CAREER

“It’s so much easier to choose Netflix over writing.” Max Timm on Screenwriting

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Growing up in a family split between arts and athletics, it’s not surprising that screenwriter and novelist Max Timm grew up as a jock before turning to writing in college at Holy Cross. Two years later, he transfered to Columbia College Chicago, swapping his Liberal Arts major for a major in Producing and Screenwriting.

“I remember watching Braveheart for the first time in my dorm room in Holy Cross, maybe sophomore year,” he recalls. “I loved the movie, and as the credits were rolling, it dawned on me that these were all jobs and I thought, ‘Wow, people actually do this for a living.'”

Naturally, Timm, who started writing screenplays in his junior year, turned his attention to Los Angeles. He spent a semester in L.A. through Columbia College before making the ultimate move out there.

After juggling multiple positions at film distribution and advertising companies with various jobs in the hospitality industry (“I was bouncing around, trying to get a real job in the entertainment industry. It was a long road,” he admits), Timm finally landed at Writers Bootcamp in Santa Monica where he worked as the Director of Development and Instructor for six years.

Now, Timm is co-running the Development Slate at the International Screenwriters’ Association (ISA) where he hosts a number of podcasts, runs a screenwriting course called The Craft Course, recently released a book with the same name, and is 14 months into running his own development company called The Story Farm, working with writers on a consulting basis. On top of that, he released his first novel in 2015 called The WishKeeper; a YA fantasy about a teenage fairy with shredded wings that went on to the win the YA category at the 2015 Los Angeles Book Festival. He’s close to releasing the second book in the series…while also managing multiple facets of his development company and the ISA’s outreach program.

Creative Screenwriting chatted with Timm about the importance of education, common screenwriting mistakes and how the doubt that many writers have is “all on them.”

ISA

Tell us a little bit about your role at the ISA and how you got involved.

The ISA is basically a resource for creative people. It’s a website that offers resources for multiple levels – writers, directors and actors. ISA reached out to me because they had an idea for a development program and putting together a slate of projects that can be shopped to producers without any kind of attachment.

The ISA is a middleman for writers to find representation, sell their material and get their material optioned. Because of my background, and my managerial responsibilities and experience, it was a good fit. I’ve been with the ISA for over three years and we’ve exploded in terms of success stories and reach. I read constantly and we act like managers, working the writers as much as we can. This is one of the reason I started The Story Farm so that I could allocate my time to writers who want weekly development and feedback.

We pull from our own ISA writers who have had success — we ask the writers to submit their script to us — or we find people who have done well with screenplay contests and ask for submissions from them. We recently opened up the development slate to anyone who would like to apply. The Story Farm is relatively the same thing; writers can reach out and depending on their budget, pick a length of time for consulting and I assign them a coach to work with.

We’ve had fourteen writers get optioned, find representation, win major contests, and get their projects made within the last year and a half.

Why is the ISA an important resource for screenwriters? What unique things does it offer for screenwriters that you can’t get anywhere else?

I think the development slate and The Story Farm is kind of that. A lot of screenwriting organizations offer a whole lot of resources. We try to cull information from all resources, so we don’t necessarily have rivals that we are trying to compete against.

We are trying to offer to the writer what the whole industry offers, meaning we try to make this information available to them so they are aware of it. We promote stuff from Screencraft to Script Pipeline to screenwriting contests so they can post their offers and businesses on our website.

I also host a podcast called Curious About Screenwriting and I bring in a whole bunch of consultants, managers, producers, and talent who are able to share their expertise to those who can’t afford a fee.

The development slate is something that not a lot of people are doing right now in terms of sitting down one-on-one with the writer and helping them find representation. There are sites like the Black List where you can get your script rated and if it’s rated highly, they’ll help the writer or allow producers to find their script. We’re a bit more hands-on than that.

We are not wholly unique, but we are more personal in our interactions.

Tell us more about The Story Farm and how that differs from the ISA’s development slate.

I previously hosted a live class in Brentwood where we went through 12 weeks of weekly coursework in a small group setting. I love teaching live classes, but I noticed that while there are obviously a lot of writers in Los Angeles who are looking for coursework, there are a lot more who do not live in LA. I wanted to help serve those writers as well, and thus discontinued the live class, switched over to an online version (called The Craft Course).

The Craft Course, however, is an online only course, meaning the writer doesn’t have an assigned instructor to work with. In a lot of ways, this can be helpful to the writer since the writer can go through the coursework at their own pace. The Story Farm was then created to bridge the gap between the live coursework and the online coursework. In other words, for writers who want weekly deadlines, weekly feedback, weekly phone calls, evaluations, brainstorming – the whole deal – and if a writer wants help submitting their work to industry pro’s, then The Story Farm fills all of those holes.

