Interview (Part 6): Kristen Tepper

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for her script Better Luck Next Time.

Kristen Tepper wrote the screenplay Better Luck Next Time which landed on the 2022 Black List. Remarkably, Kristen’s script made the Black List before she had signed with a manager.

I had the opportunity to chat with Kristen about her creative background, writing a Black List script, and the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 6 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Kristen answers some craft questions and offers advice to aspiring screenwriters.

Scott: Okay, so we have to talk about this. You’re on TikTok. Talk to me a bit about because you do some screenwriting stuff and talk about the business and whatnot, right?

Kristen: I do. I actually think TikTok helped me so much. I think you said it earlier, where it’s a confidence to say that you’re a writer or the confidence to go out there and ask people to read your work. I actually think TikTok helped me be more comfortable in myself and saying that about myself.

This probably goes back to Chicago. I love Chicago so much, and there’s so many talented artists. I think they miss out on the business side. They don’t get to experience it or learn it. It’s such a niche thing, like, “What is rolling calls?”

It sounds so dumb, but it does matter that you get this person’s coffee right because they are really busy. When you’re that busy, you’re going to know what it’s like. All these weird things that you learn in an office that’s like, “How in God’s name can you do that?” I think those are all so important.

I was like, “I don’t think anyone in Chicago knows how intricate the film business is.” The art side is cool. I love it, but it’s a business. There’s so many rules and games to play. How can you play the game until you get to make the rules?

I just wanted to make it and start talking about what I had done and what I know my friends have done. I think demystify it, but also I remind everyone that you don’t need to be like Gary Oldman’s daughter, and you don’t need to have a million dollars to do this.

I have a ton of benefits that I would say, but a lot of people are proving that you can do it. Kyra Jones went to Northwestern, and she’s from Chicago, and she was on Coverfly and did Wonder Pitch Week, and then it was a writer in the Doper? I think Dope.

Yeah, but it’s just like that. It’s like all these different ways to do it, and I think some people get really paralyzed with how. I’m just trying to tell them how a little bit.

Scott: That’s great. Let’s ask a few craft questions. It’s a natural segue from what you’re talking about in terms of TikTok. How do you come up with story ideas?

Kristen: I’m really fortunate. Things inspire me in the most basic kernel of things. If I’m ever stuck, I will make a list of 40 random ideas I’ve been thinking about.

I have a note in my phone that’s just brainstorm list. It’s like whenever I see something that sparks my interest. I saw a video about Pat Tillman, and I was like, “Wow, that’s a really interesting story.” I wonder if someone’s done it. He goes on the list. I don’t do any more research than that. It’s just like, that’s his list.

Then I’ve been really obsessed lately with the YouTube parents and all these kids starting to speak out about. They didn’t sign up for this life. They’re on camera and they’re everywhere. I’m like, “That’s really interesting to me. That goes on the list.”

I read a book about “The Rise of the Alt‑Right.” There was one little sentence about this small town in Virginia, and I like that. That’s like a whole script I have now. It’s just from all over the place. I really just try to keep my brain open. It’s a skill. It’s like a practice skill.

Before, I couldn’t come up with any idea. Now, I have too many of them.

Scott: Yeah, Stephen King’s got that idea. The ideas are like fish floating over here overhead. You just pick your net, but you got to have the net. You got to have that awareness.

Do you test them out? I would imagine you do. Do you think commercial viability? Do you think how much of it is? How much is it…? I’m personally passionate about it. What’s the combination there in terms of how you’re testing?

Kristen: I guess I’m also fortunate in that I’m a pretty quick writer, so I can balance my…Here’s my really commercial idea, and here’s my really weird indeed, that I don’t know who would ever make this, but I really want to write it.

I try to go back and forth on those, and I do really think about the zeitgeist and just what feels very in and what…I don’t, though. I avoid when people are like, “Oh, you know, ‘Game of Thrones’ is ending, what’s the next Game of Thrones?”

I’m like, “Someone’s already made that, that one is gone.” What’s next after that? I do a lot of, “What if this movie and this movie were made?” Or, “What if there was a dark twist on ’50 First Dates’?” I take things like that, like “Unhitched.” What’s the opposite of that? Things that I’ve liked that I’m like, “That could be done very differently.”

