Screenwriter to Screenwriter: An Interview with Myself

Screenwriter to Screenwriter: An Interview with Myself

Screenwriter to Screenwriter: An Interview with Myself

Marla J. Hayes
Marla J. Hayes
10 years ago

When Stage 32 invited me to write a blog about screenwriting, I thought, “what better way to share my story and advice than by interviewing myself?”

So... cue opening music and FADE IN:

Screenwriting Blogger Self: Marla, what drew you into the world of screenwriting?

Marla J. Hayes: The first movie I ever saw. I must've been around 12 when my parents took me to see The Sound of Music. The opening vista made my jaw drop. I was glued to my seat. I wanted to make the same things happen with my words. I instantly became a lifelong movie lover.

SBS: Did you start writing scripts at that young an age?

MJH: (laughs) I wish I had. I'd be SO much further along in the continuous learning curve that is screenwriting. No, writing scripts came almost four decades later when I actually read a few books about the craft, wrote an episode for my favorite TV show 'Magnum, PI' and had the nerve to send it to the show. I barely knew enough to register it with the Writers Guild of America.

SBS: What happened with that attempt to break into the business?

MJH: One of the producers read it and wrote me back an encouraging letter (yes, it was the days before the internet). In hindsight, that letter was my first set of notes. In a follow-up letter, I outlined my idea for a sequel to Tom Selleck's movie 3 Men and a Baby. I laugh, now remembering the woman's response - she was adamant that there wouldn't be a sequel because the movie's box office earnings wouldn't support one. Well, we know she was proven wrong with the release of 3 Men and a Little Lady. That experience is one I hold in my quiver of rejections to look back on with a proverbial grain of salt.

SBS: Have you ever wanted to give in to those rejections and give up? What has kept you going?

MJH: What screenwriter hasn't wanted to quit! That's when you have to dig deep into the faith you have in your ability. Share those feelings of quitting with the talented circle of screenwriting friends you have gathered around you and take heart in sharing stories like the road to production for Dallas Buyers Club. That script was passed on by over 80 producers before it found its home and went all the way to the Oscars. Listen to advice from professionals -- I think it was reading a James Cameron print interview after Titanic when I first saw someone speak about the value of persistence in getting through the “Hollywood brick wall” to where people will want to read and produce your scripts.

SBS: What one piece of advice can you offer that is more important than any other?

MJH: Oh, please, can I offer you two instead?

SBS: Who am I to stop you?

MJH: You're me, so here are the two: 1) "They" say write what you know. I say make your first script about what you absolutely HAVE to get off your chest. Then, put it away in a drawer and move on. 2) Whatever your script is about - a different city, an unfamiliar occupation, a different nationality, research the subject matter. If you're thorough, you will ALWAYS find a tidbit that will either take your plot in a new direction or enhance your characters and their goals in the script.

Wearing a hat I keep in my office for encouragement

SBS: You sound like you have other tidbits to share from personal experience.

MJH: Who me?

SBS: The 'floor' is yours.

MJH: In no particular order:

  • Act in some local filming projects, even if it's just as a background person, or in a local theatre production. Watch professionals deliver their lines. Even if they’re “only” local, amateur professions, the experience will give you some insight into how to keep your dialogue pithy.

  • Don't fight your circadian clock (even if it means you work/write in hours only previously attributed to shift workers).

  • Watch movies in the genre you want to write in.

  • Read scripts created by the people who wrote your favourite movies in the genre you want to write for.

  • Keep a voice-activated micro cassette recorder by your side of the bed. You may think you will remember those lightbulb moments that come to you before sleep, as the barriers preventing you from tapping into your subconscious mind fall down, but, trust me, you won't! Nothing, I repeat NOTHING is more frustrating than knowing you came up with the best concept for a script in your life and NOT remembering what it was. (I have written things down on a nearby piece of paper, figuring I'll know what I meant when I read it in the morning... even if the scrawl was legible, which it usually wasn't, more often than not, I wasn't able to figure out the meaning of what I had written.)

  • Pick your circle of script readers/critiquers carefully, with as much of a critical eye as you would read someone else's script. Do not depend on the opinions of your family. They tend to love everything you write and won't have any suggestions to change or elevate the script.

