Interview (Part 6): Lori Evans Taylor

In July, Lori Evans Taylor sold the spec script “Bed Rest” to MGM. Deadline reported it this way:

Spec is a Hitchcockian thriller in the vein of Rear Window and What Lies Beneath, centering on a pregnant woman who is isolated and confined to bed rest.

I reached out to friend of the blog Chris Sparling, whose screenwriting credits include Buried, ATM, The Sea of Trees, and The Atticus Institute which he also directed. Chris is adding the role of producer to his credits with “Bed Rest”. He got me in touch with Lori and we ended up having a great one-hour conversation.

Today in Part 6, Lori shares some advice for aspiring screenwriters trying to break into the business:

Scott: So you finish a first draft and you’re faced with rewriting. How do you go about that process?

Lori: I don’t mind rewriting, to be quite honest. Whenever I get into a project, I want to make sure it’s going to be the strongest version of that project.

And the fact is, rewriting is one of the most important steps in the process. Very few projects go out exactly how they began. You just have to embrace the rewriting process and learn to put your ego aside and look at a script objectively and be open to other people’s notes.

Not all notes are great notes, but a lot of them are very, very good, and if you can just step back and see somebody else’s point of view, it will most likely help your project get to a new level. And learning how to incorporate notes also helps you navigate the development process.

I’m fortunate because my husband’s a talented screenwriter. We pass our work back and forth. I can show him something and say, “Here you go. What do you think?” We’re honest with each other. Brutally honest, at times.

It’s nice to have that first set of eyes. Then I know I’m on the right track before showing anyone else.

Scott: What’s your actual writing process? Do you write every day, or do you go sporadic bursts? Do you work in private or coffee shops? Do you listen to music? Do you need to have a quiet…? How do you write?

Lori: I’m a nine-to-fiver. I have an office. It’s a detached office, off of our garage. I have a dedicated space to work that is separate from my house. Every single day, I come out here and I work. Then at night I go in and hang with my family. Certainly sometimes I have to work at night or on the weekends, but I find that I’m more productive if I put myself on a very specific schedule.

I also find that music is really inspirational. When I start a project I usually form a playlist with songs that get me in the mood for the project, that inspire me.

Scott: Here’s a question I like to ask. It’s a fun question. What’s your single best excuse not to write?

Lori: Oh. Single best excuse.

Scott: What’s your default excuse, like, “I don’t want to write today”?

Lori: What would that be? Sadly, you know what? I don’t really have one. Having two kids, I don’t have time for excuses. I find that I’m the best mother I can be when I have a creative outlet. Knowing that my nine-to-five time is just about me and getting those creative ya-yas out, I don’t look for an excuse.

I look forward to going out to my office, and even if it’s brainstorming, even if I don’t write one single word in Final Draft, it’s OK, as long as I’m at least creating something.

Scott: How about this? This is the opposite question. What do you love most about writing?

Lori: There’s something voyeuristic about it. I love the idea of stepping into another world and another person’s experience.

Also, just knowing that something I write could end up on the big screen, or the small screen, is inspiring. Movies were so important to me when I was a kid, so the idea that I could write something that influences someone else, someone else’s Jaws, that keeps me going.

Scott: You mentioned that you have done work in TV. Five, ten years down the road, are you doing TV, movies, both?

Lori: I like the option of bouncing back and forth. Because of my life and having a family, I love the idea of working in features so I can work out of my home office and be independent. But I also do miss being in a room with writers. I love the camaraderie of the writers’ room in television. I’d certainly like to go back to that, at some point. But, ultimately, taking of advantage of this momentum on the feature side is my first priority.

Scott: Then, one last question for you, one I’m sure you’ll probably be getting more and more, here. What advice can you offer to aspiring screenwriters and TV writers about learning the craft or breaking into Hollywood?

Lori: A few things. I would say, first of all, read as much as you can and write as much as you can. As far as reading scripts, read the good ones and the bad ones. Like I said earlier, the more you can digest and learn about structure and what makes a script work and not work, those are really important skills to have, as a writer. That’s the foundation.

Then, I’d also say help other people out. Build good karma. A lot of times, your friends will come up and ask, “Would you read my script and give me notes?” It’s easy to find an excuse not to do it. But I would always urge writers absolutely do it. You may read it and give that person some really good notes that end up getting that movie sold. Or maybe you like it and pass it on to a producer who wants to do it, and suddenly you’re a producer on the project as well. At the very least, you’re keeping your critical skills sharp and you’re building a reciprocal relationship, which is important because you never know when you’ll have to go back to the same person and ask for notes yourself.

So writers really should support each other. And I find the more that you help other people, the more opportunities present themselves to you, as well.

The last thing would be to try to create fans for yourself. That’s really important in Hollywood. I worked for a manager named Jay Bernstein. He was one of the very first managers in the business. He represented Susan Summers, and Farrah Fawcett. One of the things he said was that…having someone say one nice thing about you is worth you saying 100 nice things about yourself.

You can go out, and ask people, “Hey, read my script,” but if you have somebody who’s a fan of yours, and who champions you, if that person sends it to one other person, it’s probably going to get read.

That’s what this business is about, doing good work, and ultimately if you do good work, you’re going to develop fans. And building those relationships will eventually help you get to a place where you can, hopefully, get movies made. That’s my advice.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Part 5, here.

Lori is repped by ICM Partners and Kaplan/Perrone.