Can you please tell us about yourself?
I’m 35. I’m single. I live alone. I’ve never been married, and I don’t have kids, but I do have two rescuecats (Fred & Caramels). I’m basically the sad archetype of why dating apps with an annual paid subscription fee were invented.

How do you motivate yourself to write?
I don’t. I just do it. I think we’re pretty much ALL writers to some degree, whether we think we are or not. It’s just a matter of taking what you write, and how you write it— and then doing something productive with it. I naturally have a lot of things to say, or I naturally just think of a lot of things for my characters to say. For me, writing is just a form of release, but I also wouldn’t say that I enjoy doing it. I’m really only compelled to write because I just feel that I have to. Being a “writer” in- general is a cute hobby while also being a vague annoyance. But being a “decent writer” is a curse— or I dunno, at least that’s how I feel. If I can be perfectly honest, my heart is in acting, and singing— working on either of those two things makes me genuinely happy. But it is what it is, and as of right now, writing is probably what I’m the most skilled at.

How does it feel to have your work recognized?
It feels really good, to say the least. It’s a new thing for me, being recognized. So I am doing my best to both, be humble, and to be openly thankful because I genuinely am. I’m originally from Texas, unfortunately. So I feel that it took me a lot longer than it should have to really come to terms with the full scope of my potential.

How did you come up with the idea for your winning project?
After I had written, directed and starred in a feature film (that never saw the light of day) in Austin, TX back in 2011, I was approached in 2012 by someone who was an industry friend of one of my crew members. He suggested to me personally, and asked me, if I would be up for writing a “modern-day adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.” My immediate response was, “Who’s Oscar Wilde?” As random as that sounded to me at the time, I was compelled by the suggestion, and the fact that anyone would even consider me personally to write a screenplay that could potentially be sold later, let alone a screenplay that was a semi-adaptation of an old book from 1890. I picked up a copy of Dorian Gray, read it from front to back in less than 48 hours, and then I got back to him and said, “Yeah, I can do it.” To me, setting an altered version of Dorian Gray that was also a “modern-day adaptation” meant it had to be set in the near-future. And that the near-future had to be an absolutely miserable place, no matter how rich you were. And then ultimately switching out the concepts of a portrait of Dorian Gray, for a humanoid android that ages for its host over time just seemed like a no-brainer. “Yep, Oscar Wilde’s going Sci-Fi this time.” To cut an even longer story short— my original draft from back then never got picked up. I wasn’t technically paid upfront to do any off it. Although I had always been on the right track with it, it was still garbage, and it needed A LOT of revising. It simply wasn’t anywhere near close to resembling what it is now.

Do you recommend to screenwriters submit Golden Draft Awards?
Absolutely.

Did you find the feedback helpful?
I found the feedback to be very helpful because of course, all feedback is helpful if those are clearly the intentions of said feedback. However— and ironically enough— the feedback was conflicting with the feedback I had just been given from a different screenwriting competition, less than a week before submitting the most current draft of Donavan Emery to Golden Draft. And many of the criticisms I had received from Golden Draft, were literally things that I had originally had in place in earlier versions (ex. You can CUT a few times; my removal of emphasizing reactions of characters with their dialogue, I had been told elsewhere that the actors will figure those things out on their own later, etc.) changed in order to appease the other screenwriting competition. In a way, it’s all just as frustrating as it is hilarious. But no worries, I’m finding that middle ground, as we speak. And knowing my luck, at the end of the day, I’ll only succeed in pleasing no one. But in all sincerity, I very much appreciated how Golden Draft’s feedback almost exclusively revolved around the formatting errors in my screenplay, instead of wasting effort by attacking the story that I’m telling, which overall, I think is counterproductive, in my particular case. Overall, Golden Draft’s feedback was very helpful.

What are the best thing and most challenging things about screenwriting?
Coincidently, I think the best thing about screenwriting is its ability to satisfy multiple mediums. And then the most challenging thing about screenwriting, is to then, successfully satisfy those multiple mediums. If I simply just had a long, convoluted story to tell, then I could just spend a whole year writing a big stupid book that collectively takes up half a day, or longer for one person to read. And just in case I actually am wasting their time, I’d much rather waste their time with something that is less indulgent but which also contains much bigger prospects, like a feature screenplay.

Can you please give us a few screenwriting tips?
My few screenwriting tips are:

A) (An obvious one, but in case you’re out of the loop) Learn to shut up? And listen?, Actually engage with the people around you, which also doesn’t mean react to everything they say or do. Let them talk, let them express themselves— because you’re going to get all of the time in the world to express yourself later. As a person, you’re probably not as interesting as you think you are. And depending on how you retain various patterns of dialect, it’s going to do wonders for your characters’ flow of conversation, especially if your screenplay is dialogue-driven.

B) (Especially if you’re a male screenwriter who identifies as “straight”) Become secure enough with yourself to write your female characters smarter than your male characters. Because they probably already are smarter than your male characters, but the problem is, you’re just not allowing them to be. Just so that my statement isn’t taken out of context, I’m clarifying that you can, and should still write your male characters “smart,” but you should probably write your female characters smarter than them. I promise, if you write your female characters smarter than your male characters, your screenplay is going to age better. A LOT better, than if you hadn’t. If I turn out to be wrong, then you are welcome to kill me, but that, will of course come with the risk of you being held accountable.

I must note, that these screenwriting tips are ironic because the screenplay being recognized is “Donavan Emery, The Android & Himself,” a sci-fi cover of an Oscar Wilde book, set in a futuristic dystopian society where pretty much no one speaks like a human, and— in which I do not give a single female character a single line of dialogue— only because the entire scope of the story is being gluttonously hogged and consumed by the three lead male characters, who are all pretty much madly in love with each other, regardless of where their ranking is on the economic social ladder, and regardless of what their upbringing expects of them. The three male leads are all narcissists. They’re all rich. They’re all privileged. Deep down, they simply aren’t attracted to women, no matter how much they lie to themselves. However, and with the exception of “Donavan Emery,” all of my other screenplays vouch for these screenwriting tips.

How often do you write? Do you have a writing routine?
I write everyday. But lately, my routine’s all over the place. The closest thing I have to a routine is… I wake up, roll out of bed and read the online news and current events. Then, I get really pissed off, and start text raging back and forth with my friends. And then I complain and rant about how angry I am with the political climate, and how I’m probably going to have to run for congress in 20-30 years. I lift, save and document all of those text rants of mine because they will probably translate, and develop into coherently executed, written pieces of material at some point in the near future. And that currently seems to be my unofficial excuse for a writing routine.