Interview: Geoff LaTulippe (2008 Black List)

One of the best ways to learn the craft is read what professional screenwriters have to say about it. To that end for the next few weeks, I will be featuring interviews I have conducted with Black List screenwriters.

Today: My May 2014 interview with Geoff LaTulippe. Writer of the 2010 romantic comedy Going the Distance, starring Drew Barrymore and Justin Long, Geoff also has a blog, is co-host (along with Scott Beggs) of the popular Broken Projector podcast, and is quite active on Twitter (@DrGMLaTulippe).

Geoff and I had a wide-ranging back and forth via email about his background, the development and production of Going the Distance, and the craft of screenwriting.

Here are links to the six installments of the entire interview.

Part 1: “As a writer you need confidence in your ability, and I’ve been lucky enough to have that in spades literally my entire life.”

Part 2: “I’ve said over and over and over and over again that aspiring screenwriters don’t need to spend money on books and contests and all that crap when it comes to their “education”. They just need to read a ton of scripts, figure out what works and what doesn’t, and then write and write and write. I am living proof of that.”

Part 3: “One of the questions I STILL ask myself when watching the movie is, “Are they REALLY in love, or are their feelings simply inflated by the circumstances?” Maybe it’s a little of both. I think that’s a good thing.”

Part 4: “I’ve always said and I hold to this day that I didn’t write a romantic comedy — I wrote a comedy with a romance at its core. That’s a VERY important distinction for me.”

Part 5: “I know how precious my favorite movies are to me, and that MY movie is ANYONE’S favorite movie is just an overwhelming concept for me.”

Part 6: “For God’s sake, ENJOY writing. If you’re not doing it in the first place because you love it, you’re never going to do it well.”

Geoff is repped by WME.