Your winning script stood out above several hundred others. Have you entered or won other
competitions? 

Not with this script. This is the first competition I’ve entered with this script.
Other competitions were for my other scripts:
– My short script, “Anxiety” (which I later directed and produced), was a FINALIST in the
FALL 2021 LAISA
– My TV Comedy Pilot, Ministry of Marley, was a SEMI-FINALIST in the 2022 ScreenCraft
TV Pilot Script Competition.

What was the inspiration for your winning script? 

I had a vivid dream with the couch scene. It
still stuck with me for a day or two. During a coffee with a friend, I wanted to collaborate with, I
mentioned my dream, and the excitement in his voice pushed me to write it out. After the
coffee, I went home and wrote the script in 2- 3 hours.
Describe your writing process. Do you work from an outline…or do you just start with FADE IN?
It varies. Sometimes, I go the traditional route of character descriptions, beats, and then
outlining. With this project, because it was so vivid, I did it stream of consciousness and then
went back to make slight edits.
Was your winning script a first draft…or had you received coverage that helped improve your
work as a second or third draft? It’s my first draft. I’ve been compiling feedback from people
who have read it, and now, with the analysis from this competition, I can go back and finesse
and polish.

Which film or television writers have inspired your work…and how?

– Billy Wilder – the way he focuses on character interactions and his use of comedy to
balance out dark subject matters.
– John Hughes – I like how his writing makes you feel like you’re going on the journey with
the characters instead of just being an observer.
– Nora Ephron – I loved watching her work and I want to be bring back good romantic
comedies.
– Christopher Nolan – I want to get to the level of his mind-bending films. When I’m
developing, I’m always thinking of twists, symbolisms, and ways to convey the most
complex philosophies and ideas in a visual, hopefully easy execution.

What’s your #1 favorite movie or television series…and why? 

The Sandlot. It’s a great film that
you can watch with your parents, kids, friends, etc. It’s held up all these years. No bells and
whistles. It’s nostalgia.

What has been your greatest challenge as a writer? 

Writing. Procrastination has been mybiggest nemesis since high school (a long time ago). I’m always looking for ways to change uphow I write. Discovering that I have fun with my stream of consciousness writing, I’ll probably adopt that as the norm.

Have you made any further progress in your writing career? 

Comedy will always be at my core,
so now I’m exploring other genres I can mix comedy with and even the different types of
comedy I can do. I’m a big fan of Edgar Wright, so I’m always studying the way he does visual
comedy so I can step up my game 

What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a prestigious contest as you have? 

Know the rules of screenwriting and then write how it suits your creativity. If you break a rule, there has
to be a good reason why. In being creative, rules are more like guidelines. It’s up to the creative
individual to play in and around those guidelines.
What other writing projects are you working on that you want the world to know about? I’m
working on the feature version of Cyberpunk Project. I’m working on a holiday rom-com, a
sports movie (because I love The Sandlot & Little Giants), and I’m revising the other short I
wrote that follows, “Anxiety” (my first short). There are others but that’s for a different time.