What's the state of the business right now? Will the writers strike happen, and why? What should we do as writers if and when the strike happens? What contests should I submit to and why?

We're pretty confident you have these questions and more, so why not join Max Timm and Felicity Wren of the ISA and ask away? To launch us into spring, Max and Felicity will be live on YouTube talking all things screenwriting and the business, so join in, ask your questions, and let's make a Tuesday evening a little more fun and informative than usual.

Felicity Wren is the VP of Development at the ISA and Co-VP of Development for Creative Screenwriter Productions. An award-winning actor, originally from London, she studied all areas of Performance for her Honors and then Master’s Degrees. She then formed her own Production Company, Unrestricted View, which runs a theatre in London and curates three film festivals annually.

Since moving to Los Angeles over a decade ago, Felicity has continued acting and producing, winning five performance awards and producing sixteen film projects to date. She splits her time between Creative Screenwriter Productions and the management of the ISA Development Team, working directly with the Development Slate Writers, ISA Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch, and the ISA community. The Development Team has fostered enduring relationships with many of the industry’s finest, ensuring their writers projects get in front of eminent producers, managers and agents in Hollywood. Through Felicity and her team’s efforts, they have successfully paired several writer/director partnerships with productions underway, introduced writers to their managers, and have been instrumental in facilitating screenplay options with their contacts at C2 Motion Pictures, Fear Not Productions, Ethea Entertainment, Endless Media and Adam Krentzman Films. Felicity has been pitching CSP’s slate of projects to Hulu, Doozer Productions, DreamWorks, Groundswell and Fuzzy Door, to name a few. Felicity regularly appears on panels for the ISA and others, most recently for Vancouver Women in Film.

Max Timm is the Director of Education with the International Screenwriters’ Association, Co-VP of Development for Creative Screenwriter Prods, and the President of The Story Farm Coaching service. With nearly 20 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 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 multiple webinars, workshops, and the ISA's 30-Day Screenwriting Challenge. Aside from focusing on education, Max has joined forces with his ISA cohorts to launch a production and development company, Creative Screenwriter Productions, 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, released nationwide in the Summer of 2016, and is now being shopped as an animated series. 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.

Time Stamps:
0:00 - Introduction
3:07 - Brief announcements about the ISA website
5:52 - the Fast Track Fellowship
9:16 - How to learn about screenwriting for free
11:56 - Can you submit work without representation?
14:00 - Building your writer's resume
16:45 - How to start a pitch
19:50 - Connecting yourself to your own writing
23:31 - Opportunities for writers still available during the strike
26:23 - Information on ISA Connect member benefits
27:51 - The most important skill as a writer
29:09 - How to market yourself in a cold introduction to reps/companies
31:47 - Can you still query during the writer's strike?
35:03 - Acceptable submission formats
35:40 - Notes and professional coverage
39:15 - "Feeding the beast" - investing in your own craft
42:44 - ISA Contests
43:52 - Poor Man's Copyright
45:18 - Is the title "Semi-finalist" notable?
47:19 - Breaking in as a non-LA based writer (post-COVID)
48:33 - Using the new ISA website
51:42 - Notable writing contests to answer
55:15 - Specializing in a specific genre vs. Variety
56:54 - Keeping in contact with executives
59:46 - How to become a staff writer
1:03:50 - Being a part of several writing organizations
1:05:47 - Highlighting your produced work
1:08:07 - Is it standard practice to ask for budgets when pitching?
1:09:45 - Final thoughts and conclusion