i was asked this question recently by a colleague & I wanted to give some backstory into my own journey while seeing of others would be willing to share theirs as well.
I was never really a movie buff growing up because I was into sports & pro wrestling as a youth but I was very heavy in rap music during the 2010s. I also took theatre classes all four years of high school. My favorite artists at the time were Kendrick Lamar & Kanye West. I was searching for something to listen to while I was working on writing a play as my final project for theatre. I came across the short film Kanye did that was called “Runaway” & I loved the story it told along with the music.
I had also listened to the concept album “good kid maad city” by Kendrick & noticed the cover said “A short story” but it’s not told in order so my senior year I studied the album & songs religiously with the help of the genius website that helped with the lyrics I wrote a movie based off the album the week I graduated high school. It wasn’t in screenwriting format but I was thrilled with what I could do while I had a set of music to create ideas. It was from that my moment that I started using music to create would be playlist that I felt fit stories I wanted to tell. Then I began to study films, read books & look at my favorite writers ways of telling a story so I can understand how to give a great 3 Act Story. Well that was a It’s a long read but if you made it this far, what made you want to become a screenwriter?
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Cool backstory, Jaevious Burney. I found part of the "Office Space" script online during computer class in 12th grade. After that, I looked up how to write scripts and started writing. I watched the movie "Harriet the Spy" as a kid. That movie made me want to write, and I wrote a short story at 13. But I was mainly into drawing growing up, so I didn't focus on writing until 12th grade when I found out about screenwriting.
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I'm very open about the fact I turned to screenwriting during a crisis. I'd had a mental breakdown and thought writing would be therapeutic, which absolutely wasn't LOL.
When I was at school, my dyslexia really held me back, so writing was a little absurd. I've always been a huge movie fan though and, like many here, I assume, I'd spent most of my life going to sleep while imagining various movie scenes.
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My love of movies came through Reservoir Dogs, Robocop, Terminator 1 & 2 and then Trainspotting - I must add, this was all while I was WAY too young. My Mom allowed me to watch them on the condition I think about how the effects were made, making it clear the films weren't real. I think I turned out alright as a result.
Without knowing what I was really doing I asked my Mom for a typewriter and I essentially wrote outlines for the plots of those films (which ironically is something I struggle with these days! ha!). I was about 14 at the time. I got my hands on the scripts for Pulp Fiction and True Romance free out of a magazine (would of been either Empire or Total Film) and started plotting stories on lined A4, really simple plots, with no formatting or clue how to do this. Usually about double crossings and a hitman on their last job. I'd write them without character names, so A would shoot B, and C would get the payload, etc. Mostly structure, no dialogue.
Then, I hit puberty, started making music which gave me a social life and screenwriting fell into the background of my life until 2018 when my friends were older, music became more difficult to organise and so I needed a creative hobby that I could do on my lonesome - hello, screenwriting my old friend.
This time I took a sensible approach and set about learning the ropes, absolutely loving the idea of telling stories in neatly wrapped packages. So much so I went all in, attending events (London Screenwriters Festival 2018, and John Yorke's Advanced Structure 2019) and even organising my own (Write then Socialise in Birmingham UK). Sadly during the pandemic I lost a lot of momentum for a variety of reasons but this year I've really got back on track thanks to my lovely wife's support and the writing community, such as Stage 32!
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Love your backstory, Jaevious Burney . I had always had a love of movies but had focused primarily on authoring books. Then Covid hit and I was bedridden for 3 months from a bad case of it. I couldn't walk 5 steps without collapsing.
A group of creatives that met online kept me sane. One of the friends I made in that group had brought up the fact that I had all read all these books and taken classes on screenwriting but never written more than a bunch of shorts.
So while I was in bed and unable to walk to the bathroom, I wrote a feature screenplay, quickly realized how different an animal it is and fell in love with it. It's weird that I've written books for so long only acquiring minor accolades but in three years started getting all these "recommends" from coverage execs. I'm honestly not boasting about that, just saying that there are sometimes places that you land in that you didn't plan on where you fit best and things happen that prove it. This is one of them for me.
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When I was in the 5th grade, I thought I was a director. But now I am a writer of family fare features.
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Dawson's Creek.
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Thanks, Travis Seppala. Now the "Dawson's Creek" theme song is stuck in my head.
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I was always writing something growing up. I attempted writing my first script in the 5th grade. It was my version of a Sky Kids-esque espionage story and I had my notebook confiscated because I wouldn't stop writing in class and wasn't paying attention. For me, it was always the dream.
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My high school English teachers encouraged me to pursue writing and even flat out told me at one point "You should really be a writer." After trying to avoid it, I eventually couldn't resist.
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Maurice Vaughan You don't wanna wait? :P
Haha Travis Seppala. "doo doo doo doo do doo do."
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Cool way to format your imagination...but on a serious note, Academy Awards, Superstar friends, fame & fortune from just typing words...
Stupid movies that made me think I could do better plus a love of film.
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I became a Screenwriter from a DARE from my Mentor, Kelvin Walton. I was a young teenager spinning on my back and breakdancing and I started rapping. He read my lyrics and challenged me, can you write a Poem? I finished my poem and he challenged me again, can you write a Short Story? Next, he pushed me to do Novellas, a Novel, and finally, a Screenplay. That's how I got here....