Interview (Part 6): Laura Stoltz

My interview with 2023 Black List writer for her script Last Resort.

This is a special interview for me: Laura Stoltz is one of my former students. She wrote a complex, compelling screenplay “Last Resort” which was named to the 2023 Black List. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Laura about her creative background, the craft of screenwriting, and the challenges of writing a script with such dark subject matter while infusing it with considerable humor.

Today in Part 6 of a 6-part series to run each day this week, Laura shares her best piece of advice for aspiring screenwriters and how she finds time to write in a household with two small children.

Scott: Speaking of kids. You had your first child, 2020, is that right?

Laura: 2021.

Scott: Then the second one in, when?

Laura: 2023, just this last summer.

Scott: You managed to knock out this script. I’m sure readers are going to say, “All right, where does she find the time to do this with two young children?” How do you structure your life so that you’re able to write?

Laura: Daycare. Highly recommend. When my second was a newborn, my first was in daycare. Newborns sleep a lot. Usually not independently, but she slept a lot on me. There’s only so much I could do when I’m nap‑trapped all day. That’s when I wrote the final draft of this script, because I was just on the couch with a baby sleeping on me, just typing away.

Now that she’s older and actually needs some kind of entertainment, it is harder to write this next one, for sure. Maybe that newborn-phase sleep deprivation was good for “Last Resort”. I don’t know. Maybe that lent itself to some crazy ideas.

Scott: Are your circadian rhythms such that you have creative energy at night, when the kids are down, that you can write then, or you feel most alert in the morning or during the day?

Laura: It’s usually in the morning, during the day. My husband is the complete opposite. When the kids go to bed, I’ll try to stay up for half an hour and then I’m like, “Nope, I’m going to go to bed.” So I get most of my writing done during the day. With coffee.

Luckily, they’re both now in daycare which is great because I mean, it takes a village honestly. I couldn’t write if two kids were here. On the weekends, I get absolutely nothing done.

Scott: The dialogue in the script is so good. How do you find your characters’ voices?

Laura: Usually in the script, it’s easier if someone is kind of me a little bit. I try not to get too close to the character to let them do their own thing, but as a starting point, I always think, how would I react in this situation? What are the things that I would say?

That’s usually a protagonist or somebody or a main relationship person. I start there and then usually my next question is, who would be the funniest person in this situation or who would be the most entertaining to watch?

I usually try to pick an actor or pick somebody that I know and write how I think they would react in a certain situation, or it’s an amalgamation of a couple of different people that I know.

I really do try to picture people I that know or actors in a situation and then go from there. Then as the drafts go on, they become their own person, but definitely as a starting off point, I have to have something, some person to riff off of.

Scott: Two more questions for you. One is about what I call “narrative voice.” That William Goldman quote: We’re not writing a refrigerator manual, a screenplay is supposed to be an entertaining read. Much of that is about how the writer approaches scene description.

In your script, there’s a specific personality that comes across in your scene description. There’s a comfortability to it, a kind of chatty tone with the reader. That’s an example of narrative voice. How did you find that tone because it’s consistent throughout the script.

Laura: It’s harder for me to not do it, honestly, and sometimes you hear people saying, “Oh, don’t ever write anything in the scene description that you can’t see on screen,” but having read hundreds and hundreds of scripts, I tend to get bored and you want to enjoy reading something like I just…

Because I grew up reading so many novels and I do like those more conversational novels, I want people to enjoy their experience and feel how they would feel if they were watching the movie because I can’t put pictures in a script, I can’t.

That’s the only way I know how to convey tone, so I do take a little leeway with some of that more conversational action‑line stuff. It’s more of, I cannot NOT do it. I do have to reign myself in a little bit voice‑wise. I don’t intentionally think, “Oh, I need to put something snarky here,” it’s just what comes out when I’m telling a story.

Scott: You’re exactly right. It’s a selling script, not a production draft. You’re supposed to get people to enjoy the experience.

All right. Last question for you. What single piece of advice would you have for someone who’s outside the business, wants to be a screenwriter, what is a single piece of advice you would give to them in terms of how they can develop their knowledge of the craft and themselves as a writer?

Laura: There’s a book called “The Protagonist’s Journey.”

[laughter]

Scott: OK, I’ll give you the 20 bucks later.

[laughter]

Laura: Other than that, it’s read scripts, just read scripts. I don’t regret all the jobs I’ve had in Hollywood leading up to this point because most of them required me to consume, like an animal, scripts and scripts and scripts, bad ones, good ones.

Don’t just read the good scripts of movies that got made, go on the Black List and read unproduced scripts. I’m not getting paid for this, but go on there, download scripts if you can. Read your friends’ scripts. I’m sure the lovely people of r/screenwriting on Reddit would be happy to share theirs. Figure out what’s working, what’s not working.

If you come across something that isn’t great, figure out why. Honestly reading bad scripts is just as valuable as reading good ones. Read them all. Pick them apart. Take that knowledge and write a better one.

For Part 1 of the interview series, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Part 5, here.

Laura is repped by Heroes and Villains Entertainment.

Instagram: @lestoltz

Twitter / X: @yostoltz

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