What made me decide to become a screenwriter? Tarantino’s Kill Bill. 

 

FADE IN

INT. DUTCH BEDROOM – DAY

MACK, a six-foot-one woman in her mid-thirties, climbs into her bed holding her laptop. She gets comfy and opens the laptop’s lid.

WINDOWS STARTUP TUNE

The laptop’s light blinds her.

MACK
Aah!

Squinting she guides her cursor to the Google search bar and types :

Quentin Tarantino.

A list of links appears on the screen. She scrolls down to :

https://wiki.tarantino.info/index.php/Quentin_Tarantino%27s_Trademarks

CLICK

Engrossed, she reads about how the famous director, producer, and screenwriter used “a list” of trademarks when he wrote his first five screenplays. 

MACK
Now I get why his Inglorious Basterds was so different from his previous movies!
He stopped using his list!

She ponders, biting her lower lip.

MACK
I wonder what it is like to write a movie using his list…

Her eyes start to twinkle.

MACK
Let’s find out.

She smiles as she starts typing again. 

FADE OUT.

And FADE INTO MACK.

 

The script The Dutch Lion, was the first script I wrote after this bit of Tarantino inspired moment.

This took me years and years to make because I had no idea what I was doing. I had to study a lot of screenwriting books like Save the Cat and endlessly surf the net to figure everything out. Finding the online Stage 32 community was a big help. It gave me a place to connect with like-minded people, which is very valuable as it is lonely being a writer. And seeing other people struggling with the same dream made me carry on, knowing I wasn’t the only one.