new classes are like screenplays
January 4, 2016
Every time I create a new class and have blocked it all out, I think I’m incredibly smart planning it out and writing and titling lectures and thinking up assignments and putting together study material and clips. By the time I have the class and lectures and materials outlined and put together I think I’m the cat’s meow, all that figured out and done and done!
But that never works. Not right up front.
It’s just like a script.
I figure it out. I lay it out. I plot it out. I think, THIS TIME, it’s all figured out, THERE WILL BE NO REWRITES!
And then.
After it’s all put together the way I thought it would work, I see ways to make it better. And start tearing things out and switching things out and rewriting and reorganizing…
All of which means I just spent the entire weekend rearranging, rewriting, and reorganizing the new January class The First 30 Pages.
What the Hell, Max?
What’s really annoying is it is better.
Dammit! That is not incentive to not do this again!
I wonder if this happens to architects.
It’s easy — okay it is a royal pain but still easier — for me to rip about changing the order of information and words than it is for someone who has just had a cement mixer pour a foundation.
It’s got to be trickier when someone has poured concrete.
Dear God:
Thank you for making me a writer and not an architect.
Those jackhammers and chisels would be the end of me.
Love and Kisses,
Your Favorite No Concrete Adams Girl
So for no reason other than sometime around 2 AM the other night I didn’t feel like reading one more script I went on a rampage and took apart seemaxrun and rebuilt it. I think it’s pretty — of course I like lots of white. It’s not done yet, either, but the bones are there. What do you think? http://seemaxrun.com
story board whut?
June 17, 2015
I am always seeing these crazy story boards posted online by writers. They are very ordered and very detailed and very complex and to me look like time outlines for a NASA space mission or a chores list put up for a military camp.
Here is one of those crazy story boards:
Here is my story board:
I guess my story board should be embarrassed by the bigger more glamorous story boards but it isn’t. My story board says, Fuck off, it doesn’t do manual labor.
5150 new york!
June 7, 2015
Peter Andrews, Chesher Cat, Pumpkin the Dog, and Jodi Lustig — Best 5150 Photo Ever. Thank You New York!
Happy Birthday 5150 & AFW!
June 6, 2015
writers are like cats
April 1, 2015
workshop seat
February 28, 2015
There is a March seat open in the AFW online screenwriting workshop: AFW: 5150: An Online International Screenwriting Workshop http://ow.ly/JsaiZ
one week left
January 6, 2015
One week left to register for —
AFW January classes. If you want one of these seats, hit us at http://theafw.com and reserve your seat now.
ah the boy’s club
October 4, 2014
The Boy’s Club is fun. Well not so much if you are not a boy.
It means every single male “screenwriting guru” out there can bash you with cheap references to bras and popsicles and you are supposed to be nice about it. I guess?
I’m not nice.
I’m a kid from the streets.
I will fucking cut you.
Don’t do that shit again.
max’s super hot september classes
August 26, 2014
Oh yez, hot September classes are right around the corner. You should all go sign up for them right now.
celluloid blonde 