Interview (Part 5): Anthony Grieco (2015 Nicholl Winner)

Anthony Grieco wrote the original screenplay “Best Sellers” which won a 2015 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently Anthony and I had an excellent phone conversation in which we covered a lot of territory, his background and how he got into writing, a deep analysis of “Best Sellers”, and a discussion about the writing craft.

Today in Part 5, Anthony answers some questions about the craft of writing:

Scott: Let’s jump to some craft questions. How do you come up with story ideas?

Anthony: Again, I default to writing cliches. I see things and go “what if?” I have a bunch of what ifs in a note book. The next question I ask is, “Can I spend six months to a year with that “what if”?

Is there a theme that I feel is worth exploring, and can I create memorable characters that will guide me on that journey? Am I interested in hanging out with them for this amount of time?

I may come up with a lot of interesting story ideas over time, but if I don’t feel like living in that space right now, they fall by the wayside. Because you change not only as a writer, but first and foremost as a person. What you might have wanted to explore five years ago may not be the case today.

There’s also this internal antenna that goes up and goes, “I feel like that’s relevant and might be relevant for years to come.” Is it grounded in a question that has an all-encompassing human universal theme? I try to tap into making sure that they are rooted in very basic human emotions. It could be something that I’m personally exploring. Ultimately, what I find interesting about writing itself is that it’s you are your own therapist. Like I mentioned with Lucy and her relationship with her father.

I guess I’m looking for stories that tap into something I would like to explore about the world and my place in it. It must reflect that attitude.

And finally, you ask yourself, would you want to watch this?

I often encounter young writers who are trying to serve the marketplace. I’ve gone down that road a couple of times, and you just end up with a voiceless material that doesn’t resonate with anyone and a lot of wasted time.

Again, if it’s not the first thing you’re thinking about when you wake up in the morning you’re probably writing the wrong idea.

Best Sellers is very much where I live as a person who enjoys movies.

Scott: How do you go about prep writing? What aspects do you tend to focus on most?

Anthony: I focus and start with theme. I create a thesis statement. Let me give you a simple example. Say I’m going to write a rom-com and I’m going to set out to prove that true love conquers all. That’s my thesis statement.

Now I’m going to begin creating a character who doesn’t believe that. That leads me to their armor and/or flaw. Their armor might be, “No, money conquers all.” I start thinking to myself, “Why does this guy think that way? What happened to him before this movie started that has created this device, this armor that I have to poke holes in?”

This ultimately starts to send me down that road of plot, which is like, what jungle gym do I have to create? That when I begin to explore my secondary character, who I call my B story character.

Because that’s a character my hero needs to accomplish his external goal but is primarily there to inform the internal transformation that will help him achieve that external goal. It’s kind of like, “If you had a little bit more of my attitude in you, and I had a little bit more of your attitude in me, then we might solve this problem.”

Scott: You talk about characters. How do you go about developing them?

Anthony: Again, I pit them against my theme. From there I begin to formulate the virtues and flaws that will best serve the transformation that will either prove or disprove that very theme.

Within the first few page I show my lead character in their “ordinary world.” I show them at home, at work, and at play.

That doesn’t mean it’s three scenes. It could be 20 scenes, it could be 10 scenes but I try to fit them into that ordinary world sequence. I say, “OK, what is it about the armor they wear that makes this a second-choice life?”

Work isn’t working, home isn’t working, and play isn’t working because of their belief system, which is the opposite of what I’m trying to prove with the story. Then I start seeing things take shape. What job would a person like this gravitate toward? What kind of parents possibly nurture a child like this, etc. What caused this armor to form?

These things start coming to me and I write it all out on a legal pad. Once I’m done with creating a rough sketch of characters, I start outlining, again on a legal pad.

I know what neighborhoods I need to be in with regards to traditional story structure, but it’s basically this long-hand version of what should happen next. A glorified beat sheet, really.

I once had the pleasure of meeting Steve Zaillian a couple of years back. I couldn’t help but geek out and I asked him about his outlining process.

He said something very interesting. About halfway through writing most scripts, the outline goes out the window because the characters take over. Although the outline still informs you, it doesn’t replace what should ultimately become organic storytelling.

The script should start telling you what it wants. At some point, when you get to the second and third draft, it’s this organism that’s trying to push out all the infection.

I tend to overdo my outline as I know it’s for a first draft. A lot of it isn’t likely to survive, but I know it will inform the story in many ways. When I’m comfortable with a general outline, I start writing scenes. My ambition now is to make the first draft I write on par with the fifth draft I was writing two years ago.

Tomorrow in Part 6, Anthony offers some advice to aspiring screenwriters.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Anthony is repped by Paradigm and Aperture Entertainment.

Twitter: @SwimCharlieSwim.