Christina Hamlett
Tell us about your background as an actress and theater director.
Interestingly, my writing and theater careers have always been joined at the hip. As a result of my very first job as a newspaper film and play critic in 1971, I was sent to review a new melodrama that was opening at a neighborhood theater. A few months later, I wrote to the director and producer and asked if I could audition. (Mind you, I had never acted before, not even in high school.) Although they politely turned me down, they did invite me to come and watch a rehearsal for their next production. As Fate would have it, the heroine was painting her house that day and forgot there was a rehearsal. Since they needed someone to stand in and read her lines, I was recruited on the spot. I must have done a good job because they made me the show's understudy, wrote me into a few dance numbers, and I ended up being in theater for the next 16 years, half of which involved the development and management of my own touring theater company, The Hamlett Players.
What is a script coverage consultant?
"Script coverage" refers to two different levels of critique. The first type is done by studio readers whose job is to give each project either a pass (thumbs down) or a recommend (thumbs up). What they are looking for - and subsequently summarizing in one page or less - are projects that are not only professionally packaged but are in keeping with the studio's corporate vision, budget, and wish list. You, as the writer, won't be privy to what appears in a studio critique unless you have someone inside the system who can find out for you. Therefore, should your submission receive a polite "No, thanks," you'll have no clue whether they thought your premise of flesh-eating hamsters from Saturn was a singularly stupid idea or if it had too many similarities to a flick on flesh-eating woodchucks from Akron they had already optioned three months earlier. While rejection without explanation is one of the more frustrating realities of this business, the sheer volume of material received and the shortage of personnel to process all of it makes it impossible for studio readers to counsel individual writers on why their work didn't click.
The second type of coverage is a paid critique that screenwriters do see. Unlike the pass/recommend format, this type is designed to address the strengths and weaknesses of a project in the context of a 4-10 page teaching tool for the writer to improve his/her craft. Coverage consultants (who may or may not be affiliated with a studio or agency) are either generalists or specialize in specific genres (i.e., romantic comedies) or aspects of screenwriting (i.e., character development).The fees charged for coverage services vary in accordance with expertise, level of detail and recommendation provided, and whether the client wants to engage in an ongoing mentor relationship.
Although I do both types of consulting, my preference is to be able to give constructive advice that will enable aspiring writers to hone their skills. The assessments I write are generally 6-8 detailed pages that address originality, character, dialogue, structure, pacing, budget and commercial appeal. If clients want to work on a particular weakness - and dialogue is the most common - my policy is to apply a portion of their original coverage fee toward hourly consultation.
You've written 25 books, 118 plays and musicals, 4 optioned features and hundreds of articles on performing arts, humor, health, travel and how to's. How do you organize all these projects and still think clearly?
I've always been well organized and thrive on multi-tasking. These two elements have successfully prevented me from ever contracting writer's block. Writers' block, you see, generally occurs when you're only working on one thing. For me, I always have multiple projects cooking on all front burners - novels, theater scripts, screenplays, interviews, columns and feature stories for two local newspapers. Accordingly, whenever I find I've written myself into a mental cul-de-sac, I can simply set it aside and go work on something different for awhile. My advice to writers is that it's essential to always be writing something every day, no matter what it is.
I'm also fortunate to have a husband who reads all of my work and loves to brainstorm. (In the case of scripts, we sit at the dining room table, split up all the roles and read them out loud with different voices. I'm quite sure our neighbors think at least 17 different people are living here.) Writing is such a solitary craft that there's no greater treasure than having a partner whose intellect, insight and wit I respect.
Your new book, "Screenwriting For Teens: The 100 Principles of Screenwriting Every Budding Writer Must Know" is such a great motivator. I understand that Michael Wiese Productions is going to publish it in Nov. 2006. What topics do you touch upon in this book?
Let me preface this by saying that young people have always been my favorite market whether it's for writing stage plays or teaching film classes. Their energy, honesty and unabashed enthusiasm for the arts is downright contagious, coupled with a level of optimism that instantly restores one's faith in the future. Several summers ago, for instance, I had the fun of teaching screenwriting to a class of teens at Lyndon Institute in Vermont. Although they ranged in age from 13 to 19, they immediately bonded with one another as equals in a group project to write, direct and produce a 20-minute documentary on how to write a movie. Half of that class continues to email me for advice or "just to say hi 'n' stuff." I actually recruited one of those students, Nick Morgan, to be my apprentice on Screenwriting for Teens.
Screenwriting for Teens: The 100 Principles of Scriptwriting Every Budding Writer Must Know is a working text that can be used in classrooms as well as by individual learners. Targeted to the interests and vocabularies of junior high and high school age students, each chapter defines a concept, illustrates it with study examples of current and/or classic films, and challenges the reader with three writing, analytical or discussion exercises which will reinforce his or her understanding of the principles contained in that section. This cumulative approach to building the learners' knowledge of screenplay structure and dynamics will enable them by book's end to develop and write their first short films as well as apply the content to the development of longer works for classroom, competition or career. In addition to the book's obvious use in a film-oriented curriculum, the material has application to coursework in English, Media, Theater, Journalism and Psychology.
