Hey!

It was 10 years to the day when I turned over my thesis to Bettina Moss. She was the chair of the now almost defunct National University Professional Screenwriting Program. And dude? It was such a wild ride to have finished.

See… I started my MFA in January 2010 during the last time that my fancy pants lived in Billings, Montana. As the program was primarily online with a low residency requirement, I could access the coursework anywhere in the world. And it had many students from all over the world. Very cool. I also started the program cuz I knew something was missing from the 10 feature film scripts that I had written to that point. So, I took the foundational classes for a minute.

But I own that if I was serious about screenwriting? I had to move to Los Angeles. So? My fancy pants dropped out of school and moved to Los Angeles. I went to many writing seminars through the Writers Guild Foundation and Scriptwriters Network. Yes. I also looked into the University of Southern California’s Screenwriting MFA program and UCLA’s screenwriting MFA. But I would have had to wait out the application period and residency period. In a phrase? Fuck that.

The National University program also had a component around business and small class sizes. So, I returned to National University and worked on going straight through until I hit my thesis. To say that the pressure got to me? Jesus wept did it ever!! I had never been one to outline much until I started at National. But I convinced myself that I couldn’t outline once thesis happened. So? I took it upon myself to write my draft and outline at the same time. TRANSLATION? I spun for months straight while I worked through my story ideas in both forms.

Bettina had also been my thesis advisor on top of being the chair of out department and taught classes whenever other folks weren’t available. She wasn’t in a place to give me the help that I needed. And I wasn’t explaining things well. So, I dropped out and took writing classes from Corey Mandell. And I decided to wait when I found out that James Napoli was going to be a thesis advisor. This was over six months and pushed when I finished much later than originally planned.

And it was a massive source of fights cuz life was wanting to happen while I was trying to finish up. So? I pushed myself to hammer out my writing. James and I found a great method of what’s called “spitballing” – I’d email him what I was thinking to test drive ideas. It saved the time of waiting until I finished my drafts. I did many 18 hour writing days to just finish. This was another source of fights.

A thing that helped me also pick up speed was when I realized that my thesis was simply homework. Yup. I would be done once I met the assignment’s requirements. And that final push to finish that very last day of 2015 cuz I didn’t want to drag out my thesis any longer than necessary. Well? That turned into a whole bunch more fights that cumulated on that 2015 New Years Eve. Despite that? I finished. Almost didn’t walk at graduation. But thought fuck it? I walked cuz I earned that degree.

Why am I am mentioning about the fighting? Cuz my life looked all roses on the surface – fairly newly married, taking care of adults with special needs, helping with different screenplay competitions, in pre-production for our indie feature MY APOCALYPTIC THANKSGIVING and pretty much looking like I was “living the dream.” Truth? I’ve only touched on the surface on what was happening. AND? That’s the thing about me once I’ve decided about something? I do whatever I can to make that shit happen. Being tested along the way is good: makes sure that you actually want what you say you want.

Yes. I feel like my scripts for my thesis are honestly beyond rough. As I had started with brand new ideas when James came on for my thesis advisor, I didn’t have the time to develop them slowly. My repeat story is in the circular file now. And I’m slowly but surely working on my vampire story.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to have grown and learn. To say that it’s exciting to carry these lessons forward? Happy dance all the way, baby!! Yahoo! I’ve also been deconstructing what I learned in my MFA program, all my other writing classes, and filmmaking experiences to create more compact lessons that can far less expensive or so very time consuming. I’ll write more about this pretty soon.

In the meantime…

Happy New Year!! Here’s to an amazing 2026!!

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