As Sakshi mentioned in her last post, everyone here at Gotham has their own blend of preferred reading and writing material. I personally have never been particularly drawn to reading unless it’s a subject I’m really interested in. Even then, I can still take forever to finish a book. For example, I’d been dying to read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair when I began high school. It took me a year just to purchase the book, and then another two years to actually read it. Since then, I’ve come to discover my absolute favorite reading and writing material - scripts.
Whether it’s that of a play, a movie, TV show, or even a short sketch, I find scripts to be the most enjoyable form of writing. Of course, the best part of a script is what you read is brought to life by actors exactly how it happens on paper (with some exceptions). If I had to get more technical, I think I mostly just appreciate the way scripts are formatted. I’m usually thrown off by big chunks of text, and scripts are just the opposite. Also, the industry standard Courier font is one of my favorites.
When I first became interested in script writing in high school, I took an online screenwriting class - easily the best decision I’ve made. The final project for the class was to write the first act of an original screenplay, and I’ve been writing ever since. I continued with writing in college, which is actually how I found out about Gotham Writers. I had too much free time and was looking to take a screenwriting course outside of school. I hadn’t completed any of the prerequisites to enroll in one of my school’s classes, so I was just itching to learn more. I ended up stumbling upon the ‘Internships’ page and here I am now writing this post from the Gotham office!
-Mary Kate