Go Into The Story Interview: Haley Bartels

My interview with the 2021 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Haley Bartels wrote the original screenplay “Pumping Black” which won a 2021 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Haley about her creative background, her award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl Award has meant to her.

Here are links to the entire 6-part series which has run this week.

Part 1: “Within probably two days of being at AFI, I was like, ‘This is the thing that I want to do. This is the thing I’m meant to do.’”

Part 2: “Whenever I have been sad, scared, or feel like I am losing hope, stories have been the things I have turned to, to make me feel less alone.”

Part 3: “That’s something I like about the process of writing genre, crafting a world that is specifically designed to challenge your character’s flaw.”

Part 4: “His origin was definitely from the source text, from Macbeth. There’s the King Duncan, I didn’t even change his name. Maybe that’s lazy writing.”

Part 5: “Establish myself as a writer’s writer. Get as good as I can possibly get. Learn as much as I can learn. Then at some point, ‘ I gotta direct this one.’”

Part 6: “Just keep trying. I went through so much rejection before I won. It really is just about rolling enough dice to get that lucky combination of readers.”

For a MovieMaker podcast interview with each of the 2021 Nicholl winners, go here.

To learn more about the Nicholl screenwriting competition, go here.

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.

For my interviews with Black List writers, go here.