Customer Reviews

The Screenwriter's Survival Guide: Or, Guerrilla Meeting Tactics and Other Acts of War

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is a must for intermediate and advanced writers.

If you know the basics before you read, this book will be a ray of light that can save you months and years of struggle. It reads fast. Has depth. Feels like you're getting a pep talk from your big sister. Enjoy. I did.

This is not a manual on how to write. It's not a book on structure. It won't be what a brand new "newbie" will need. This book will be most useful to a screenwriter that's already read a book or two on story structure (Field, McKee, Campbell, or, my favorite, Seger), knows the basics of format (Trottier, Cole/Haag), and has written a MINIMUM of one screenplay.

What will it do? It'll give you experience. It doesn't say don't do this and don't do that. It says think before you do this and here's why.

It touches on parantheticals, overwriting, and other writing minefields. It focuses on methods of querying, who to avoid and the danger signs when sending out your work (BIG "NEW" POINT: learn this, understand it, live it), reading fees and the various services, the competition route into Hollywood, how to submit work, and provides opinions on the usefulness of various resources. Unlike other books of the "how to sell" sort, it comes from a writer that's sold in the '90s and not the 1890's. Hollywood changes fast.

Most importantly, it tells you what to do after you get sold. Other books cover "how to write" or "how to sell", but this book tells you what to do after you sell. That's rare. Mentioning the career of a screenwriter and not making a quick buck? Wow. For you that want a writing career, this is a gem. So many other books figure you'll figure it out as you go along. Well, if you don't like pain and wasted time, this books for you.

Also, in answer to the SINGLE negative review, most writers are aware that you shouldn't judge a writer by the resulting movie. In this case, "Excess Baggage". Read the script. It's amazing. It's the reason it got sold. Forget the film. Enjoy the script. Any comparisons to Syd Field or other gurus reveals the level of the writer -- brand new. It will help the brand new writer. However, that's not the intended audience. This for those who are serious about their dreams.

I hope this helps in your decision to pick up a delightful read.

To be sure, there are scores of books that claim they will teach you how to write screenplays, how to write better screenplays, how to make good scripts great, and how to sell those scripts that have been made better by applying the lessons learned. Mad Adams cuts through all that in "The Screenwriter's Survival Guide," in an engaging and witty style, with loads of useful information.

What makes this book unique and useful is that Max Adams has not just researched her subject, she's lived it. Max Adams, a Nicholl Fellowship winner (the Academy's big-time screenwriting competition) and a produced Hollywood screenwriter (Excess Baggage), is the protagonist of this piece, and takes the reader along for the roller-coaster ride of getting a spec script read, repped by an agent, sold, and after surviving the development and rewriting gauntlets, produced. In many ways this book is as much about the script's survival as it is the scriptwriter's.

All the stock characters play a part in "The Screenwriter's Survival Guide." If you've been around the block a couple of times, you've met some of them yourself, and if you're new to the scene ... hang on, you will. The bozos, the bad agents, the users -- they're all here -- and Max Adams tells you how they're all lurking in Hollywood, trying to keep you out, or trying to take advantage of you once you're in.

Adams covers everything from the spec pitch (getting them to read the script you've already written), to the concept pitch (getting someone to pay you to write the script that's still in you're head), writer's speak vs. mogul's speak, taxes, getting around in Los Angeles, agents vs. managers vs. entertainment lawyers, the agent horror stories (all writers have 'em. Can't wait for the opportunity to share mine. Watch out, Maddie and Sam!) and so much more. Max Adams pulls no punches and even takes aim (boldly) at the Writer's Guild! But the mantra throughout is "get read." That's the most important hurdle you have to overcome trying to break into and remain in this business. First and foremost you must get read. If you don't get read, you're not going to sell, and if you don't sell ... you aint in.

Above all, this book is as hilarious as it is useful. The "dating metaphor" had me laughing out loud. The section on "parentheticals and other lies" had me nodding with delight. And I breathed a sigh of relief reading Adams's chapter on "the screenwriters' uniform." I was properly dressed for the occasion, in a well-worn pair of Levis 505s (writers should have many, in varying stages of wear), a "Fight Club" t-shirt (shamelessly plugging Chuck Palahniuk's book), a newish pair of sneakers, and a sports jacket draped over the back of my chair. Screenwriters don't wear Armani. If I had to pick the single most important piece of actual "writing" advice in this book, it would be "[Screenwriters] write verb driven action sentences, free of clutter, that move story." That's it. Boy, if you can get a handle on that, you're halfway home. So while Max Adams doesn't get bogged down in telling you how to write a movie script, she provides a great example, as the book is written in the same staccato style as one of her screenplays.

Being someone who's written about screenwriting in Hollywood (Writing with Hitchcock), I recommend Max Adams' book highly. You'll love it.

This is an honest book. The author is clear and humorous in her delivery, and the information is very helpful.

