Here at Indy Mogul, we often get questions about Screen Writing, and how to get started writing. And while we're all writers, none of us have quite the same legitimacy to tell our viewers tips about Screen Writing as someone who has actually sold screenplays and is actively working in Hollywood.

So I was lucky enough to get our friend Dan Harmon to return to answer some of the most common questions and help give our viewers some tips about the Screen Writing process, and what it's like to be a writer. Here you go, and I hope all of the beginning writers out there find it as interesting as I did:

On the site, we get a lot of questions from burgeoning Writers. One of the most common is probably "How do I get started?" It can be tough for someone starting out to tackle a full 3 Act, 120 page story. I know that you started as a Writer for The Dead Alewives, then worked as a writer on Scud with Rob Schrab. When did you make the jump to Screenwriter, and was it tough to move to such a different medium?

I made the jump from comic books to screenwriting because Schrab's comic book got its film rights optioned. Schrab was a driven guy, but he didn't want to type, so he enlisted me and together, we found out we were really bad at writing screenplays.

But I felt something about screenwriting that I had never felt about any other job, which is that my love of doing it outweighed my shame of being bad at it. So no, it wasn't tough. It's always scary to have no confirmation from the outside world that you should be doing what you're doing. But obviously it's not scarier than working at a bank, or I would have done that instead.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Does it just come to you out of the ether or is it a source you can really pin down? Also do you think that creativity is something that a person is just born with, or is it something that must be developed like a muscle? How did you develop your skills?

I guess "the ether" is the best answer because any time I've "tried to come up with" an idea, it sucked. The great thing about writing with Schrab was that he's got a lot of ideas and totally gives a s**t about them, so being inspired was one less chore on my list, I just had to hope I was talented. Now I'm in the system, and people just come to me with ideas, so I'll never really need to be inspired by anything unless I'm making something for Channel 101. I just need to hope I'm talented and lucky. American Dad is a bad show and South Park is a good show, and it's not the idea that makes the difference, it's Trey Parker.

To answer the other question, I think creativity, like everything else, is 85% DNA, 10% environment/experience, 5% choice. I use my 5% to put myself in a variety of 10% in hopes I find something that comes natural to my 85%. And I guess that could be called "developing skills." I call it sliding my brain along the surface of society, looking for a comfortable spot. I don't really call it that, that would take too long. And, as you can see, I'm a huge fan of brevity.

From some of your commentary that I've read in the past, you've stated your belief in a lot of the Comparative Mythology work of Joseph Campbell. Do you think that his work is something that all Starting Writers should take to heart? Also, why do you think that these kind of arching themes and forms in stories throughout world history work so well?

Campbell said that there are observable characteristics that separate the things we call mythology from the things we call phone books. And he said that our recognition of mythology is instinctive, and uncontrollable, so I guess it's not necessary to read his stuff. What Campbell has helped me do is live a happy life, and even have a spiritual component to that life without sacrificing my intellect, identity or logic. Campbell has helped me talk to other writers about how easy our job can be. All you really need to do to write well, I'm assuming, never having done it to my satisfaction, is stop fear and ego from blocking the path of this thing that's moving through you. Why is it moving through us, that's your other question: I think that as highly evolved organisms, our DNA is the result of a long chain of changes. We don't recognize "nothing happened" as a story because every fiber of our being is a catalog of successful adventures, and there's not a single cautionary tale in the whole library because dead genes tell no tales.

In human mythology, there's often temptation to be stagnant, and even reward for it, but in the end, what our stories tell us is that fighting change is fighting life. Villains are men who want things to stay the same, they are enemies of nature. Heroes surrender to change and become bringers of change. They defeat Gods by respecting them, they win by losing. It's a football play that has scored nothing but touchdowns for five billion years and counting, so it's in our blood. Truly, it predates blood. Every atom in our body goes back to some event 13.7 billion years ago, some change, before which there was no change. The universe, which is us, is a message, a thought, a story. Once upon a time, something happened, and it was better than something not happening. The end.


