MAGGIE TSAVARIS
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MAGGIE TSAVARIS

Could you tell us about your journey into screenwriting? What inspired you to pursue this career?
I had a terrific legal writing professor during my first year of law school who taught me how to write powerful legal arguments. As a lawyer advocating for my clients, I passionately wove their facts into compelling stories that convinced judges and juries to find in their favor. But as a screenwriter—even when writing a screenplay inspired by a true story—I love the creative freedom of being able to play with the facts and add new facts and characters that tell an even better story for the best cinematic experience.

When approaching a new screenplay, how do you organize your ideas before diving into the actual writing? Do you start with a detailed outline, or do you prefer to let the story unfold as you go?
I did start The Linguist with a detailed outline, but the outline changed as I wrote when the story and the characters took off in better directions. I won’t fight my characters because they usually know best.

How do you handle writers block or moments of doubt during your creative process?
When I had moments of doubt and seriously contemplated giving up on “The Linguist” many times, I hung onto the words of the massively handsome Dwight Howard who, when he won his NBA championship said, in an emotionally charged voice, “Never give up on yourself.” And deep down, I just knew I had a story that needed to be told, and I was the one to tell it. As to writer’s block: my happy place is being at sea, around people, on the way to a different country. (For over a decade, I worked on ships and yachts that traversed the planet.) I knew for this particular screenplay that I needed five days at sea to get Act One underway, so I booked a transatlantic cruise. The crossing was beautiful, and as the flight home from Amsterdam touched down in Houston, I happily typed the last word of the first draft of Act One. That was last May, ten months before the script was finally ready to submit to this competition. I also write well in between student sessions in my hospital gown (I work as a standardized patient at a medical school here) where I’m surrounded by people (also in their hospital gowns).

What tools or software do you find essential to your workflow as a screenwriter?
A decent supply of ink for my printer because, as I learned in my law practice and always taught my legal writing students, the human eye overlooks things on the computer screen that it will catch on the hard copy. I also use different colors of gel pens to write notes on the printed drafts. When I need to concentrate especially closely on a tricky section of a script, I put on Jason Stephenson instrumental music for relaxation and focus. Screenwriting often requires a deep understanding of character.

​How do you develop characters that feel authentic and relatable?
I think of people I’ve spent time with and worked with around the world and simply borrow an attribute or two from them. My son is often represented in my screenplays. And a dog with a purpose generally wanders into the story.

What advice would you give to aspiring screenwriters trying to break into the industry today?
Be resilient. View rejection as an opportunity to get better. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed—you only fail when you give up trying. Enjoy the process of becoming the writer you’re meant to be and stay hydrated.

What do you hope audiences take away from your work? Are there particular emotions or messages you aim to evoke through your storytelling?
Sometimes life throws us horrible curveballs, but we are each so much stronger than we could ever know and can overcome ANYTHING.

You’ve written both feature-length scripts and TV pilots. How does your writing process differ between the two formats, and do you prefer one over the other?
I would love to see The Linguist as a TV series because in a tv series, you get to further develop your characters and their stories and arcs over time, and the viewers come to care about what happens to them and look forward to cozying up with them again in future episodes, and if the writing is really good, in future seasons. On the other hand, movies tell a whole story in a
concise amount of time and the mission is accomplished when viewers have the emotional experience they came for, and at least one character stays in viewers’ thoughts for a time after the movie ends.

What are your thoughts on diversity in Hollywood, particularly in screenwriting? How important is it to you to see more diverse voices and stories on screen?
The world is diverse. That’s the beauty of this planet. My favorite thing about the time I spend traveling the world and working at sea is the people I’ve met. I am most drawn to movies and tv series with characters that reflect the planet’s gorgeous diversity. My characters, I hope, reflect those diverse voices and stories. I love watching tv shows and movies from other countries in
other languages (with English subtitles) with the nuances of communication and cultural differences beyond America’s borders.

How do you keep growing and improving as a writer? Are there specific habits, workshops, or feedback processes you follow to sharpen your skills?
Feedback is priceless. As I’ve always reminded my legal writing students, two heads are better than one. Writing a screenplay can be lonely work, so presenting my work in competitions, along with receiving feedback from a few trusted friends, allows me to feel connected and receive an objective look at my work from someone outside my own head. But you must feel free to choose not to incorporate notes that lead your story astray. And watching highly regarded movies and tv series helps me to keep sharpening my dialogue skills, which is perhaps my biggest challenge.

Where do you see yourself in five years as a screenwriter? Are there any dream projects or genres you’d love to explore?
My dream is to be on set with Guy Ritchie (“The Covenant”) who, two years from now, directs “The Linguist” and five years from now, directs my upcoming project, and the following week, to be meeting with Daniel Syrkin, who directed the excellent Israeli spy thriller tv series, “Tehran,” because he wants to direct my thriller tv series. Oh, holy cow, that was a super fun sentence to write! The Linguist was a dream project for me, perhaps in part, because it was inspired by a true story. This woman’s story fascinated me. And it took place in the Middle East, an area of the world that I have always felt drawn to and in which I feel at home. I have so many dream projects in mind that I feel like a kid in a candy store. I’m sticking with the thriller genre in the Middle East for my next one. I wrote two rather clumsy screenplays before The Linguist that have good bones and won some accolades, bits of which will fit nicely into my next project. And I’ve also been toying with the idea of writing a historical thriller
loosely inspired by my years in the fishing industry in the Bering Sea in the late 70s – early 80s when we thought the bounty of fish in the sea would exist forever.

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