Your Challenge Starts September 3, 2024!

Set yourself a 30-Day deadline Through Coursework, and Live Guided Office Hours with Max Timm

  • Write a professional level draft in 30 days

  • Learn to write compelling characters and dialogue quickly

  • Gain the skills needed to become a paid staff writer

  • Elevate your existing features or pilots

  • Network and form relationships with fellow writers

  • Daily office hours support with Max Timm

Get ready for another (new and improved) 30-Day Challenge! 

If your goal is to become a paid writer, be staffed on a show or to write on assignment, you need the skills to execute a professional level screenplay in a limited time frame.

Think you can do it? We do. And we've set up steps, assignments, and objectives to help you meet this goal. Plus, you will participate in live Zoom office hours to ask questions, connect with your fellow peers, and get the support you need to finish a draft.

This course includes 3 free months of The Craft Membership. It's an online forum that provides a space and news feed for you and your peers to share your writing, successes, fun tips and videos you think are helpful, and any other daily musings.

Plus, you now have access to the Discussions feature on every lesson and chapter of the coursework. You can leave comments and ask questions directly in the coursework itself.

The 30-Day Challenge will include daily live office hours on Zoom for the first three weeks of the Challenge, from September 3 through September 24. The Challenge will end with three final office hours sessions on Sept 30, Oct 1 and Oct 2 in order to inspire you and support your efforts to finish your draft before the deadline.

Office Hours sessions will be recorded and posted to their respective days in the online coursework.


How Does it Work?

Each day of the Challenge, you will log in to your coursework (here on TheCraftCourse.com) and access a new set of written lectures, audio recordings, assignments, and daily inspiration that will get you organized, prepared, and working. Zoom links for each daily Office Hours sessions will be included as well.

Office Hours sessions will run from 8:30am - 9:30am Los Angeles time.

This course is equal parts motivation and education. It's so much more than just a set of little reminders to get your writing in.

At the end of this 30-day course, not only will you have finished a script, but you’ll also have the tools to apply this method to future projects. You can restart the course as you’re developing a new project, get a writing assignment or are staffed on a show. Each writer will retain access to the online coursework through December 2024.


Reviews

5 star rating

Great Teacher and Great Information

Kartik Singh

Many thanks to Max and ISA for this terrific course. I feel it's important to learn from as many different sources as possible, and for this course, I took a...

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Many thanks to Max and ISA for this terrific course. I feel it's important to learn from as many different sources as possible, and for this course, I took away a new understanding for the importance of a character's emotional flaw. I also loved the opening lectures about Finding Your Voice, and looking to one's own life for the Voice Pressure Points. Max is a gifted teacher. He has lots of experience to draw from, and his audio lessons were great. His warm voice and clear explanations were of great inspiration. A favorite of mine: his talk on the importance of accepting failure and to carry on despite it. The lesson on impatience was another keeper. Am truly grateful to have participated. Highly recommend. A+

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5 star rating

Screenwriting Your Dreams For The Hood

Richard Raybourne

Learn from mentors, produce by action, develop and format by the industry standards and believe in yourself enough to bring out the best in your investment f...

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Learn from mentors, produce by action, develop and format by the industry standards and believe in yourself enough to bring out the best in your investment for the people that believe in you! 100/100 Thank Max!

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5 star rating

Best Ever

Evelyn Morgan

I am only on day three but I love your oh so concise course. I have had consults with Michael Hauge who helped me with one screenplay years ago. Another with...

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I am only on day three but I love your oh so concise course. I have had consults with Michael Hauge who helped me with one screenplay years ago. Another with Pilar Alessandro, also some time ago. I learned so much from each of them. But now I am trying something new ... a television pilot which will be a one hour series for a non-network channel. Yes, I am one of those lovely tv writers. Or nutso tv writers. But it is something I have inside me and I plan to do it.

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5 star rating

Excellent Screenwriting Challenge

Dawn B. Dwyer

You are pushed hard to move through this course within the 30 Days but a lot of us need that to get things done. I'm one of them! You'll really learn a lot...

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You are pushed hard to move through this course within the 30 Days but a lot of us need that to get things done. I'm one of them! You'll really learn a lot and get clarity from asking yourself the right questions. This course provides you with the right questions so you can move your story forward. Thank-you so much for sharing this with us!

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5 star rating

30 Day Screenwriting Challenge 2019

Bandile Nombutuma

One of the best online courses. The 30-Day Challenge brought me back to the basics of screenwriting - the stuff that makes a good film/story. The idea I had ...

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One of the best online courses. The 30-Day Challenge brought me back to the basics of screenwriting - the stuff that makes a good film/story. The idea I had a week before I participated in the challenge grew into a proper story by following Maxx's advice. Lost of inspiration. The dreamer/writer in me is up and running again! Great Work!

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5 star rating

Well organised beginning

Madhura Dethe

The first day was great. I not only came to know about what exactly voice is but also showed up a way to discover it. It is more about me and why I want to w...

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The first day was great. I not only came to know about what exactly voice is but also showed up a way to discover it. It is more about me and why I want to write.

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5 star rating

An amazing course for emerging screenwriters

Niki Lambropoulos

The 30-Day Screenwriting Challenge is a golden well of precious and useful resources for anyone aiming for the dream to come true on big or smaller screens. ...