The ISA Development Slate is in turn an invite-only process of evaluation. When a write signs up to receive five pages of notes (the best notes in the business, in my humble opinion), they are also considered to be invited on to the slate…which then acts as an intermediary for the writer. The Slate executives, myself and Felicity Wren, reach out to producers and managers to gauge interest and hopefully find a home for the script and writer. The Slate doesn’t yet offer the weekly support, feedback, and ongoing evaluations though.

So you can see…we have built a system for writers at any budget and who have intentions to create long-term success in their writing careers. Our writers on the Development Slate and through The Story Farm continue to find some pretty exciting success and in a really short amount of time. We’re pretty stoked to see how the rest of 2018 goes.

On one of your solo episodes for your ISA podcast, The Craft, you talked about the importance of education for writers. Why is investing in a class or course so crucial for screenwriters?

Primarily because, unlike most businesses, in screenwriting and the entertainment industry in general, there isn’t any real form of a minor league, if you want to use a sports analogy. Unless you want to work in the business end, like an agent, and you go through agent training to be come a junior agent and then an agent. There’s a track there and every agency follows that.

In terms of a screenwriter, you’re either being paid as a screenwriter or you’re not being paid to be a screenwriter. There’s no middle [laughs].

So how do you become a paid screenwriter? It’s by enhancing and perfecting your own voice and assuring the people who are reading your script that you know what you are doing.

How do you know what you’re doing and how do you become confident about your ability to tell a story through screenwriting? It’s through practice. You have to get experience doing it, and you have to put the hours in. You get better at it as you do it. But you also need the support. I think Michael Jordan said that you can keep shooting free throws for 10,000 hours, but what if you’ve been shooting the ball the wrong way the whole time?

The Craft podcast

So you can get good at something, but if someone is helping you along, suddenly you’re making leaps and bounds forward and you can track your personal progress.

It’s this delicate balance where you have plenty of time to carve out this screenwriting career but, at the same time, why wait? Why put yourself through more agony and work if you don’t have to? And a class, or hiring a consultant, can help you do that because you can discover your personal craft and how you approach a story.

It’s something that I’ve been preaching as much as I can because the true currency in the entertainment industry is uniqueness. And we all have a unique voice to help relay our story and we can tell our stories unlike anyone else can tell our stories, so it’s all about learning the craft and knowing how to approach the writing process.

In the same episode, you said that having a career in the entertainment industry – whether it’s as a writer or producer, etc. – that it’s “all attainable”. And that the doubt writers might have is all on them. 

We have to have a form of taking responsibility. Meaning, yes, there is a bit of a gateway of making it on the A-list, or whatever level of success for your craft that you’re aiming for, whether you’re a writer or an actor or director or whatever. There are gatekeepers. But, at the same time, the doubt that comes from that, it’s not that anyone is giving that to you; you are creating your own doubt.

So how do you destroy the doubt? It’s by repeating the thing over and over again and improving yourself. There’s a process of self-discovery on a spiritual level, regardless of what religion you may follow, there is a process of getting to know who you are, and your talents and your handicaps, and owning them. It’s all about owning what works for you and what doesn’t as opposed to projecting that onto others and blaming other people for your lack of success.

I don’t mean to sound so harsh there [laughs], but we all do it. I do it. There’s a level of needing to know who you are in order to find success in whatever business you are working in because from that stems confidence and from confidence stems more usable writing sessions. “Usable” meaning you’re getting more done because you are no longer second-guessing yourself.

Just own the doubt as your own. And how do you get rid of it? You get rid of it by doing something so many times that you just get comfortable with doing it. When you see a professional basketball player dribbling a ball, you’re not seeing them doubt themselves because they’ve been doing it since they were four. So it’s repetition and believing in yourself.

Yes, it helps to get some recognition from contests, for example, because it’s showing that you are doing things properly. It’s a huge subject. I could go on forever. [Laughs.]

Woody Harrelson as Billy Hoyle and Wesley Snipes as Sidney Deane in White Men Can't Jump

Woody Harrelson as Billy Hoyle and Wesley Snipes as Sidney Deane in White Men Can’t Jump

In your opinion, what are the essential components that all screenwriters must have and/or do in order to have a career?

There are some that are intangible, but some that are practical. Practical meaning structure and character development, and those are things that you learn by reading lots of scripts and taking classes.

But being disciplined is essential. Because it’s so much easier to choose Netflix over writing. And then you can make excuses, “Well, I should watch Stranger Things because I am writing a scary Goonies,” and then you call it ‘research.’

Well, you are probably being lazy. [Laughs.]

Terry Pratchett. © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons

Terry Pratchett. © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons

Yes, you need to do research, but you also need to write. If you’re not writing, then you’re not a writer.

I recorded a podcast recently about writer’s block and I was talking about Terry Pratchett who passed away a couple years ago. He was a popular fantasy novelist and he wrote 71 books in his lifetime, and he died when he was 67 years old. When you do the math on that, and you know he didn’t come out of the womb writing, that means he was writing four books a year since he was a teenager.

