“Useful Lessons I Learned From Having Screenwriters for Parents”

When I lived in L.A., my oldest son Will attended Wildwood School. Founded in 1971 as a kind of proto-hippie alternative school, among the Westside set Wildwood was known for having Type A parents in Type B clothes, both intense, yet laid back. While not as jam packed with entertainment industry types as other private schools, there were quite a few screenwriters’ progeny enrolled there including Zoe Kazan whose parents are Robin Swicord (Memoirs of a Geish, Matilda) and Nicholas Kazan (Reversal of Fortune, Bicentennial Man).

Zoe has gone to do quite well for herself as an actress on Broadway (“The Seagull”), TV (“Bored to Death”), and movies including Ruby Sparks which she not only starred in with her longtime boyfriend Paul Dano, but also wrote the screenplay. Of her interest in writing, Zoe has said:

I always wrote. My parents are writers. It just seemed like something people did. I took a writing class in college (Yale), liked it, and my first year out of school I couldn’t get a job, so I wrote a play. I never wanted to be a playwright. I just didn’t say no to any of my interests.

Zoe took to The List App, created by B.J. Novak and Dev Flaherty, to post a list of lessons she learned from conversations over the years, “observations from our dinner table”. Here is Zoe’s list:

• If you are self-employed, it is helpful to have a dedicated work space/hours, and to separate yourself from the phone.
• It is good to keep tea/snacks/water on hand, so you have fewer reasons to get up from your computer.
• If you are having a third act problem, you probably actually have a first act problem.
• If you are having a second act problem, you probably actually have a problem with your protagonist.
• The second act will be much easier to get through if you have an outline to rely on.
• Aristotle’s poetics is worth reading.
• You can work for twenty years on something and not get it made, so you better fucking celebrate along the way.
• You can work for twenty years on something, get it made, and hate the final product, so you better fucking enjoy the process.
• The notes executives/producers/directors give you may seem stupid. It is your job to look past their bad solution to the problem they are responding to — and come up with a better solution.
• Sometimes executives/producers/directors are just being stupid. Certain heartbreaks are worth it; others are simply not. Know when to walk away.
• The more you write, the better you will be at writing. Having a daily practice is ideal. Ergo, there are no real weekends.
• That said, it is important to have time to daydream. Everyone procrastinates. It’s a creative tool.
• Save your money so you don’t have to take a shitty job you hate just to pay the mortgage.
• That said, sometimes a job is just about paying the mortgage, and that’s okay too.

That’s a lot of good advice. Enjoy the process. Celebrate along the way. Read Aristotle’s “Poetics”. All good stuff.

You can go here to see another relevant list from Zoe: Guidelines for Giving Notes on Your Friends’ Screenplays.

Here is an interview with Zoe about her movie Ruby Sparks:

For Zoe’s List App page, go here.

Twitter: @zoeinthecities.

To learn more about The List App, go here.

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