A lot of writers start out with the Characters first, and build the story around them, or the Setting first, or even start with a central theme or moral in their story, with the story kind of just converging onto that moral or central theme. What do you find works the best for you, Do you come up with a central Character first, or just a general concept? Do you start out differently with each story?

First, there's this dumb thing called an "idea." For me, if it's a project that's going to end up on paper, it's because someone else is invested. My "ideas" are content to be conversations over a beer, but when Schrab, or a studio or a network or a celebrity has an idea, ho boy, it's writin' time! They have a newspaper article about a kitten that saved a family from a fire or they think a western about a werewolf would be really cool or they own the rights to Mister Potato Head...so, the idea becomes a Rubik's cube, it's handed to me and I want to solve it. I think very geometrically and systematically about "breaking" the story. First, I catalog the cave paintings- what are the defining images of this idea, what's for sale, what's on the list of things we "want" or "need" to see. I draw a circle in my head and I move the defining images around the circle, observing the movie that unfolds. If I'm writing a movie about a werewolf, there's a very obvious defining image, the image of the guy turning into a werewolf.

If I place that image at the 3 o clock position, I'm telling a pretty standard structured story about a regular guy who then enters the unknown situation of being a werewolf, and he has to adapt to it, etc. That is a completely different movie than if I put the image at the top of the circle, in which case my movie is about a werewolf that enters a situation new to werewolves. I call that "Schrabifying" an idea because you let the baby inside you say "why couldn't we just start with the cool stuff?" If we fade in on a werewolf, then we can spend our first 25 minutes having fun with a werewolf, and THEN, martians attack the earth, and the werewolf has to protect his human cattle. I'd rather see that movie, I'd rather write it, etc. So right there, something clicks, and I cement that defining image at the top of my circle and now that's going to help me figure out what comes where on the rest of the circle. By the way, just for giggles, move the defining image to the bottom of the circle, halfway through the movie, and we have the structure of the hulk movie they actually released. This is why I think about structure first, because I'm too lazy to write an entire movie just to find out I should have made a different five second decision on page 1. If there's 8 ways to structure a hulk movie, I'd rather run through them in my head than write 8 screenplays. That's what a "hack" does, he hacks away until he hits a bullseye on accident. Hard work pays off, ask Dane Cook. Then ask yourself if you want to be Dane Cook.


How did you first get your work noticed? What would be your advice to Writers who are worried that they won't be able to get their script read or made? Also, what is probably the biggest mistake that beginners make their first time writing or submitting something?

I piggybacked on Schrab to L.A., and I bought Syd Field's Screenwriter's Workbook, and Final Draft software, and Schrab and I wrote a spec script and we gave it to everyone we could think might be able to help us, which was like three people. And one of the people gave it to an agent, and we either got very lucky or our script was very good, you pick the combination of those possibilities that makes sense to you. I guess I don't have any advice for writers who are worried that they won't get their script read, because odds are, it won't get read.

If that worry is more powerful than your need to write, then you're not going to write and that's a good thing because your worry would be stinking up your script. I do have some major time saving advice for writers that aren't too worried to write: When you're in that basic training phase, when you're writing your first script, and you just need to know it's possible to finish one, don't start with a project that's important. Don't even start with a script you plan on letting someone read. You don't learn to fly in a real airplane and you shouldn't learn to write by trying to turn your passion into a 110 page script. Create a fake project, something you know nobody will ever read. Take that fake idea to Syd Field's Screenwriter's workbook and just do everything that old coot tells you to do. It won't work unless you're honest about the project being worthless, because then you'll want to get through it, your learning won't be impeded by your integrity. The most important thing is to write an entire script. Then you can spend the rest of your life trying to write a good one, and believe me, you'll never do it, but at least you'll die a writer.


I know that you've written several scripts, and worked on several TV projects, and like all Professional Writers you've had to deal with what seems like a lot of "suggestions", and had to endure your work being re-written, and had some projects sit on the shelf for years before they were finally made. How do you deal with your work being changed so much in the System, and what would your advice be to other Writers who may one day have to deal with the same issue?

