Interview (Part 5): Geeta Malik (2016 Nicholl Winner)

My 6-part chat with the writer of the winning script “Dinner With Friends”.

Geeta Malik wrote the original screenplay “Dinner With Friends” which won a 2016 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently I had the opportunity to chat with Geeta about her background, her award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl has meant to her.

Today in Part 5, Geeta goes into detail about her Nicholl Fellowship experience including what she was doing when she received ‘the call’:

Scott: So, you start writing the script [“Dinner With Friends”] in 2010. Is that right?

Geeta: Around then, yes.

Scott: Then you had some kids and came back to it in 2012. How many years did you figure, over a period of time you weren’t writing it all the time, obviously but over a three, four year period of time, or something like that?

Geeta: I think, overall, it was a period of about five years, off and on. After we shot the feature, I did a few drafts, and then I had my kid. Then I shot the short film “Shameless.” There were some really big gaps between drafts. Months would go by without me being able to look at the script, which was hard, but it also allowed me to come back to the script with fresher eyes. And with more new experiences behind me. After my second child was born, then I made a concerted effort to write regularly on the script. From there, it took about a year and a half to finish it. I don’t even know how many drafts I’ve been through with the script. It’s changed a lot.

Scott: How were you getting feedback?

Geeta: I was in a couple of writer’s groups. Those people are still some of my closest friends, and many have seen, literally, every draft of this script. We still regularly exchange scripts for notes.

Scott: You submitted it to the Austin Film Festival and won?

Geeta: Yes! That was great.

Scott: The comedy award. Of course, you submitted it to the Nicholl. Was that the first time you submitted it to the Nicholl?

Geeta: No. I had submitted an earlier draft in 2014, and I was really excited because that year I had gotten to the top 10 percent of the Nicholl. I didn’t get any closer than that. I was like, “This is amazing!” I was so excited to get in the top 10 percent!

When you write, and as a filmmaker, a creative person, you just get so many rejections. It was such a relief to even get to that point — it gave me the motivation to keep revising and to keep trying.

Scott: Top 10 percent of the Nicholl was the universe’s way of giving you at least a little validation. But, winning the Nicholl like you did and getting the calls from everybody, that must have felt like a major form of validation.

Geeta: Oh, yeah. It just makes everything feel worthwhile. It made me feel that I was actually working towards something this whole time and not just sitting in front of my laptop with a project that would never see the light of day. It’s amazing validation, and an amazing feeling.

Scott: What were you doing when you got the call?

Geeta: They asked all of the finalists to be near a computer for a possible Skype call between certain hours on a certain day. So I knew that I was either going to get the call or not during that window of time.

I was sitting at my laptop, at home, just chewing my nails, sweating, hoping against hope that I’d get that call. I tried to distract myself, but it was beyond futile. They did a live feed on Facebook as they called the winners, and so I just decided to go all-in and watch that, and deal with the results, good or bad, in real time. I saw the first call go in to the first winner. And then I realized that my own phone was ringing.

Scott: What’s the status of the script? You’ve rewritten it. I’m assuming you want to direct it?

Geeta: Absolutely. It’s lived in my head for so long! I’m planning to direct it, and hopefully, get the production going sooner rather than later. I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but it’s getting closer every day.

Scott: Did you have representation before the Nicholl?

Geeta: No, not at all.

Scott: Do you have now?

Geeta: Yes! I’m repped by Paradigm and Luber/Roklin.

Scott: Have you done the whole bottled water tour?

Geeta: [laughs] I’ve done some of the meetings, yeah. I’ve also written a TV pilot, so I’m developing that, and I’m hoping to get some meetings off of that as well this year.

Scott: Is that a half-hour comedy?

Geeta: Yeah, it’s a half-hour dark comedy.

Scott: Single camera, I assume?

Geeta: Yep. Single camera.

Scott: Wow. Best of luck on both of those projects.

Geeta: Thank you!

Scott: Let’s jump into a few craft questions, if we could.

Geeta: Sure!

Scott: How do you come up with story ideas?

Geeta: That’s a good question. I read a ton. I try to watch everything possible. I’m often inspired by something I’ve heard in passing, or an issue that I’ve been mulling over. I often do my best writing when I’m emotional about something — especially if I’m angry about something! I used to sit down and pound out a poem it if I was really upset about something. It was just a way of getting my feelings down on paper, and I still occasionally do that. Anger is often the seed of what I write. Even Dinner with Friends comes from this anger at a suppressive society, and this feeling of needing to stand up for our convictions.

If I experience something, or I hear about something that seems unfair or unjust, then that really gets my head spinning. That’s where I start really start generating ideas for my writing.

Scott: If that’s the case, this should be a very rich, creative period of time for you, if you catch my drift.

Geeta: Oh, yes!

Scott: How about your prep writing process? Brainstorming, character development, plotting, research, outlining. Could you generally describe how you approach breaking a story?

Geeta: Well, especially since having the kids, I feel like I write very much by the seat of my pants! Before the kids, I could be a lot more meticulous about it, though I’ve never been a huge outliner. I do a sort of loose outline, with pieces of dialogue for certain scenes, and I use index cards every once in a while when I’m stuck on structure, but that’s often farther along in the process.

At the beginning, I’ll usually just sit down and write the story. I’ll write a treatment like a narrative, or like I’m telling a friend about it, and keep it casual and messy. And I’ll extrapolate individual scenes from there. After I have a first draft, which is always completely a mess because I just sort of vomit my stuff on the page, I’ll go back and revise again and again and again. The deeper parts of the story often come from that part of the process.

Tomorrow in Part 6, Geeta answers some craft questions and offers advice to writers attempting to break into the business.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Geeta is repped by Paradigm and Luber Roklin.