Twenty Questions

(that someone once asked me in an interview)

When did you first become interested in writing and why?

I can recall writing a book of poems for my grandfather in grade school (me in grade school, not my grandfather). I know I was interested in writing by at least college because I started taking all the writing courses I could find. Part of it was, I'm sure, just laziness. Hard as writing was, it was easier than physics!

Not that I ever seriously studied physics. There are math brains in my family, but I didn't get one. I suppose at some point I was intended to father in my father's technical footsteps, but I can tell you exactly when I said, "That's not for me." I took a computer science class in summer school and lasted exactly three days. I decided I'd rather go to the beach.

Did you study writing, film and or television production anywhere? If not what is your educational background?

I took a degree in creative writing from Carnegie-Mellon University. I would say that I have a fairly typical liberal arts educational background. I have no graduate degrees. I've mostly learned by doing - and by teaching. I started teaching a class in story structure, for example, in order to deepen my own understanding. This is a solid and useful life strategy: If you want to learn how to do something, find someone to pay you to teach it. Works every time!

Tell me about writing your first script? Had you taken any formal writing classes? Read any books before starting?

My first script was a play I wrote in high school called "Ducks." (I guess I have been interested in writing all my life.) It was an attempt at absurd humor, and though my drama teacher called it, "Not a play in any form she recognized," it did win an award in a national script competition, so there. The first script I wrote for television dollars was an episode of The New Love American Style, called "Love and the Answering Machine." It's about this couple who keep missing each other's calls, see, and... oh, never mind.

Early on I read Syd Field's book on screenwriting, and also took a course taught by Robert McKee. I have to say, though, that anything I absorbed from those sources I absorbed mostly unconsciously. Mostly I just hacked my way through it, following the example of scripts I had on hand.

You've written for film and television? Yes? How do they differ and do you prefer one over the other for any reason(s)?

The thing I like best and hate most about television writing is the deadline. Television, being the disposable medium it is, taught me not to be so precious about my work. It needs to be done well, of course, but mostly it needs to be done now. This sense of urgency is (usually) missing in film writing. Plus screenplays have a lot more preciousness, though probably they shouldn't. It has been suggested that every movie is actually three movies: the one that's written; the one that's actually shot; and the one that's assembled out of available footage in editing. With that in mind, we writers would do well not to fret and sweat over every little word we write.

What was it like writing for television? Were you doing episodics? Sitcoms?

I've written both sitcoms and hour dramas. I find the dramas more challenging because the physical and emotional stakes in the stories are generally higher, and also because the staging of events is more complex. Television is taxing, there's no doubt about it. You're at close quarters with problematic personalities for long periods of time. A friend of mine describes story meetings as "being in the bathysphere," with all the pressure that suggests.

The thing you need to realize about television is that it's target marketing. If the target is children, you'd better write children's television. If the target is women 18-34, you have to give them what they want. I've seen many writers (myself included) stumble badly in trying to make television something it's not.

And can you go into that world a little bit? What can new writers to television expect? What's the life like? The day? The week?

The day doesn't start too early - maybe 10 a.m. or so - but it can last quite late, especially if you have a problematic script - or a problematic executive producer. I have one friend who always finds out if the EP is happily married before he signs on staff. He figures if the EP is happily married, s/he'll want to go home at night; otherwise, s/he doesn't go home, which means you don't either.

Many people ask about pitching their ideas or even pilots for a show. How realistic is this for a new writer to do? Who should they approach first and why, if they want to have any chance at all of having their idea looked at and listened to?

I don't think it's realistic for a new writer to think in terms of selling his/her idea or pilot before s/he has established a track record. Remember, it takes both a good idea and a proven ability to run a show to make a complete pitching practice. I encourage new writers to write pilots - but for the learning experience of it, not for the hope of selling.

Most new writers, alas, aren't as good as they think they are (but cheer up, your also not as sucky as you fear you are!) so the best thing any writer can do is work on his or her chops - spec scripts, that is - so that any meeting with anyone can be backed up by good, solid material.

What films have you written or even screenplays that may or may not have sold? What is there status? And what was your experience in writing them?

I've got a bunch of screenplays I haven't sold. Several should never be seen by human eyes. Others I quite like and still have hopes of selling. The thing about screenplays is that they often don't make their own argument. No matter how good the script is, it has to find a receptive audience, and that's often a case of time, place and taste. But I would say that I've deeply enjoyed every screenplay I've ever written, because each one takes me on a journey to new places, and that's why I take the trip in the first place.

You've taught all over the world. Where, why, when and how did you start doing this?

I had been successful in Hollywood, and then suddenly found myself unsuccessful again. So, to make a buck and improve my craft, I started teaching at UCLA. I guess they liked my work there, because when someone from Australia came looking for a guest lecturer, my name got put forth. That was the start of my overseas experience, and I've since parlayed it into work in 17 countries on four continents.

When The Comic Toolbox came out, it found a receptive audience in Europe especially, and the fact of that book has created marvelous opportunities for me to travel and teach. I'm hoping that my new book, Creativity Rules! will have a similar salutary effect on my passport.

As to why I teach overseas, I guess I've always liked the notion of traveling at other people's expense. Also, I've discovered that teaching is integral to me and vital to my well-being. I teach for the same reason I write - because I can't not.

What have you learned from teaching outside the US? What have you taken in from your experiences with other cultures?

Overseas, people are interested in their own country, and also in America. Here in America, we're really only interested in ourselves, because our culture "flows downhill" in the world today, and we get very little cultural information from other places. I think this gives us a very dangerous cultural myopia, but that's just my opinion. I've also noticed that nobody boasts like Americans do. In many countries I've visited, it's considered rude to stand up and say, "This is my great idea and I stand behind it." So writers in other countries tend to be more timid and self-conscious than their American counterparts. They need to work on this, for you can't write with real power until you accept responsibility for the ideas you're trying to convey.