If I decide to flip a coin, and I decide that if it's heads, I'm going to eat a turd, it's not the coin's fault. The more realistic we are about what we actually control, the better job we'll do within our zone of control and the wider our zone of control will get. If I'm writing a movie for a studio, I know that once I finish the script, it's out of my hands. If I'm writing a TV show, even if I'm going to also produce it, there's a hundred hands on the Ouija board and the result is going to be so different from the intention that expecting otherwise is just like eating a turd on the flip of a coin. A lot of times- MOST of the time, in features, the result is that the movie is never made. You're lucky when they make it badly. The solution is: enjoy the f**k out of writing it. Hold that script in your hands, read it, kiss it, deliver it, and go have a drink with your friends.

I recently found out that Spielberg still gets notes, and still can't singlehandedly greenlight a film. Dreamworks can say no to him. Now, Spielberg could probably say to Dreamworks, "My next movie is going to have a budget of 5 million dollars. I'm not showing anyone the script and I will have final cut. It will be rated NC-17 if I so desire. The working title is, "Go F**k Yourself, by Steven-F**king-Spielberg." If the board of directors says no, he can pull out of Dreamworks and shoot that movie using the checks on his living room coffee table. So we know that Spielberg likes things pretty much the way they are. He's making the movies he wants to make, and because those movies cost 150 million dollars and star Tom Cruise, and because they have global distribution and he gets a cut of the back end, he gives up a certain amount of control, who really knows how much. What we do know is that it's just enough, and when that changes, he'll change his situation, using what he controls. So, I'm saying, be a little Spielberg, because that's how big Spielberg got his start. Stay in the corner you control and demonstrate the positive results of your control by making that corner awesome. Your corner will get bigger that way.


How do you deal with the isolation that is required to finish something? You've said in the past that you can't talk a project out or you'll lose your steam to work. How do you stay focused and alone to finish something, is it especially hard to focus on completing something? What are some ways you deal with it?

You're quoting me from a video blog I made, in which I said I was working on Heat Vision and Jack but I didn't want to talk about it. I really just didn't want to talk about it. I was hoping that saying so would keep Rob Schrab from leaving comments under my blog entries like "Why aren't you working on Heat Vision and Jack." The truth is, when I want to work on something, nothing can distract me from it, and when I don't want to work on something, nothing can make me do it. Ask my gym coach and nine of my ex-girlfriends. I zone out, and then I look at the clock and it's 8 hours later, and sometimes there's 3 pages and sometimes there's 70. I don't say that with pride, it's just how it is.

One weird thing- I can't write anything if I think someone can see what I'm typing. I don't know why. I remember reading that Jesus told people to go home and pray in their closets, because if someone else is listening or watching, your prayer means nothing. I agree. So maybe I'm Jesus? Is that where I'm going with this? I'm talking to God when I write? No, it's just a social anxiety. I can barely tolerate having a conversation within earshot of a stranger. I am blown away when I go to a coffee shop and I see people writing screenplays on their laptops, with their backs to people's eyes, and you can literally read their dialog. I could never. I feel like for my 35th birthday, I should have a party where people come and watch me type something on a big screen, just so I can see it doesn't kill me. In the mean time, don't come near me if you see me typing. I'm typing this right now, and if my neighbor knocked on my door, I would greet him with nothing but coldness. Twenty minutes from now, when I'm done with this, I'll go knock on his door and be like "Where's the party." I'm f**ked up, yo.

Most Writers succeed by persevering and having a drive to succeed and to keep writing no matter what. What is your Drive to create, and do you have any advice to other writers who are having trouble persevering?

I have no drive to succeed, I don't persevere. Everything I've ever done that's been hard to do failed. Everything I've ever done that was fun, and happened naturally, was successful. Sometimes you don't want to write something. Good. I wouldn't want to read it if you did. Go to the mall. Talk to your friend. Do drugs. Drive your car into a brick wall. Sit in your closet and cry. Obviously, you're going to have to do something other than what you're doing. Be at least as smart as a spider. If there's no silk coming out of your asshole, or no flies in your web, you crawl somewhere else.

Reading is important to all Writers, is there anything that you've read or studied that has really helped you on top of Joseph Campbell's work? Are there any Narratives, that you think any Writer should definitely read that have helped you as a Storyteller?