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The 30-Day Screenwriting Challenge is a golden well of precious and useful resources for anyone aiming for the dream to come true on big or smaller screens. Amazing offerings cannot exist without astonishing efforts, and selfless contribution to the community of screenwriters in particular. Last but not least is the macro and micro structure of the course that makes it accessible from any medium, any time, unfolding as essential micro-lectures. Congratulations and a million thanks to Max Timm and ISA!

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Are you ready to be writing at a professional level?

Enroll Now

Lead Mentor and Instructor Max Timm

Max Timm is the Director of Education with International Screenwriters’ Association, and the President of The Story Farm Development and Coaching service, with 17 years of experience in developing written material and writers’ careers. His focus with the ISA is to shepherd writers to industry professionals, offering exposure alongside career-long education. His personal coaching, consulting, and development service, The Story Farm, develops writers and their material much like a studio executive or literary manager would, walking a writer through the development process one draft at a time. His online class, The Craft Course in Screenwriting, offers writers an in-depth yet easy to understand approach to professional full development. In order to connect with as many aspiring writers as possible, he also helped create and launch the ISA’s popular podcast network - an interview-focused podcast, as well as his solo podcast, The Craft. Aside from focusing on education, Max has joined forces with his ISA cohorts to launch a production and development shingle called Creative Screenwriter where they develop and produce low to mid-range budgeted films written by ISA’s top members. Max is also a screenwriter and author. His debut novel, a young adult fantasy adventure titled The WishKeeper, about a teenage fairy with broken wings, won the YA category of the 2015 Los Angeles Book Festival and released nationwide in the Summer of 2016. Max has also served as a part-time instructor at UCLA, and travels nationally speaking at various industry events such as the Sundance Film Festival, Nashville Writers Conference, and the Napa Valley Film Festival. Most recently Max released his debut book on screenwriting titled, "(Not Just) Another Book on The Craft of Screenwriting."

The 30 Day Challenge Begins in

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Course curriculum

    1. Introduction Video from Max Timm

      FREE PREVIEW

    2. Challenge Accepted! Let's Get Started...

      FREE PREVIEW

    3. Voice, and Voice Pressure Points

      FREE PREVIEW

    4. Audio Lecture on Voice and Voice Pressure Points

      FREE PREVIEW

    5. Assignment: Voice Pressure Points

      FREE PREVIEW

    6. The Logline - Yes, It's Extremely Important

      FREE PREVIEW

    7. Logline Breakdown Process

      FREE PREVIEW

    8. Audio for Logline Breakdown Process

      FREE PREVIEW

    9. Writing Group Discusion on Loglines and Pitches

      FREE PREVIEW

    10. Assignment: Write (and Rewrite) Your Loglines

      FREE PREVIEW

    11. See You on Day 2! Plus Info on How to Stay Connected During Your 30 Days

      FREE PREVIEW

    12. Office Hours Recording - Day 1

    1. Primary Story Elements

    2. Your Hero and The Emotional Flaw

    3. Audio: Your Hero & Emotional Flaw

    4. The Secondary Helper (Supporting Character, Supporting the Hero’s Arc)

    5. The Rival, Threat and/or Opponent

    6. 2nd Act Series of Obstacles

    7. Sequence Writing and Prepping the 1st Act

    8. Audio: Sequence Writing and Prepping The 1st Act

    9. Assignments: Character Set-Up and Light Structure

    10. Office Hours Recording - Day 2

    1. Where To Begin?

    2. The Villain, Rival, Opponent - How is this Character Related to the Secondary Character?

    3. An Easy Assignment...Just Listen!

    4. Episode 1 of The Craft - Sequence 1 Breakdown - "We Need A Hero"

    5. Episode 2 of The Craft - Sequence 2 Breakdown - "Setting It All Up"

    6. Episode 3 of The Craft - Sequence 3 Breakdown - "The Unsung Hero"

    7. Episode 6 of The Craft - "A Sidenote for the TV Writer"

    8. Structural/Beat Breakdown and Outline

    9. Assignments: Sequence Statements

    10. Office Hours Recording - Day 3

    1. You've Barely Begun, But...

    2. Loglines and Pitches Lecture - with Max and The Story Farm

    3. The Story Farm Circle Membership

    4. Office Hours Recording - Day 4

    1. The 2nd Act, Moment By Moment - with Assignments

    2. Audio: The 2nd Act, Moment By Moment

    3. The Difference Between "Adventure" & "Journey"

    4. The Craft Podcast - Sequence 4 Breakdown. "The Promise of the Premise"

    5. The Craft Podcast - Sequence 5 Breakdown. "Success, Failure & the Villain"

    6. The Craft Podcast - Sequence 6 Breakdown - "The Mid-Point"

    7. Assignment: Expanding Your Story Outline

    8. Sequence Titles

      FREE PREVIEW

    9. Assignments: Writing Your Script in Outline Form

    10. Special Edition: Breaking Down Stranger Things

    11. Stranger Things - The Pilot

    12. No Office Hours Today

    1. Just Keep Going

    2. Connecting with The ISA and Our Writing Gigs

    3. NEW Feature of this 30-Day Challenge - Scene Breakdown

    4. Office Hours Recording - Day 6

About this course

  • $59.00
  • 143 lessons
  • 21 hours of video content

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