ISA Top 25 Screenwriters to Watch Interview With Zoë Hodge

Well, thank you for joining me today

Congratulations on being one of the 25 screenwriters to watch from the ISA

That's very, very impressive. Thank you. Nice to meet you. Well, nice to meet you too

And I just really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. And I'm, like, looking at your background, just like, what books are those

I can't help. I feel that. There's some more on some other shelves

They're not viewable, but. Yeah, I'm just, you know, It's just something you do

And like, I'm usually in a different place and I have, like, all these collectibles and stuff behind me

So I'm always the one that's getting that question or like, what is that

But, yeah. So tell us a little bit about yourself, your background and how you got started as a screenwriter

Yeah, so funny enough, I started in books, in short stories. Walker

Yes. But one of my friends at the University of Michigan, he came from L.A

and was in the film world and read one of my manuscripts and was like, Catherine, I think you have such a visual style

You'd be really good at scripts. And I was like, okay, let me go try this

And so I turned one of my novels into a screenplay. And little did I know that 10 days later, the director of screenwriting, Jim Bernstein at the University of Michigan, would read that screenplay

And come back to me about a week later and be like, okay, okay, we have talent

but you need to learn structure. So can you make these classes from Tuesdays from 6 to 9

And I was like, yes, I can. And that's how that got started with screenplays and learning it

I found for me that it fit my, I did dialogue first usually and then filled in the pros

with more as it went on with time. And I love fragments and dashes

And I was like, oh my God, there's a medium that lets me do fragments and dashes

instead of telling me I use too many. Yeah, that's how I got started in the script world

And I love both and go back and forth between them, especially if I get stuck on a scene in a novel

I'll go to the scripts for a second and try to write it out and block it and be like, okay

now I have a better understanding of what this is, so I can go back to the novels. But yeah, each of them definitely had their strengths and weaknesses

Yeah, it's interesting. You know, I actually interviewed someone else. with the top 25 that said the same thing that they were told they should put their book

into a script. So that's so interesting. But I mean, who knows your story better than you, too

you know? So you can, you're the one that's really vision, like has that vision. So it makes

perfect sense for you to do that. So is the process like wildly different for you from

from books to script as far as your individual process? For scripts, I found I have to outline

novels, I'm a panster. I will pants the whole 300 pages. And just go off of them there

I think that's the biggest difference for me in terms of writing the story for those two mediums

And then figuring out, you know, if I want, in scripts, I think it's easier to do suspense

Like, oh, the bad guys around the corner that the hero's about to run into. And you can shock the audience a little and make some tension there

And books, you can't do that the same. So it's figuring out a different way to do the tension differently

with in the novel prose. So yeah, it's, it's, the process-wise, I think the same books definitely take longer

Yeah. Yeah. I would see. So can you tell us a bit about that story that you took from book to script Yeah that is fun because that one is a novel that is very dear into my heart

and I always wanted to be a pirate. So, of course, it's like if you mixed Avatar The Last Airbender with pirates

and you made it an adult series, that is that book. And so that was, I'm shelving it for right now so I can revise because I want to mess up

all of the middle. But I had turned in the script and wanted to go back to it would be good

And then my novel that I'm querying right now is at six agencies

And so fingers crossed that one of the agents take it. But yes, the book world is going simultaneously as my script world is

And so is this the – have you written any other scripts or is it just this one that you're working? Yeah

Oh, I write a lot. Okay. Because I find I get cranky if I do not write

I feel that. I feel that, yes. And I can sit and write and I'll be like, oh, it's been 45 minutes

I'm like, oh, no, I am so wrong. It's been three hours and I've missed lunch. What am I doing

So because you just get so in the zone, right? And you go off on the story. And so for me, I actually have to like remind myself the real world exists outside of the page

So I have, let's see, six feature films that I wrote, nine pilots, six shorts, five novels, three children's picture books, and then I was hired to write 20 episodes for a TV web series for Startup Company and another short film for a director in Minnesota that we're going to shoot this year

I'm super looking forward to getting that on a camera and then into film festivals after that

And yeah, so that's what I'm going up for right now. we love to revise

and figure out, yeah. That's a lot. Congratulations. That's you clearly like to write

Yes. Yeah. Get some self-care in there, you know. Oh, yes. Yeah, definitely

I am lucky that I can write fast and read fast. Those are my two saving races

It comes to the prolificness of the writing. So, you know, you started as a novelist and

you know, I'm just wondering, have you always been a film fan? Was, is there any, like, movies in particular that you look at as sort of inspirations or, like, man, I wish I would have wrote that

So many. But I love, love, love when you can, like, see a movie and I immediately want to go read the script and be like, how did they do that

Because that was me recently, Knives Out. I had seen it. I was like, did he write it that way or did they edit it in that beginning scene with the back and forth

And how would you do that? And so I literally right away went to the script to read that because I love, yeah, watching the movies and seeing the films and then the script or vice versa

I'll read sometimes first and then go watch. And that's an experience too when you start to realize like, oh, that scene's not there anymore

They have changed it. And that actually, you know, did it work better or not

And so it's interesting to go back and forth. It's almost like when you read the book first and then go see the adapted screenplay

Yeah. And then you're always disappointed. Yes. So often. But, you know, I always try to look at them as different entities because it's like, like if I have a book that I love and then it gets made, I just am always going to be a little disappointing because there's so much more in a book

But, you know, sometimes it's just like gone girl or something. Like sometimes there's just ones that are just fantastic

