers, the author, is standing in line at a movie theater to see Finding Forrester. Two guys are in front of him and one says, “What’s it about?” And the other says, “Sean Connery.”