  • If you haven't been produced, you can survive being introduced as a screenwriter at parties. When that new acquaintance asks 'what might I have seen that you wrote?' simply say I signed a non disclosure agreement, so I can't divulge any details without putting both our lives in danger or I'm in talks with distribution companies, so keep your eyes open for my name in the credits!

  • If funds and vacation time permit, go to Hollywood. Take some of the studio tours. Get as close to the Oscars experience as possible, avoiding the tour of the Hollywood Police Station for suspected stalking, of course.

Me outside the Dolby Theater in Hollywood

There’s much more I could say, but I’ll just close with this – with every script you write (and you do need to write more than one), learn at least one thing new. Hone your skills until they become second nature. And if you are anything like me, just when you think you can work one element of a script at an expert level, some other element pops up that you know you need to work on.

Write on, readers. Write on!


*Like this blog post? Please share it on social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email etc) by using our social media buttons at the top of the blog. Or post to your personal blog and anywhere else you feel appropriate. Thank you.*As always, Marla is available for questions and remarks in the Comments section below...

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About the Author

Marla J. Hayes

Marla J. Hayes

Screenwriter

UK producer has optioned 3 short scripts in 2014. Adapted best-selling novel GREEN DARKNESS by Anya Seton with co-writer. Adapted a non-fiction book into drama feature screenplay for a Canadian producer. Novel adapted from my screenplay SCREW YOU, MR. PRESIDENT a number one bestseller on Amaz...

Want to share your Story on the Stage 32 Blog?
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20 Comments on Marla's Article

