Jeff Maysh on optioning dozens of his magazine stories to film and TV production companies and the roots of his interest in crime

Jeff, welcome to Always Take Notes.

It's great to have you with us.

We wanted to start with this new online course that you're offering about how to, as you've described it, find, report and publish incredible true stories that are irresistible to the film and television industry.

Could you tell us a bit more about this course and what you're hoping to offer with it?

Well, I launched the course because I'm the guy who everyone calls when their story goes viral.

You know, what do I do? I've got television and film producers calling me, but I also hear from a lot of people who want to do what I do, which is write long form stories and turn them into films and television.

So I just put all that information of like a decade of doing this into one course, like a self-directed video course.

It's how to find those blockbuster ideas, how to structure stories in a cinematic way, how to pitch them, but basically how to turn those articles into something else.

Documentaries, film, TV, whatever.

I think all stories nowadays have to have a second life.

So this course is all about that.

And I appreciate you might not want to share, you know, all of your secret sauce.

But in terms of finding those ideas, you know, some people might say it's not something you can teach.

People either have a story instinct or they don't.

What are some of the practical things that people can do to find great stories that would work on screen as well as on the page?

I mean, it's luck, really.

I feel like I've been really lucky.

I remember one story in particular.

I was just walking through a vintage, they call it a flea market here in West Hollywood.

And I found a magazine store selling vintage magazines.

And I opened up an old wrestling magazine from the 1970s.

and found half a story about a female wrestler in the 70s that had been shot six times and was working somehow undercover for the police while becoming America's national wrestling champion.

And I have this storytelling tingle.

I think it's like a physical response to stories when I read stuff like that.

It kind of starts in my head.