I'm certainly not going to tell anyone not to read. I haven't read any fiction since high school, and only when forced. There is one exception, I stumbled onto Slaughterhouse Five by accident and immediately devoured everything by Vonnegut, but that's about it. I know lots of writers that don't read and lots of readers that don't write, so it's possible that fixing a car or fighting a bull or shooting up is more fundamental to writing, I am unqualified to say, I've never done any of it.

I know that you came from Wisconsin originally, how different was it moving to California for your work? Was there any "Culture Shock" that you had to deal with? I know that most writers feel the need to move out West to really get started in their careers, do you see moving close to LA as being necessary, and how do you think any beginnings should be prepared before they make the plunge?

Moving from Milwaukee to Paris would have been more different, but I've never been anywhere so Los Angeles might as well have been Mars. Yeah, there was culture shock. I had been living in a doll house. The first time I went to a bar in Los Angeles, I asked someone what they did for a living, and they told me they silk screened tee shirts. After they evasively answered two or three questions I had about silk screening, they snorted and said, "Look, I don't really silk screen tee shirts, I was just f**king with you." I don't even know what to say about that except that I had never had a conversation like that in Milwaukee.

During my first week here, I was at a convenience store, at the end of a long line, and the guy at the front of the line accidentally spilled his big gulp slurpee drink all over the entire counter. Without making eye contact with anyone, he took his empty cup back to the slurpee machine to get it refilled. And the clerks just did their best to mop up the mess with a rag, and nobody said anything, and I thought, I wonder if that's because any one of us might be crazy. And I felt panicky, but then I realized, oh, I know what this is. This is Mos-f**king-Eisley. That's how a nerd can cope with a big city, just pretend you're in the Star Wars cantina. Everyone's afraid of each other because everyone's from somewhere else. But that makes you the hero of your own story, or at the very least, the Hammerhead in someone else's. You're an action figure. You're somebody that does something. And I'm sure that's why writers say that they started writing when they moved to their first big city, because you can be the biggest pussy in the world but living in a big city forces you to wonder who you are. And you feel just a tiny bit more urgency, because everywhere you go, you can see that there's "options" for people who don't want to chase their dreams today. There's dudes taking s**ts in dumpsters and sleeping in trees or dancing down Hollywood boulevard in their cowboy boots and bathrobes, itching their bumpy faces. And you could call that inspiration, because it makes you realize you do what you do because you WANT to do it, not because you have to.

I know that you have worked in and out of the Studio system, how different is working on something like Channel 101, compared to working on a feature? How do you see the current system being changed by the growth of the internet as a free distribution route, and the explosion of cheap Digital Video technologies?

Well, Channel 101, and, the Internet in general, is infinite potential and the studio system isn't. I don't want to make a show called "Nig**r C**t Cancer," but there's something vitally important about knowing that I COULD if I WANTED. I can make a show called "Dan Harmon's Stephen King's Tommyknockers," and I can call for the seige of the White House, and I can tell children to stick their tongues in electrical outlets, and I can tell you the whole thing is brought to you by Pepsi. I can do whatever the f**k I want. Those don't sound like better ideas to me than writing about a stick of butter, but my God, the day you realize what you really want to do, do you want to be able to do it, or do you want to have to pitch it to AT&T's lawyers? The difference, right now, between old media and new media is that new media has no money, and therefore no rules, and therefore it has humanity, and viewers. In the long run, 5,000 years of tradition isn't going to change: the rich people are always going to control everything. But we're living, right now, through a historical transition, like the wild west, a time and place before the richies and the law have settled in. I'm surprised to see so little celebration of it, but I guess what we've learned is that people were pretty happy with their lives. Give them their own cameras and the chance to reach a global audience, and what do they do? They make "parodies" of Mac/PC commercials.