Scott: Yeah, it’s all been done before. It’s just like…

Kristen: Oh, yes.

Scott: That’s how Hollywood operates. Similar, but different. It’s more similar really than it is nowadays than different because everybody’s afraid to do anything, right?

Kristen: “Everything Everywhere All at Once” is a nice, glimmer reminder of hope in the wildness of people’s brains.

Scott: Hopefully, it’ll blow out the multiverse for the next 10 or 15 years because they’ve pretty much just did it all.

Kristen: They rocked it. It’s already done. It’s perfect.

Scott: How about this: You get the idea. Now, you got to get to an outline. How do you do that?

Kristen: I try and write out, stream of conscious write out what I think is going on in my head where “This person ends up here, then they end up here, and then this is what happens.” From there, I usually do grab my Google act one, act two, act three, “Re‑explain this to me again, Google.”

I lay those out on the sheet, and I’m like, “This has to happen here, so that at the end of act one, this can happen and go wrong, and then this can happen.” Then I do a lot of character work. I do a lot of character outlining, and like, “Who are these people? What do they like?”

I think at the beginning, I spent a lot more time on…There’s all these character beat sheets, where you could ask your character a million questions. Whenever I’m stuck, I go back to one of those, and I’m like, “What would you answer this question?”

That allows me to think of different scenarios that I would place them in to get to, from A to Z. Outlining is my favorite. It’s the best part of writing.

Scott: Really?

Kristen: I love it. I love it.

Scott: It’s a hard work, right? You said that, in this script, you had multiple characters, and you can press to combine and cut. Is that a process that you continue to do? Like, “I’m just going to write a first draft and just see where it goes, even though I’ve outlined it.” Then maybe start tightening it, is that how that works?

Kristen: Yeah, I just write whatever’s coming, and even my most recent one, I wrote it, and I was like, “I think there’s too many characters.” I was like, “Whatever, I’m just sending it out to my writers group, they’ll break the news to me, and confirm what I’m already worried about.” They did confirm what I was worried about.

I just think the throw‑up draft is my friend now. I’m just like, “I got it out.” It can be fixed. It exists on a page and the idea is good. I’m a fan of editing as well, like, “Cut this, move it here, move it here, what can this person do? Push these two together.” Editing is also…I like which I’m fortunate about.

Scott: How big is your writer’s group?

Kristen: It’s only three people. It’s small, it used to be four, and then it was five, and then those people who were working on shows and they were like, “I got to dip out, I can’t…I don’t have…” which is also the bummer thing where they’re so busy on someone else’s show that they don’t have time for their own stuff. It’s three people right now. It’s a tiny one.

Scott: Do you meet in‑person, Zoom, or how’s that work?

Kristen: It switches off, last week, we met in person, I think at a bar, and then tonight, I think we’re Zoom. It’s Monday nights. Tonight, I think we’re zooming. Then, whenever I’m in Chicago, we Zoom. It goes back and forth.

Scott: One last question for you. What advice would you have to someone who’s learning the craft and wanting to be a TV or film writer?

Kristen: I would say make friends with everyone around you. Really make your friends with the people around you, with your peers. You’re going to grow with those people. That’s what I’ve learned at least being on the industry side of that. The friends that were assistants are now coordinators, and some of the people are execs, and some of the people are heads of development at different places.

That’s really why it makes so much of a difference. You know those people, you trust those people, you like those people, and you want to work with who you like. Patience. I think someone says in LA, “It’s like a seven‑year overnight success,” is the name of the game. Plan on 7 to 10 years of things not working out and then one day they might, and they will.

Scott: I think you answered them by saying “And watch me on TikTok.”

Kristen: That would be. I’m not great on the plug yet, but that would be a way to do it.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

For Part 2, go here.

For Part 3, go here.

For Part 4, go here.

For Part 5, go here.

Kristen is repped by Agents First.

• Instagram @Kristentepper — https://www.instagram.com/kristentepper/
• Twitter: @kristentepper — https://twitter.com/kristentepper
• Tiktok: @teppertoks — https://www.tiktok.com/@teppertoks?_t=8dWXLH7ZkIU

Note: Kristen has 18.7K followers on Tiktok and 1M+ likes.

For my interviews with dozens of other Black List writers, go here.