Interview: Terrance Mulloy — Part 1

For the next week or so, I turn attention to screenwriters, TV writers, and filmmakers who are on the front edge of making their mark in the business. Their insights, so recently on the outside looking in, reflect the excitement of breaking in, yet the challenges of attempting to carve out a career. Today: screenwriter Terrance Mulloy.

Terrance Mulloy is an up and coming Australian screenwriter based in Brisbane, who is becoming increasingly known around the industry for his action writing chops. His first spec sale, Priority Run, was acquired late last year by Arclight Films and is currently prepping.

I managed to pull Terrance aside from his busy schedule to ask him some questions about how he managed to break into Hollywood without actually being there.

In Part 1, Terrance talks about his background as a writer and how he practices the craft:

Scott: Where did you grow up and how did you find your way into writing as an interest?

Terrance: I had a pretty normal childhood growing up in Australia. I spent the early years of my youth in the Sydney suburb of Bondi, and when you live that close to a beach, you either rode a skateboard or surfed for fun, which I blissfully did for many years. But I’ve always loved movies from as far back as I can remember. That love can also be attributed to my mom, who is a huge film buff herself, particularly with the golden age of Hollywood. She’s a bit of a historian of that era as well, so I was exposed to movies from a very early age. We had a cinema not too far from where we lived, and she’d take me to watch something almost every Saturday morning.

I also had this English teacher in high school who held a creative writing class one day a week. The idea was that you got one hour to write anything you liked. The only rule was that it had to be fiction. I remember it being my favorite part of the week and used to submit these little sci-fi and horror stories which I’d always get top marks for, even though they were most likely terrible. I had no idea what I was doing, but I always enjoyed the process of creating these stories and characters.

Scott: What are some of the most important or memorable movies from your youth?

Terrance: Way too many to mention. Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Die Hard, Back to the Future, The Terminator, The Thing, Jurassic Park, Lethal Weapon, Aliens, etc. I was lucky to see all those great movies in the cinema as a kid, so that’s where my love for genre comes from. In many ways they continue to inspire my writing to this day.

Scott: What about your educational background? Any writing or film classes there? How did you go about learning the craft?

Terrance: I studied ‘creative writing’ for a short time in college. It was tacked on as an elective subject to a visual design and 3D animation diploma I was completing here in Brisbane. But apart from that I’ve never taken a screenwriting course in my life. After graduating I bounced around in a variety of creative fields, such as graphic design, marketing, advertising. I nearly became a video game developer at one stage, so despite my interest in film, it was a while before I caught the screenwriting bug.

Starting out I read all the books you get told to read, and couldn’t make sense out of most of them. There were a couple that I found useful, but ultimately I figured the best way for me to digest the intricacies of screenwriting was to simply read as many scripts as I could, while watching as many movies as I could. I also think the best way to learn the craft is to just sit down and start writing. For me it was really that simple. Of course, for a long time I did struggle with all the so-called rules, but after a while I began to pick up on the subtleties and rhythms of storytelling. You also begin to develop that inner bullshit detector, which I think is probably one of the most vital tools a new writer can harness, because until you’re at least aware of it, it’s almost guaranteed you’re going to write 110 pages of garbage.

Scott: What about your writing processes? Do you have a daily routine?

Terrance: I have friends outside of the industry who think screenwriting is this glamorous lifestyle, and every time I hear that I burst out laughing. I tell them it’s just like any other job. You get up each morning and you go to work. The bulk of our days are sitting down for long periods of time, staring at computer screens. The only real difference is I get to do it at home sitting in my boxers, and I can take longer lunches.

So yeah, to answer your question, I do have a daily routine. I try to keep weekends free, but every other morning I get up and usually spend the first few hours catching up on news and emails while I wait for my caffeine fix to kick in. Then I write until lunch. I’ll usually try and eat out somewhere for lunch, and then come home and finish off around 6–7pm. If I’m pushing to meet a deadline I may keep writing until the early hours of the morning, although I try to avoid that because I find it takes too long for my brain to shut down. One thing I hate is going to bed worrying about plot. That stuff can keep you up all night, and I can’t write very well on little to no sleep.

Scott: Do you spend much time outlining or writing treatments?

Terrance: Yes and no. I don’t use cards, I scribble stuff down in a notebook. It’s usually a chaotic mess, containing snippets of dialogue, character names, various locations, thematic questions, possible set-pieces, anything that pops into my mind. I’ll usually sleep with my little notebook next to me because I’m always paranoid I’ll get a great idea in those moments before sleep, and then forget what it was the next day.

If I can see the first act, or the ending, or the middle, I’ll try and work around that, but I don’t spend a great deal of time outlining. All depends on the story of course, but it’s usually a week or two before I dive in. Before I begin anything, I have what I call the ‘absorption phase’ which is basically a week of me just staring at walls, thinking about what the story is, what the themes are, and who the character’s are.

Once I start writing I’m also one of those ‘outline as you go’ guys because I like to keep things free for exploration and discovery — especially during the first draft. When I have a general idea of what the movie actually is, I’ll write out the skeletal beats of each act. Sometimes I will also draw a rough story map or timeline to accompany me as a guide. Subsequent drafts will have me focus a lot more on structure, but as long as I have a general road map of where I’m headed, I’m good to go. I have a few screenwriting friends who approach outlining like they’re formulating a mathematical equation, and that’s just not me. I like to keep things malleable, despite the uncertainty of not knowing what the entire story is yet.

All that said, I’ve written dozens of treatments, the majority of which have been for producers. I’m not a fan of them, but they can be very useful, and some execs won’t move forward on a project until the treatment is nailed. So unfortunately they are a necessary evil. It’s just one of those things you have to suck up and learn to love.

Scott: So do you ever find an excuse not to write?

Terrance: Oh, every single day. Writing is bloody hard. Sometimes it requires great determination and willpower just to sit down and begin typing. But if I don’t, I start to feel guilty. So sooner or later, I have to write. I really don’t have any choice.

Scott: What do you love most about writing?

Terrance: I love hitting upon those ‘Ah, ha!’ moments when something just clicks and you feel like a literary genius. That euphoria usually doesn’t last very long, but it’s great while it does. I also love typing fade out for the very first time. There’s an incredible sense of achievement when finishing a script that I’m sure every writer feels.

Tomorrow in Part 2, Terrance discusses his spec script “Priority Run” which sold to Arclight Films.

Terrance is repped by UTA and BenderSpink.

Twitter: @TerranceMulloy.