Written Interview: Max Adams (“Excess Baggage”)
The good folks at myPDFscripts.com have an interview out this week with screenwriter Max Adams. I only know of two writers who have won both the Nicholl and Austin screenwriting competitions: Max is one of them. She has one produced feature film writing credit (Excess Baggage), but has worked on numerous other movie projects and written a screenwriting book “The Screenwriter’s Survival Guide.” Here are some excerpts from the interview:
Q: As a writer, how and where do you seek out inspiration? Alternatively, what really inspires you to write?
A: I find this an exhausting question. It’s sort of like asking “Where do you find your ideas?” Which I usually answer, “1–800-IDEA.” I don’t seek inspiration. If you aren’t inspired to write, you shouldn’t write. You either are or are not a writer, so it’s not about outside inspiration, it’s being compelled — often against your will — to pursue a very difficult craft because you have something to say that must be said. And that comes from inside, not outside. You don’t have to seek it. It will find you. And it won’t let go. Sort of like the WGA.
Q: What is your writing process like (i.e. schedule, outline, notecards, treatments, etc.)?
A: I put off writing as long as I can and when I can’t take it any more, I sit down to write. Sometimes I can hold out an hour. Sometimes a month. I don’t do note cards. I don’t like treatments or outlines I only do those when I’m pitching a project that hasn’t been written yet for a studio. When I’m writing for me? I write by the seat of my pants. And it tends to turn out okay that way because doing that, the story remains a journey of discovery for me and stays interesting to me.
For more of the interview, go here.