One big lesson I learned from teaching overseas is that the world doesn't end at the Hollywood city limit sign. A lot of people in Hollywood labor under the misapprehension that it does.

You recently completed a new book entitled "Creativity Rules! A Writer's Workbook." It's a much more philosophical guide to writing than a simple "do this, then do that" formula. How and why did you come up with this approach? Where did it come from?

I was teaching at Northwestern University a few years ago, and came up with this concept for a book called Parallel Universe. The idea of that book was that everything is relative and subjective, and that by filtering reality through a parallel universe of your choice and design, you can get new insights into your writing and into yourself. It was pretty abstruse stuff, and it couldn't decide if it was a "writing" book or a "head" book. Once I decided to make it more useful to writers and less blatantly self-indulgent, it became a much more focused and, I think, better book.

You have a very grounded approach to writing -- a very focused and realistic approach to the ups and downs. Could you share a little bit of that with us? What your overall philosophy is and what you hope to achieve with this new book?

One thing I mention in the book is "plateau thinking". Plateau thinking notes that we're always in one of three phases as people or as writers: We're on the rise, we're descending, or we're on a plateau. By mapping these states in your life, you quickly come to see that nobody's life rises - or falls - all the time. This understanding allows us to accept all the ups and downs, and the plateaus, with the grace that comes from knowing eventually it's all gonna change. Beyond that, I truly believe that it all comes back to words on the page. If a writer is putting words on the page, his or her life is moving in the right direction.

As to what I hope to achieve with this book, I hope that it provides a useful entry, or re-entry, into the reader's practice of writing. I write a lot and enjoy it a lot, and I'd like other people to share the experience of that.

In the foreword of your book, Jeff Arch says you are a lot like Costco. He says you have a lot to offer. How do you feel about that comment? Do you agree?

I love Jeff's comment, and am proud to own it. He said, and I quote, "Why John Vorhaus - his book anyway - is a lot like Costco: 1. There are more things inside than you could possibly need; 2. The thing you need, they have; 3. It's a bargain." Who wouldn't want to stand by that? Thanks, Jeff!

Jeff also mentions in his opening the idea that, if as a writer all you are worried about is selling a script then you are being shorted sighted. How do you feel about that? Do you think too many aspiring writers today worry about the sale rather than the story?

I've always tried to focus on the process, not the product, because focusing on the product is just too heartbreaking. If you invest your emotional well-being in "the sale," then you're just setting yourself up for disappointment, because most of the time (let's be honest) the sale doesn't come. But if your emotional well-being comes from working hard and doing good work, that's a victory you can have every day.

Beyond that, if you're only writing to sell and not to speak, then there will always be some essential passion missing from your work. Make it your mission to shout your message from the rooftops, and hope that someone someday has the good sense to pay you for that.

Do you have an agent or manager now? How did that relationship come about?

I met my current "Hollywood" agent at a writers' conference in Canada. When she relocated to Los Angeles I asked her to sign me because I admired her enthusiasm, honesty and work ethic. I do not have a literary agent at this time for my book projects. I find that I can sell them myself, negotiate my own deals, and save that commission over the life of the book.

Any bits of advice to writers on finding representation?

Use the phone. Call up anyone and everyone. Introduce yourself politely but confidently. Show infectious enthusiasm for your work and invite people to catch that disease. Be prepared for lots of rejection, but if your work is any kind of good at all, you will get an agent. Then, of course, you have to start over on the phones trying to find work, because, sad to say, agents don't get writers work, writers get writers work.

Do you write full time? And what is your writing day like? Schedule? Pace? Goals?

I am blessed in this time to be able to devote all my days to writing. I get up around eight, drink some coffee and read the newspaper, and get to my desk by nine. After messing with emails, I get down to work, and pretty much bang away at it (with a break for lunch) until the middle of the afternoon. That's when the dogs demand my attention, so I go out to the park or for a hike or whatever. Evenings I play or else I write more. I find that playing and writing are often the same thing.

I like to have more than one project going at a time, so that if I run out of steam on one, or just don't feel like dealing with it today, I have something else I can be productive on.

In approaching companies, agencies, etc. what have you found to work best? Do you send query letters? Call? And what has worked best for you and why?

I have my best success by making introductory phone calls, and then following up with great work. It's always best of course, when they come to you, but that doesn't happen as often as I'd like. So, at the end of the day, I'm just like any other schlepping writer: beating my head against the phone. I really can't stress this enough: Writers must be talkers. If you're not prepared to sell yourself, you can't expect to sell.

Best advice you can give to writers really wanting to make this a career? Do's and Do Not's? Things you know now that you wish you knew when you were starting out?

Never stop writing spec scripts. Don't imagine that one spec script is going to make your career, because it won't. I wish I had followed this advice, because my own early laziness (or fear) really hurt my career. Also, take criticism with good spirit. Defensiveness or arguing won't get you more work from the same source. Cooperation and diligence will.

Have a life. Have outside interests, and incorporate them into your writing. Above all, enjoy the process, because the process may be all you ever get.

I wish I hadn't been so needy and insecure when I started out. I really feel like I hurt my career by being more interested in people's approval than in just doing the darn job. I "ached to please," and it ended up hurting my cause. Well, youth is an affliction we all outgrow.

The one thing I didn't know as a young writer was that there's this thing called "emotional truth," and it is (or should be) at the core of every script or story you write. The story isn't the plot mechanics, and it isn't the chases and explosions, and it isn't the jokes. It's the change that takes place in a human heart. Everything else is just window dressing. This truth is hard for young writers (myself back then included) to grasp because young writers don't have full access to their own hearts yet.