Lisa Lee
Author, Screenwriter
Great article! Thanks, Marla.
2 years ago
Jessica Bailey
Screenwriter
Great advice. Thank you.
7 years ago
Veronica J. Valentini
Producer, Screenwriter, Voice Artist, Author, Sound Editor
Really nice interview Marla. Great job.
10 years ago
Veronica J. Valentini
Producer, Screenwriter, Voice Artist, Author, Sound Editor
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
thanks for reading it!
10 years ago
Suzanne Kelman
Producer, Director, Screenwriter
Hey there Marla, nice article :-)
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Suzanne, cant find you on Twitter. Sure thats your twitter handle?
10 years ago
Suzanne Kelman
Producer, Director, Screenwriter
I retweeted it out to my twitter feed too, you can see that at @good2prod :-) So proud of all you accomplish :-) You are a force of nature to be sure :-) have a great day!
10 years ago
Marla, thanks for sharing - lots of good ideas
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Thanks for reading my offering, my musings.
10 years ago
Diane Lansing
Director, Screenwriter, Actor
Love the tips and love your warm humor! Thanks!
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Thanks for the read!
10 years ago
Margie Walker
Screenwriter
For a moment I forgot I was reading someone else's thoughts! Thanks, Marla!
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Cue the Twilight Zone music, the writer's version. ;-)
10 years ago
Kimmie Dee
Illustrator, Screenwriter, Author, Line Producer, Playwright, Filmmaker, Videographer, Makeup Artist, Host/Presenter
Thanks for sharing those great tips.
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Thanks for reading.
10 years ago
Charlie Walters
Screenwriter
Thank you for the encouragement. I was about to quit.
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Ironic Charlie because today I feel like quitting. Guess I'll have to take my own advice. ;-)
10 years ago
Good one Marla, I'm not really a screenwriter but it was a good read and you have some great tips for those budding writers out there.
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Thanks!
10 years ago
Cali Gilbert
Photographer (Still), Author, Director, Screenwriter
LOVE IT Marla. I had to smile as my favourite film of all-time is The Sound of Music, and I know precisely how you felt with that opening scene. You should have seen me running around the hills of Austria in 1998 when I visited. I'm a new screenwriter, transitioning from book writing. After publishing six books, four of which became bestsellers, I'm now working on my first short film script taken from my 5th book, It's Simply Serendipity. Hoping to have it completed by September to begin submitting to festivals. I have ideas for about six film projects floating around my head and it's so exciting. I LOVE learning and grateful for your guidance and support. Please let me know how I may support you in any way. www.CaliGilbert.com
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Thanks for that generous offer for support. Same goes from me to you in your screenwriting activities. :-)
10 years ago
Viki Posidis
Director, Screenwriter, Producer
Great read! Thank you, Marla! You must be a comedy writer. ;-)
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
That's one of my genres, along with action, thrillers & paid writing assignments for adaptations.
10 years ago
"I signed a non disclosure agreement"... Love that answer. I had this vision of you in the interviewers chair and then jumping over into the interviewees chair answering your own questions. So funny. Thank you for writing this blog dear Marla. Great stuff. Your photo at the Dolby Theater... so very cool :-))
10 years ago
Veleka Gray
Screenwriter, Actor, Performance Coach, Director, Producer, Voice Artist
Brilliant, Marla!
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
We Ontario screenwriters have to encourage each other!
10 years ago
Great blog Marla! I enjoyed it very much. Especially loved the pile of classic movie scripts in one of photographs, and you at the Dolby Theater. The Sound of Music is one of my favorite movies too.
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Stage 32 graciously found that pic of the stacked scripts... I did however submit the hat pic & the one of myself with the enlarged oscars. ;-)
10 years ago
Linda Perkins
Screenwriter
Great read, Marla, and so encouraging. Thanks!
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Thank you!
10 years ago
Michael Savage Aka Sirtony
Actor, Director, Filmmaker, Producer, Screenwriter
Yes...all so true...and the reality to record your thoughts before you sleep...all so true...:)
10 years ago
Angela Falkowska
Screenwriter, Script Consultant
Brilliant, Marla! Thanks for the insights! Love the party comebacks!
10 years ago
The "Sound of Music" a perfect example of one group's intsitutionalizing of the joy of life (Nazi regime), when all one needs do is walk out a door and see the vastness of the possibilities of it all. Look at housing and its square boxing routine thank goodness for the freedom of glass windows to the world. I have quite a list of what one might call woulda, shoulda, coulda aspirations and success by some other guy, fairly or not, and I let that remind me of how freakin' relevant all my materials are. Protection of pifered product is a bulldog fight in the making, so be prepared for the long hall David and Goliath battle. For that matter, if any of your writings or comments here reference patentable stuff you have started a clock running for bringing it to market, public exposure. Or shared mentality, where I've read statisically speaking three people have the same Ideas roughly at the same time, so a race to market is on. We reel people sometimes like to believe we don't fit into the structure of the real world, but when one thinks about it, those in production will work the equivalent hours of two jobs in a nine month span. I think possibly the reason unions came into being. My point being, corporate America like anyother place in our world is made up of people and human characteristics carry the day. It all relies on the will/potential of man. Oops, yes on the recorder. Apparently, creative types tend to be A.D.D. (always doing deals) having short-term memory issues.
10 years ago
Ryan C. Davis
Screenwriter, Voice Artist, Actor, Author, Comedian, Content Creator, Playwright, Researcher, Script Consultant, Script Supervisor, Story Analyst
Inspiring... Thank you so much for sharing. Your comments and insights are truly grounded and optimistic at the same time.
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Glad I could encourage a fellow writer!
10 years ago
Suze Lanier-Bramlett
actor, author, comedian, content creator, director, music composer, musician, performance coach, photographer (still), playwright, producer, screenwriter, singer, stage director, theatre director
Great read! Thanks!
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Thank you to reading my words.
10 years ago
Impeccable insights, Marla - you are making the world a better place through your effort and insight.
10 years ago
My pleasure and privilege, Marla. Brightest of blessings in your day.
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Thanks Glen.
10 years ago
Joanna Marshall
screenwriter
Thanks! Very helpful ideas. Question: Confused about what's considered to be "over- the- top/contrived" in terms of plot, action and genre. I understand if the story fits the genre (like "Fast & Furious"/Genre=Action) -- the action isn't considered "contrived" because in the action genre anything goes so anything, no matter how over-the-top, is believable -- or "spy/thriller" movies....where the unbelievable happens, or in animation, anything is possible.... Could you please elaborate on this topic for the other genres like comedy and romantic comedy? Thanks!
10 years ago
Marla Hayes
Screenwriter
Good question, JoAnna -- for genre: producers consider a screenplay that falls into more than 2, maybe 3, distinct categories as being over the top, as being unmarketable. For plot or action: anything too convoluted for a producer to pitch to HIS/HER boss is over the top/contrived. In the end, it all comes down to marketability. I hope that answers your question.
10 years ago
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