(I see that another reviewer gave this book one star and proceeded to descend into his/her own juvenile rant. That person is clearly ill-intentioned and not trying to provide you with a useful review. It is the sort of mean-spirited review that probably should be ignored.)

The work is actually a quick read and gives a view of Hollywood through the eyes of someone who has been there. The author has strong opinions about the Hollywood experience and is not afraid to share them. I found that sorting through the author's stories and insights for useful information was fruitful. Many of her warnings would have been helpful a year ago, frankly--I've run into some of the same damn things. Besides, hearing about the experiences of other screenwriters is always useful. And when it's relayed honestly, it's extra-useful.

So, what you have here is an extra-useful book. Read it if you're looking to break in. Consider it along with other recommended reading on Hollywood screenwriting. It's only one viewpoint among several, sure, but it's one that provides answers to a lot of questions that I'm certain writers other than me have been puzzling over.

Thanks.

ps: I read it in a few hours on a plane to Vegas and back. Now that's a good, quick read.

I recently finished reading Max Adam's excellent "Screenwriter's Survival Guide". What an education! The author has delivered a comprehensive how-to guerilla manual for aspiring screenwriters trying to break through in Hollywood. An invaluable book from the trenches by a talented writer who has been keeping her eyes open and taking extensive field notes, it is practical, funny, sharp, sobering, generous in spirit, full of pithy, laid-back prose and a wealth of essential information. It also contains an implicit and lucid critique of an industry that routinely cannibalizes and perversely sabotages the talent it ought to nourish. Max Adams clearly cares about other writers. And while her book of harsh truths and nitty gritty details will likely appall as well as amuse the aspiring screenwriter, it will also thoroughly prepare them for the long haul.

Really found the book useful. Being a non-L.A. citizen, it took some of the mystery off of the business. And yeah, it hammered home something that a few individuals seem to either refuse to believe or just don't get. It's a business. Your talent is nice...but there are plenty of factors that influence your success. Including look and who likes you. Most people who have worked the business have clearly said it's "who you know". I found the various suggestions and tips about managers, producers and the process of working with them both enlighteng and delivered in a concise way. There was no reading and re-reading to try and get what Adams is telling you. She made it clear and straight forward. I loved that. And it's supported with great wit. I'd recommend the book to anyone with the interest in screenwriting but unsure of how to get started.

A book for students, working artists, industry professionals, and movie-goers alike -- Max Adams takes us into the world of screenwriting by translating her own hard-bought experiences into specific, easy to read chapters. By treating her career with passion and admirable honesty, Max Adams has accomplished what most gifted screenwriters work years toward but regrettably never find. Her book is a necessary guide to survival in Hollywood. As a mentor and an artist, Max Adams illustrates how to make success a habit. A great book and a great read!

One of the best screenwriting books out there. And there are a lot out there. If you're serious about breaking into screenwriting, this is a no-nonsense, what-it's-really-like book from someone who made it. It's a fun, fast read, and full of the advice you're going to need to get "the call" and what to do when you do get it.

This isn't a book about writing the script. It's about what happens after the script is written. The chapters on pitching and mogul-speak alone are worth the price.

Good book. Read it.

Okay, you've just polished off the final draft of that screenplay. Now what do you do? All the answers are right here in Max Adam's new book. Drawing on her own experience, she provides savvy advice on how to deal with each phase of the process of taking your screeplay from the printed page to the silver screen.

There is a separate chapter on each phase, making the book easy to use as a reference on everything from that first nervous telephone query to signing on the dotted line.

As an aspiring screenwriter with a couple of scripts in circulation, I have to say I wish this book had been available a year ago. It would have prevented me from making some of the mistakes I have made.

Don't start here. Learn how to write, I mean really learn. Write three, four maybe even five screenplays. Read the other books. Sure, some of them suck, but even books that suck teach you something (if only how to write a book that sucks).

Now you're ready for Max's book (and, it doesn't suck). Assuming you have a sense of humour and aren't expecting a little "fill in the form and sell tomorrow" approach, you'll enjoy this and take some really great things away from it.

Max covers the fundamentals of surviving in Hollywood. She'll teach you how to write a logline, how to write a query, how to deal with agents, how to dump an agent, how to deal with producers, what to wear, when to call, what to say, and all sorts of other nifty things. Best of all, she presents it in a fun and easy to read manner.

Max is an inspiration. She's a small town girl who didn't start out with connections. But there she is, making it in Hollywood. And, she's telling you how she did it. It's the Holy Grail of screenwriting books, the one that actually teaches you how to sell.

Many successful writers never earn a screen credit. Many screenwriting book authors have never sold a single script. Max is working, she has a screen credit, and she's good. She's in the trenches and she knows what she's talking about. She's figured out how to break the system and now she's telling you.

Don't let the negative reviews fool you, she's the real deal. This book is fun and enlightening with real world examples.