Interview (Video): So Zoom In
An hour-long conversation with me.
An hour-long conversation with me.
Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to make a myriad of connections with wonderful writers. Some through my blog, some through my teaching, and some through my Facebook group: Zero Draft Thirty.
It’s through the latter I intersected with Sophia Louisa who has been an active member of our Zero Draft Thirty community since 2016. Sophia hosts a video podcast So Zoom In in which she interviews a wide range of guests involved in the creative arts: authors, actors, screenwriters, television writers, and the like.
Sophia was kind enough to ask if I would be a guest to discuss my book The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling. I said yes and sent her a work-in-progress copy of my manuscript, so she could read it.
Our hour-plus conversation ended up covering a lot more in the way of subject matter beyond my book. For example during our chat, I was delighted to learn that Sophia had used the biannual Zero Draft Thirty Challenge to write two screenplays, one of which is now with a producer!
Here in its entirety is my So Zoom In conversation with Sophia Louisa.
People who watch or listen to any of my interviews often tell me, “You are really passionate about this stuff.” It’s true, I am passionate. About movies, television, creativity, and most of all STORIES! There’s almost nothing I love more than being swept away by a great story. It’s like being transported out of this world and taken into another world of the creator’s imagination.
Over the years, I have become equally transfixed by the craft of storytelling, how and why some stories work, and others don’t. Having been a screenwriter for over thirty years and a teacher for twenty years, as best as I can tell, the single most important differentiating factor between a good story and a not good story is the writer’s connection to their characters.
If they immerse themselves in the lives of their characters and allow the characters to drive the story-crafting process…
Good story.
If they start with plot and engage in an outside-in approach to their characters, manipulating them to fit some prescriptive story structure or paradigm, resulting in surface level characterizations…
Not good story.
This is one of the primary reasons I wrote The Protagonist’s Journey: to inspire writers to begin with character … end with character … and find the story in between. I truly believe this is the path to writing a good story, one which not only enables the writer to discover and work with complex, compelling, and multidimensional characters actors will want to play, but also a narrative which emerges from the characters, by the characters, and through the characters. In other words…
Character-driven storytelling.
Are you tired of formulaic movies and television? Do you yearn for more original cinematic stories which feature engaging characters? That is the bottom line of what my book The Protagonist’s Journey is about.
Sophia read my book and she got it. Our conversation explores both the content of the book and my intention in writing it.
I hope you enjoy the interview!
To subscribe to the So Zoom In You Tube channel — like I did! — go here.
To read 30+ endorsements from professional screenwriters, novelists, and academics for The Protagonist’s Journey, go here.
To pre-order a copy of The Protagonist’s Journey, go here.
If you are a Go Into The Story reader…
If you follow my @GoIntoTheStory Twitter feed…
If you are a member of the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group…
If you have an interest in buying a copy of The Protagonist’s Journey to learn a comprehensive approach to character-driven screenwriting and storytelling…
I encourage you to pre-order it to help build momentum for the book. Amazon has a mysterious algorithm which I profess to know next to nothing about, but the more pre-orders, the better the placement of the book there. In fact for several weeks, The Protagonist’s Journey has been rated by Amazon as the #1 New Release in the category of Film & Television.
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“Every movie lives or dies by their characters and no one understands that better than Scott. Whether you’re a seasoned screenwriter or writing ‘fade in’ for the first time, The Protagonist’s Journey: An Introduction to Character-Driven Screenwriting and Storytelling is required reading. The perfect torch to navigate the dark abyss that is crafting a screenplay. A masterclass.”
— David Guggenheim, Safe House, Designated Survivor
“Scott Myers is a canny and thoughtful teacher of the craft of screenwriting, and brings all of his impressive knowledge, insight and experience to The Protagonist’s Journey: this book is full of essential lessons for the novice, and crucial reminders for the professional.”
— Javier Grillo-Marxuach, Writer/Producer, Lost, The Dark Crystal, The Middleman
“Scott Myers is a gift to screenwriters everywhere. Brilliant and energizing, The Protagonist’s Journey is a new bible for writers to take their awesome movie idea and evolve it into a living breathing screenplay. I absolutely loved this book and will be using it as an essential tool for making my next script the best it can be.”
— Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith, Legally Blonde, 10 Things I Hate About You, Trinkets
“What a resource this book is! I’m envious of the lucky writer who’s just starting out, with this book on their nightstand.”
— Robin Swicord, Little Women, Matilda, Memoirs of a Geisha, When They See Us
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For other interviews I have done in 2021:
Industry Wisdom Bits video podcast
If you have a podcast about movies, television, writing, or creativity, and have an interest in character-driven storytelling, feel free to reach out to me as I am in full-on “evangelical” mode in promoting my book.
It’s a good read… and I honestly believe it to be an important contribution to the conversation about screenwriting and storytelling.