FRANCES McCOY
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Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
 Recently moved to Belfast, Maine after living in Phoenix, Arizona for the past 17 years.
 
Your script stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your story and why did you write a script instead of a short story or a novel?
One of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had was working with Special Olympics and Adaptive Programs. I used to be one of those crazed coaches on the sidelines, every kid’s nightmare. That is, until Special Olympics helped tame my competitive nature. Working with such amazing athletes, I learned more about teamwork, resilience, and sportsmanship than all the years I competed in sports.  “Let me be brave in the attempt”, part of the Special Olympics Athletes’ oath, serves as inspiration for Maddie and Zina.
I have already written a novel, it’s a LGBTQ+ young adult romance book called, A Scent of Lilac. I attended a writer’s conference and was advised if we were interested in making money as a writer, to write a story that could be turned into a movie. I took a couple college screenwriting courses and absolutely fell in love with the format of screenwriting. I found having industry standards helped me to focus on the story I really wanted to tell in as short of time as possible.
 
How long did it take you to write your script...and what is your writing process? Do you outline...use index cards...white board...or just start with FADE IN?
It took 2 years to create the winning version of my script. I originally wrote Maddie and Zina as a movie in 3 weeks but wasn’t satisfied with the storyline, so I started from scratch and changed the format.
My writing process is a little unique. When I come up with an idea, I will journal a 2-3 page story with the characters, scenes, and situations I picture. Then I take the story and use a beat sheet template to lay everything out in a more detailed format. My template includes creating a logline, using a Pixar type format to create the bones of the story (starts once upon a time and ends with until finally), then I flesh out the main characters and finally put it together in “A, B, C Stories.” Finally I will outline the three to five acts, depending if I’m writing a movie or television show.
 
What is your ultimate ambition as a writer?
My ultimate ambition is to become a great storyteller of the dreams of humanity. I would like to hone my writing skills enough that I can tell stories in several different genres.
 
Which film or television writers inspire you? Why?
I find inspiration from Shonda Rhimes, Tina Fey, and Jenji Kohan. These are three of the greatest storytellers to me because they really understand their characters and are not afraid to show all sides of those characters. They do it in authentic ways and often use humor to get in original ways.
 
What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show?
My favorite movie is “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” and my favorite television show is “Bones”.
I like Divine Secrets because it has some great comical lines, but also had an idea that I thought about for months after seeing it in the movie theaters. What hopes and dreams did my parents have that I never knew about because life took them in a different direction?
I like Bones because of the strong female leads. Even though Brennan struggled with her emotions, she never doubted her intellect and never downplayed it to make others feel comfortable. Camille understood how to get a bunch of geniuses working together and created their own little weird family. My favorite episodes were the ones with Carolyn Julian and her acerbic wit.
 
What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have?
Be persistent. Research the contests you want to enter. Spend the money to get your script professionally. The most important thing for me was to have friends read your script before you submit it. I found a lot of times their comments were spot on with issues of my scripts.
 
What else are you working on that the world needs to know about?
I am working on developing a movie about a teenage girl who wants to honor her dead Grandfather’s dream of her going to Stanford but must decide between her dream and paying off her mother’s gambling debts.
I am also working on my second television series called, “My Next Girlfriend Will Be Normal.” It is about the crazy people a lesbian and her male business partner date, based on a bet they made for a bucket list trip to Greece. While trying to win the bet, along the way either one might just meet “Miss Right” instead of “Miss Right Now”.
I have a couple more movie ideas I’m revising and I’m thinking about writing my second novel.
 

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