Screenwriter's Survival Guide [Paperback]

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.

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.

(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.