Interview (Part 6): Lindsay Michel

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for her script Caravan.

Lindsay Michel wrote the screenplay Caravan which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Lindsay 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, Lindsay offers advice to aspiring screenwriters.

Scott: Do you think about theme that much? I know some writers, they start with theme. Most writers I know say they find the themes as they go along in the process. How about you?

Lindsay: I think definitely throughout the process, it emerges. I think with genre film, it’s difficult sometimes to say specifically what a theme is. If you’re looking at “Independence Day,” “San Andreas,” these huge crazy movies, it’s mostly about the alien invasion or the earthquake and it’s less about theme or anything like that. Although I love “Independence Day” and it does have some very obvious themes.

That said, I think it’s hard to write a script and just spend time with a script and to not see some central idea emerge. Definitely, throughout the process it comes out, but I don’t come up with a mission statement to begin with.

Scott: How about when you’re writing a scene? Are there specific goals you have in mind?

Lindsay: I try not to make it boring. If you’re sitting in a scene for long enough that you’re wondering when the next one’s going to start, you’ve been there for too long.

I think a good rule of thumb is, I’m sure you’ve heard this, get in late and get out early.

This is less individual scenes, but I think rhythm is very important. If you’ve watched a million movies, you know the pace that they’re supposed to move along at and how long scenes should be, and how they should fit together.

The rhythm of how that works throughout the script is, to me, more important than the individual scenes.

Scott: It’s actually quite evident in your script. “Caravan” is probably 75 percent scene description.

Lindsay: Probably.

Scott: You break it up, one line, two lines, one line, three lines, two lines. Was that a conscious thing? I know some writers think about each paragraph, a scene description as suggestive of a camera shot. They’re not saying camera shot, but that’s how they think about it.

Lindsay: It’s important, especially in action scenes, where you have either a hand‑to‑hand fight — or, in “Caravan,” you’re getting killed horribly by a demon. I generally think of it as a conversation, so each action beat that you’re getting, if it’s a punch or if it’s a kick, should be its own line, because it’s breaking a new line of dialogue.

It’s also important to have a lot of white space, so that it reads quickly, at the pace that the action would be actually happening, if that makes sense.

Scott: Absolutely, there’s all these supposed rules floating around in the online screenwriting universe, like this one: “You can only write what an audience can see and hear.” Yet there’s psychological writing we see in screenplays all the time.

Here’s an example from your script “Caravan.” Nasreen and the Sogdians are staring, shocked. Then in italics in scene description, you wrote: “Where did these guys come from? Who the fuck are they?”

That’s not anything that an audience member could know, but that’s psychological writing, where you’re commenting on the moment or maybe even dipping into the inner life of a character and expressing it. That’s something you’re comfortable with. Maybe you could share some thoughts on what I call psychological writing.

Lindsay: You say it’s not visual, but it is something that’s communicated on screen. Either it’s on the actor’s face, this inner moment that they’re having, or it’s a question that the audience is going to be asking based on the visuals, a moment of confusion that’s being created.

For me, it’s just a succinct way to communicate this very complicated visual information. For instance, if a character is feeling doubt, that’s something that an actor’s going to be able to portray to us, but when I put it on the page it sounds like internal information.

It’s driving the story along, so it’s got to be on the page somehow. I think it’s also a style question. Definitely, in older scripts you don’t see it as much, I’ve noticed. It’s a sign of the times, I guess.

Scott: It makes it more entertaining.

Lindsay: Definitely. I think screenplays are meant to be read, so you have to make it an interesting read as opposed to just dryly describing what’s going to show up on the screen. If you can’t get someone to read the whole thing, they’re never going to buy and make it.

Scott: One last question. What advice do you have for aspiring screenwriters?

Lindsay: In terms of learning the craft, reading and watching as much as you can is really what was helpful to me. If you absorb movie after movie after movie, script after script, you learn the craft without sitting down and reading a textbook.

Just by watching, you get to know three‑act structure. You become very familiar with, again, the rhythm of scenes and how characters are supposed to talk, and how things fit together.

Also, reading scripts, you see how everything looks on the page, the different ways that words are communicated into visuals. I think that’s the most valuable education that you can get in terms of craft.

For breaking in, I don’t know. It’s different for literally everyone. I’ve never talked to two people that had the same story about how they got through the door. But the Black List website worked for me, so give it a go.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

For Part 2, here.

For Part 3, here.

For Part 4, here.

For Part 5, here.

Kevin is repped by Bellevue Productions.

Twitter: @mintymichel

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