SHERRI Z HELLER

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What inspired you to write a script rather than a novel or short story?
I want this story to reach Baby Boomers and Gen Z young adults. They don’t read the same things, but they do watch the same movies and TV shows.  Also, people get the idea of dramedies, and this is a dramatic story with comic moments. Novels and short stories end up on comedy shelves or drama shelves.

Was there a specific film, TV show, or personal moment that first made you say, “I want to write like that”?
I already had a career in politics/government as a political appointee -- director of government health programs. I tried coping with it by being inspiring sometimes and funny at other times. I wanted to create something in between “West Wing” and “Veep”.
More recently, I’ve been impressed with how many people find “The Pitt” compelling.

What’s your writing routine like? Do you follow a strict schedule, or are you more intuitive about when and how you write?
I get obsessed and can’t think about anything else for awhile. I lie awake at night, “watching” the movie in my imagination. I write a first draft in a couple of long, intense days, put it away for a few days, then devote two or three hours a day for weeks going through and removing the fluff, ensuring that the characters don’t all sound like me, replacing adverbs with better verbs.

When you're starting a new script, how do you shape your ideas? Do you use outlines, beat sheets, or dive right into scenes? What inspires your scripts? Characters? Plot? Theme? Action?
I’m particularly attracted to stories that cross generational divides, that help older folks understand young people’s frustrations and help young adults learn from older people. I’m inspired when something happens in the world that’s dismissed as ‘obvious’ by one group, and I spend my imaginative energy thinking about how it looks to the other. Example: coming out as gay was traumatic/risky for one generation, seems like a no-brainer for another. Can they both be affected by the consequences of lying to protect your family? Example: One generation thinks it’s patriotic to do protest marches; another thinks it’s a waste of effort, ineffective. So I want to tell a story about the difference between having values and acting on them. I start with a few scenes because I see them in my imagination and hear the dialogue. After I have captured the characters’ voices in a few scenes and created the tone of the script, then I make a rough outline and start putting the scenes in order. I don’t divide beats until I have a rough draft about ¾ finished. More than once, I’ve finished the whole thing and find the ending unsatisfying, so I revise it.

How do you handle writer’s block or those inevitable moments of self-doubt?
Usually, I “watch” the movie and “hear” the dialogue in my imagination, just before I fall asleep, and the problem is resolved after several nights. I do belong to a writers’ group, so if I am really stuck or doubting that the piece is working, I take it to
colleagues for a table read. It helps to hear how the dialogue sounds as others read it. Oh, I would so love to be part of a real writers room.

What tools—software, methods, rituals—do you consider essential to your writing workflow?
I use Final Draft software. My preferred ritual is to run the movie in my imagination as I’m falling asleep every night. I really value the discipline of going through the script multiple times with a single focus every time. Example: Get rid of adverbs and use more visual verbs instead. Example: Reduce every character speech to no more than three lines. Example: Make each character introduction visual/behavioral (not backstory or body appearance). Example: Find a sound or visual cue that makes scene transitions smooth.

Do you write with production realities in mind, or do you let the creative vision lead first and adjust later?
I do write with production realities in mind. Example: The script I submitted for feedback from Santa Barbara Screenplay Awards judges takes place at a university teaching hospital/medical school. But the on-campus scenes take place in a professor’s office, in a cafeteria, in a small conference room. I can find the locations anywhere – no need for operating rooms, clinical exam tables, etc.

When a scene isn’t working, what’s your go-to strategy for fixing it? Rewrite, workshop,  walk away—or something else?
Rewrite. I give myself a deadline. Sometimes, I may have to walk away for a few days before rewriting, but I don’t turn my attention to another project. I search what I’ve already created, convinced that the key to unlock the problem is most likely already there, hiding in plain sight. I really disliked a scene in my last script that depended too much on luck or coincidence.
It took me a week to come up with the fix. I went back to some supporting characters who were there primarily for comic relief and brought them back into the story with actions that actually resolved the dramatic problem, using their personalities – not happenstance.
How many scripts have you completed? How many have you started and not completed (we all have those)...and why are they still unfinished?
Two completed, two unfinished. The unfinished ones are still too conceptual. I don’t hear the characters’ voices yet. They’re ideas, not people. I need to have flawed people that audiences root for, not themes and messages spoken by characters who are protagonists and antagonists.
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Have you earned recognition in this or other competitions? What’s your strategy when submitting your scripts, and how has contest feedback shaped your work?
My first short screenplay is now a short film that I directed and edited myself last year. The film did very well, winning prizes at festivals around the country and the world. It’s now available on Roku TV. (That contract was a prize for top honors at one festival.) The feedback from a Santa Barbara Screenplay Award judge was extremely valuable as I reshaped and revised my second short screenplay. I resubmitted it – twice. Interestingly, all three drafts earned ‘finalist’ awards in this year’s screenplay contest.
Surprising detail: The highest-value feedback wasn’t in problems identified and solutions proposed, though those were there. What I really found valuable was the recognition of subtle things I’d tried to do and explanations of why those worked. In the subsequent draft, I tried to do more of those things. Example: bits of business that revealed a character’s anxiety without articulating it. Example: sound cues that made a transition between scenes smoother.
My strategy for contest submissions keeps changing. Initially, I wanted the laurels, to take myself seriously as a writer and filmmaker. Then I wanted the worldwide acceptance, to know whether my story was compelling in different languages and across cultures. Next, I wanted useful feedback – not just the ‘coverage’ and points awarded 'feedback’ I was getting that showed no appreciation of the subtleties on which I’d worked so hard. Now, my strategy is to submit only to festivals so credible that winning can get me future assignments or funding for future projects.