That guy never said he was going to watch Netflix instead write. You have to be disciplined. You have to say, “these two hours that I am putting in today, I cannot allow myself to become distracted.”

I understand some people might have kids or other responsibilities, but if you have half an hour, then make the most out of that half hour. 

In terms of practical things, like concept, character development, structure and the actual writing on the page, that comes from repetition, but also from breaking down the meaning of each and seeing how they work together.

Concept is an element that is addressing the uniqueness of your project. I was working with a writer today and he is sort of writing this sequel to E.T. where E.T. didn’t go home.

And it’s like, OK, that concept is the most unique element of your story. You need to go back to what makes your story unique when you’re in that mode of, “What am I trying to write here?” Then, you look at the character and ask if your character is able to enhance the uniqueness of your story because that character is going to drive the story. How does that character evolve and change? And is there a character that goes along with the main character that helps them evolve? And is there a sort of rival to hinder his evolution? It’s understanding the components of the story that is necessary because otherwise you’re just winging it.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

What are some common mistakes that writers continue to make with their script?

A basic one is overwriting, but we all do that, especially with the first draft. You’re overwriting a scene to get the theme out and you’re at a table read and you’re like, “Oh my god, I’m really forcing it.” It’s called on-the-nose writing when you’re really trying to get the theme out there. It’s not a bad mistake.

A bad mistake would be typos. How do you not proofread your script? I’m asking that rhetorically in the negative way on purpose because that’s silly.

We are writers and we need to make sure our scripts are readable. We used to have live stage readings for my live class writers and they all did an amazing job, but we were reading through them and even the actors noticed there were typos, and it was like, “Guys. Come on.”

One common mistake that is easily fixable is knowing the difference between a logline and a tagline. When I ask people for the logline for their script, a lot of them will send a movie poster tagline that barely references a story or a character.

In terms of a larger mistake, it’s accepting the first version of a scene and going, “Okay, nailed it! First try!” It rarely works that way. Sometimes, yeah, you write a scene and think, “I’m rocking this,” but then you write the rest of the script and accept everything you’ve written.

First drafts are rewritten ninety-nine percent of the time. Probably 100% of the time. You have Million Dollar Baby which Paul Haggis wrote it in one draft and Clint Eastwood said, “Yeah, let’s shoot it!” But then it’s Haggis and Eastwood. For the rest of us, don’t accept the first version of a story or a scene.

Hilary Swank as Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby

Hilary Swank as Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby

What is the most important writing tip you’ve learned over your writing career?

Make things as difficult as possible for your main character. Just about every story has one main character, or hero, who needs to resolve or solve or overcome something. You want to put obstacles in front of your character, but the true difficulty comes from the emotional conflict that the character is dealing with.

For example, The 40 Year Old Virgin. It’s a pretty unimportant problem [laughs]. He’s 40 and he hasn’t had sex yet, but the audience understands how difficult and important it is for the main character. It’s up to the writer to prove to the audience that, yes, it is a unique concept, but to also execute how difficult it is for the main character to achieve a goal – whatever that goal may be.

It’s the same deal for TV. For example, the TV series, Sleepy Hollow. It’s not the best show ever made, but people tuned into the pilot because of the initial concept, but they kept watching because of the execution of the characters. Meaning the relationships of the characters, and how Abby and Ichabod do or don’t get along. That’s always more important than concept.

It’s the emotional conflict of the characters that keeps an audience’s attention. I remember when a classmate gave me that note. He said, “Things are too easy for your main character,” and it took me years to understand it because it’s not just putting a boulder in front of your character and having them climb over it. It’s about that mental and emotional block that the character is experiencing.

There is a lot more to learn from Max and the ISA. Through free podcasts to amazing notes with the ISA Development Slate, or if you’re looking for a coach who will keep you working and writing on a weekly basis, feel free to get in contact with us. You have so many opportunities at your fingertips. It’s time to grab hold and get to work.

Before You Go

ISAVisit the International Screenwriters’ Association website.

The Craft podcastWatch Timm’s podcast The Craft.

The Craft CourseCheck out his Screenwriting Course.

Curious About ScreenwritingOr look at ISA’s Curious About Screenwriting podcasts.

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Brianne Hogan is a freelance writer based in Toronto, with a degree in Film Studies from NYU. <br> <table> <tr> <td><a href="http://twitter.com/briannehogan"><img src="https://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/twitter.png" style="height:25px"></a> </td> <td><a href="http://twitter.com/briannehogan">@briannehogan</a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="http://briannehogan.tumblr.com/"><img src="https://creativescreenwriting.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/website-2-small.png" style="height:25px"></a> </td> <td><a href="http://briannehogan.tumblr.com/">briannehogan.tumblr.com</a> </td> </tr> </table>

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