But I also think when the writer is also involved I think that makes a huge difference I really do But do you find that when you and I don know how many of your books you written if it just the one that you done from like adapting

but do you find that you change some of the story or kill your darlings in a sense

Or do you know, like have to cut out a lot? Is that tough

It is tough. But it was funny because that pirate script, I ended up also trying it as a TV pilot to see

and I actually liked where the TV pilot was going as a series

And I was like, oh, I need to go back to the book and change these set of things

And I like that I had the space and time to do so because it's not published yet

And actually go back and forth between and like, oh, if this ever got made on film or a book, I can move things

Yeah. So do you look at them like simultaneously when you're working on one, like a novel

Do you think of it as a screenplay at the same time when you're jumping into it

it. Is there more of a visual, like, element to it now that you've done this? Yeah, a bit of a bit

so, but I think for me, I'm just seeing the movie in my head either way and just right as fast

as possible. But I think there's definitely more of a visual component of me trying to be like

oh, okay, here's how we can do, break up some of the internal monologues more with these action

scenes and how you can pair them so that they can be this really nice dichotomy between the two

of them. I love doing nowadays more. And instead of just being a, because some books read and you're

like, oh, that was nice, but there wasn't a lot that happened plot-wise. And so now I'm trying to

like, more even out the novels to make sure that the plot and characters are evenly spaced

Do you think being a screenwriter has helped your, like, strength of being a writer for novels as

well? Yes. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I could see that, them helping each other for sure. Yeah

Yes. I love that. So tell us, you. You know, you. You know, you've said a few times you're very fast

I'm just curious, like, what's your screenplay, like, or novel? Like, how long are we talking here

Screenplays, if it's 60 to 110 pages, I usually write within three or four days

because I like to just get that first draft on there as fast as possible

So I have something to edit and other people have something to read. And then I can revise and with their feedback

And I feel like that relentless pacing never leaves, like the, you know, even the finished one when it's now blown out, you know, an extra 40 pages or whatever it is when it needs to get to the final page count

That, yeah, that core of it is still in there. Yeah. Yeah

And you outline, so you have that to fall back on. Yeah, yeah, definitely

So that's good. My novels, I think the fastest novel I wrote was in three months

Wow. Yeah. But that one was like immediately after the day job work on it until I can't stay awake anymore and repeat

Yes. Oh, yeah, I need sleep and food. Yeah. No, I think that's amazing, though

I think it's just a true, you know, artist. And the fact that you just keep meeting to create, I think that speaks to who you are as a writer

But I really look forward to seeing some of these things. I'll have to check out your books

I'll have to do that as soon as I'm done here. But I think, yeah, it's, I'd love to know if there's something right now that you have

I think you mentioned there was something getting optioned or coming out or I don know if there something that being made or anything that you like to let us know about out of all those like crazy numbers of projects that you have Yeah there one feature film that I keeping close to the vest right now but it starting to go into competitions and be seen by industry execs so fingers crossed with that one

And the book is at the six agencies, so hopefully it will be traditionally published in

two to three years. But there was, I'm in a couple of writers groups, and there is a really good buddy of mine

named Mickey and he's a horror short film director and we're partnering on a Kickstarter for my

one of my children's picture books called Aguana Dog because that script originally was an award

winning script and I want to turn it into an animated film so we're going to do the picture book

first on Kickstarter and then do a Kickstarter for the animated film and I'm really looking forward

to that that is the project that I'm most you know trying to find like oh good artists for and

let's go over here and how do we get this Kickstarter all looking pretty because I have never done

the Kickstarter before. So this is a new adventure for me. Yeah, that's exciting. Well, I wish you the best

of luck in that. And you just said something. I've noticed you've mentioned like revising and

editing. Do you feel that that's, I mean, do you relish that part a lot? Because it seems like you

I mean, you write really fast. So I'm assuming you sit in that place for a little bit longer

but do you enjoy? How important do you think that that process is for a writer

Oh, very important. And I love, I think scripts a little bit more on this regard

because they're easier to change and easier to be. Very true. Very true

So for me, and then I like that collaborative nature of talking people about

oh, we can do this here, what about this? And this character, you could totally do this thing that you wanted to do with them

I'm like, oh, my God, you're so right. where novels, you start tweaking things, and it's a little bit of a domino's effect that's not

the longest for the best. So with novels, I try to get people to read them really early on and not

you know, very quickly. So scripts, it's like nice that you can still after, you know, it's more

fleshed out and everything. And you can still get people's feedback and be like, oh, that still

needs a little work. And I can go fix that without toppling the whole thing over. And lastly

So how important do you feel, because you've mentioned award-winning scripts. So you've done contests before

You obviously are involved with the ISA and resources that are available there

How important do you think those type of tools are for screenwriters? Very important

Yeah, I feel like I would not have gotten where I am without the help and support of places like

ISA, the competitions, roadmap. Like all of them have been so helpful in getting this career further than I could ever take it

whether that's through competitions and getting the award recognition or the connections that they can provide or the scholarships because Roadmap I had gotten a scholarship through them and was able to learn pitching and that was something I had not been able to teach myself

So it was really great to, yeah, go through all of the services and then reading scripts that you can download for free on like script slug or screencraft they have them, the TSL script library

literally any of those things were so beneficial to inching the career further

Well, thank you. I think that will be helpful to people out there. And I think always learning is just important when you're a writer or an artist of any kind. So thank you again. And congratulations. It was really wonderful chatting with you. And yeah, I just can't wait to see what you do next. And I hope you have an awesome rest of your day

Thank you so much. It's so wonderful to talk with you. And I can't wait to see your work as well

Thank you