So far, I think the greatest cultural achievement is the video blog. The fact that a fat girl can come home from her 600 student high school and look right into her camera and say "I hate being fat," and get more eyeballs on her than ABC's Thursday night lineup. That is the pivot point. I feel like nobody gets that, yet. Ten years from now, the video blog will be recognized as the "Blues" that gave birth to Rock N' Roll. There are Elvises and Beatles coming. They are going to shift the consciousness of the country. Not by saying that they hate being fat or even by saying "Burn down the white house." Just by being really f**king entertaining, really f**king funny or indescribably sad, probably both. Right now, we're like monkeys using rifles to club animals. Very soon, there is going to be a very loud bang. We are all going to stop what we're doing and turn to look, and one of us is going to standing there with his finger on the trigger and his eye to the scope. And then we're all going to do it. So, that's the difference between the studio system and the Internet. I work at the studio, I make money at the studio, and I run back to the Internet to bang my rifle on a rock, because I want to be there when the bang happens.

Is there a point where you think that a Writer should seriously consider giving up? Did you give yourself a "time limit" to succeed when you moved to LA?

Absolutely not. You'll give up quite naturally when you find something that makes you happier, there's no need to have a board meeting about it. Follow. Your. Bliss. No deadlines. Before I got the call, that phone call from an agent saying "You wrote one hell of a screenplay and I have a meeting for you," every day was the day before the day I might have to move back to Milwaukee. But I never set a deadline. I don't schedule, I don't organize. I'm a writer. One man's "living in denial" is another man's "positive visualization." I often wonder what I was going to do the week after I got that call, if that call had never happened. I was out of money. I might have had to have gotten a job at Kinko's or something. What if I had stayed in Milwaukee.

What if I had never met Rob Schrab, and rode his motivation? Would I ever have come around to the same way of thinking, or would I still be chiseling my car out of ice every morning, screaming "F**k you" at God for letting me be born somewhere so cold. I don't know what would have happened if all of the luck I've had hadn't come my way. But it did. Luck has been coming my way my whole life. I don't know why. Maybe because I'm so lazy that there's never anything too important to completely drop in the face of a better opportunity. I just surrender to my instincts, and so far, enough of my webs have caught flies.

Finally, I've heard of some changes with Channel 101 on the horizon, can you tell us anything? Is there anything else that you're working on that you can talk about?

The Channel 101 Channy Awards are coming up, and I'm 100% focused on that right now. As soon as those are over, I'm going to get Heat Vision and Jack off my plate so that Rob Schrab can be free from the tyranny of my laziness. Then, assuming the strike continues, I am going to focus on Channel 101. First, I want to take out a very sharp knife and cut some very tight leather straps on it, and either something is going to burst out that gets bigger or something is going to spill to the floor and die. Birth and death are identical from any perspective that matters: it's change, it's movement, it's story. Channel 101's story begins in a different world- the world of digital video film festivals. It survived in that world so successfully that it has now lived past its apocalypse.

Now it's hanging out in YouTube's world, Myspace's world, etc. In its five year history, Channel 101 has yet to acknowledge the role of the Internet in its system. Which has been great. People show up to a screening, they vote, knowing their vote will change next month's screening, and in the mean time, the surviving shows are also on the Internet, where people watch the stuff. Now, I just described a small, circular system - the screenings- that sustains itself, and in so doing, produces byproduct - the videos- which sustains a linear, parasitic system - the internet viewers. The question is, what happens if we change nothing about anything that exists, but we draw a larger circle around it all, and what we used to call "the organism" becomes "the nucleus," and what we used to call "parasites" become "miticondria." The answer is what I hope Channel 101 will be in 2008. The web site won't be an archive of videos, the web site will be the "point of it all," and the Internet "ratings" will become data that feeds into decisions that are made at the screenings. In other words, just as we've always said they were, the attendees of the screenings will be "network executives," but like real network executives, they get rewarded for "developing" content that pleases the unwashed masses, the website viewers. That's all I'll say for now, that's all I know for now. I like to let thoughts bubble, this one's been bubbling for a while and it's getting juicy. Oh, and I sold a sitcom to FOX before the strike, that'll hopefully pay my rent.

Thank you so much for giving me this interview, it was very revealing, and we always love to have you speak with us.

Make sure to check out Dan Harmon's other work at Channel101.com