Tell us about your new fiction series written for teenage girls. We know that "Movie Girl," is the launch book and that it follows the exploits of Laurie Preston. What's Laurie's goal at this stage of her life? Who is the publisher and when can we expect to see this book on the shelves?
Laurie's goal at this stage of her life is pretty much the same as any 15- year-old girl of any generation: specifically, to be one of the popular people and get the cutest boy in school to pay attention to you. Although I often project a lot of my own personality onto my fictional heroines, the cathartic joy of this particular series is that I can relive the past and have it come out the way I want it to!
Here's the inside scoop:
For as long as she can remember, Cambridge high school sophomore Laurie Preston has practiced writing Arthur's last name after her own. Mrs. Laurie Weisberg. Of course by the time her storybook wedding actually comes - and at 15 it seems as if that happy day will take forever to arrive - she might even drop her nickname in favor of the more elegant-sounding "Lauren." Neither her best pal Kathy's obnoxious brother Wayne can dissuade her from her blissful daydreaming nor Kathy herself who has aspirations of becoming a famous actress and letting Laurie pen all of her scripts for her. Already displaying the early talents of becoming a professional author, Laurie is astonished when not only her school is awarded a grant to produce a feature-length film but that she has been selected by the teachers to write it. Can Life imitate Art? Or is the word just Arthur? Laurie sees an opportunity in the making to spin a tale of high school romance, cast her hunky hero opposite her in the lead, and put the words in his mouth that she's been pining to hear. In the meantime, she has to deal with pressure from Kathy to make her a star and the escapades of a homeroom class that give new meaning to the phrase "Goin Hollywood. Movie Girl will be released in June by Hard Shell Word Factory with new books to follow every six months. First Date, which picks up two weeks after Movie Girl leaves off, is already in the works.
You also will have a new anthology of one-act theater scripts released in the spring. Fill us in on this new project.
Awesome Plays for Teens and Tweens is a product of Sterling Partners under the director of publishers Elizabeth Preston and her husband Peter Dimond. Liz and I actually have a very long association that goes back to the 1980 sale of my very first play, The Knight of the Honest Heart, to our mutual mentor, the late Sylvia Burack who started Plays eons ago. (Interestingly, The Knight of the Honest Heart and its sequel - which was written exactly 20 years later - are both included in this book.) My passion for writing plays for young people - and especially smart young brunettes - stems from the frustration of auditioning in third grade for a play in which there was 1 beautiful princess and 12 earnest male suitors. The teacher announced that the role of the princess would automatically go to Mary Alice, a somewhat vacant, blue-eyed blonde who was deemed the "prettiest girl in the class." "Rats!" I thought, for not only did Mary Alice have roughly the IQ of a stuffed animal but she also couldn't get through a complete sentence without botching it. "If I ever grow up to write plays," I silently vowed that day, "I'm growing to write parts for girls who are smart and brunette and who even wear glasses." Happily, it's a promise Ive kept to this day.
News is Catch of Day, which was released in 2005, lured in more than a fisherman. Do tell what's happening here.
One of our good friends, Andrew Cottone, has fantastic talent when it comes to screwball comedies and snappy dialogue. Having reviewed several of his scripts professionally, I thought he'd be a natural to adapt the novel to a romantic comedy and take it to our mutual agent. What's fun about this process is to see the changes he has incorporated in the character dynamics, not to mention listening to the male perspective of a story written by a female.
In terms of promotion, when you even have time for it, what is your main focus on getting the word out there about your books?
In addition to excerpting a lot of material for trade magazines and websites, I'm allowed a bio blurb at the end of each article that allows me to include information on upcoming releases and workshops. When I do speaking engagements, I'm never without business cards, postcards and hand-out materials so that attendees can stay in the loop on what I'm doing. Having taught online for a number of years, I also maintain a database for announcements and am zealous about networking with associates. The latter, of course, results in a number of referrals of new students and clients.
What projects are you currently working on?
How much time do you have to hear the list? (LOL) I'm presently working on two musicals with composer Chris Wozniak - one of them is a new take on Joan of Arc, the second is the story of Hawaii's last princess, Kaiulani. I'm overseeing the film adaptation of Movie Girl and delighting in how screenwriter Maggie King really knows how to capture the essence of teen angst. Several new one-act plays are in the works, as well as a full length play entitled Prime Time, a drama that addresses the issues of ageism and sexism in Hollywood.
Any new accomplishments you want to share with us?
My husband, Mark, is an excellent chef and we came up with the idea to collaborate on a book called Consumed With Passion - a collection of 12 romantic short stories in which food plays a significant role. I'm writing the romances and Mark is orchestrating the menus and recipes. Not that we've ever needed an excuse for candlelight dinners (in fact, it's the norm at our house!), but we're having fun testing all the menus that are being included.
My other accomplishment is my commitment to learning the piano. I have a beautiful 1907 upright that I've owned since 1972 but had previously only dabbled at. Like my writing, I've made a conscientious choice to build time for my practice into every day. At the rate of 20-30 minutes every afternoon, I figure I'll be pretty good about 35 years from now…
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