Have you done anything at this point to promote yourself or your writing (besides entering online contests)? If so, how would you gauge the effectiveness of those efforts?
I’ve sent my pitch deck for a new project to some producers and actors who work on bigger-than-indie-shorts projects, but no productive responses so far. I’m networking with people I’ve met at film festivals and have picked up some producers and crew who want to be part of my next film. I’ve met with SAG officials about making my next film a SAG agreement project.

Have you pitched to producers or taken meetings yet? What have those experiences  taught you about the business side of screenwriting?
I have. What I’m learning is that the business is changing. At first, it seemed clear that I should look to non-profits for support, because investors don’t make money on short films. Now, that view appears to be changing. Since my first short is on Roku TV and on a movie website, and since I’ve been acting regularly in web series and comedy sketch series that are gaining YouTube followers, there does appear to be a market.

What do you see as your greatest strengths as a writer? Your greatest weaknesses?
I can write characters who are funny and charming – even the antagonists. I can create them no matter what the story or genre is. Because audiences find it easy to empathize with and root for them, I am getting engagement with stories and genres that people thought were not for them. My dialogue is snappy and attention- keeping, and my scenes speed up and slow down at a tempo that is sensible and not frustrating for the reader/viewer. Perhaps my greatest weakness is that I stay absorbed in my story until it’s worked out. Coaches tell me to have multiple scripts underway, so that I have an answer when producers ask “What else have you got?”, but I don’t go back and forth between projects easily.

How do you balance your writing with your “day job”?
I am a working actor. My talent agent sends me auditions regularly, but since I film most of them at home as self-tapes and can get to L.A. at a moment’s notice for in- person auditions, it’s pretty easy to find time to write every day. When I book a film, it’s usually a relatively short-term work commitment, and I write in hotels and on planes. I flew to Spain to film a commercial, and I got a lot of writing done on the plane

What message or emotional response do you hope audiences walk away with after experiencing your work?
I want them laughing in the theater and then changing their minds about which character was right on the way home. I want them surprised by how much they care about the experience of characters much older or much younger than they are.

What are you working on right now the world needs to know about?
Several contest judges (including the Santa Barbara Screenplay Awards judge) suggested that my short screenplay works as a short film but would also work as a pilot for a tv series. I have taken this advice to heart and am developing a show bible that maintains the characters and tone of my short screenplay but moves on to a compelling multi-episode series.
A colleague has written an award-winning tv series pilot about electoral politics in a state capital. He gave it to me for reality-testing, since my first career was as a political appointee at the state, Federal, and county level. Now that he knows I’m an award-winning screenplay writer, he’s invited me to write some episodes of that show, and I’m underway.

Where do you see yourself five years from now as a screenwriter—and how do you plan to get to that place?
I want to be part of a team writing compelling limited series for tv. Any genre. What I’d bring to the table is a flair for comedy that enables viewers to empathize and engage with characters in a situation that doesn’t feel familiar. (Example: “Pluribus”) I’d also like to write a feature film that gets produced, to prove that I understand what investors and paying audiences want. Shorts may prove my voice, but I need the credibility of a feature. I don’t know how to get there. I’m starting with whoever reads these interviews!

What advice would you give to any aspiring writer hoping to follow in your footsteps?
Find out whose critiques of your work are so clear and specific that you can act on them, feeling exhilarated confidence that the guidance is bringing your stories to life. Show those folks your work, even if you have to pay for the critiques. But don’t pay attention to the many, many creeps posting on social media that they can give you rules and short-cuts to becoming a filmmaker.