MEG MILLER
Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
I live in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Your script stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your story and why did you write a script instead of a short story or a novel? Funny enough, it started as a short story. I had just graduated from college and was burnt out but couldn’t get the idea out of my head. Paul (the dead brother) and Sloane are an amalgamation of the older brothers and younger sisters of books I enjoy. I’m a huge Salinger fan so Franny and Zooey as well as Holden and Phoebe are big inspirations, but the biggest inspirations were Paul and Alia from Dune, which I sort of satirize but the inspiration is genuine. After trying to write the story as a novel, I realized it had to be a script but it felt impossible to write a feature, so it ended up being a one-season story. How long did it take you to write your script...and what is your writing process? Do you outline...use index cards...white board...or just start with FADE IN? Three years, haha. There have been 10 different drafts and from the time I submitted this to when I got the results, I’ve already done another draft of the whole story (thank you for the feedback!!) The process always starts with knowing Paul’s going to die. Everything else has changed a billion times and I have a journal filled with all of those different ideas. I plot everything out and then change it all when I’m writing. When I finish the story, I leave it alone, write something else, and then get back to changing everything except what has now become essential, other than Paul dying. I know something is essential when it slowly integrates itself into every draft. Right now I’m at the point where I’m really just changing dialogue and some other formatting things. What is your ultimate ambition as a writer? My ultimate ambition is to have this story in particular made. It’s goofy and absurd but also emotionally demanding. It’s my passion project and I can only hope it’ll resonate with people. I hope they make those sweet TikTok edits to different songs about it. That’s the real goal, I suppose. That’s why I’m doing this. Also: I feel like if I can get this made, and it’s successful, I’ll hopefully have the creative license to get my real weird stories made. However, I’ve accepted I’ll never write anything as ambitious and emotionally deep ever again. Was your entry at The Wiki Screenplay Contest a full script or “the first ten pages”? Why did you make that choice? I chose the full script entry rather than the first ten pages because I feel like it ends in a way that will (hopefully) make people want more. You also get the full scope of what is going on by the end. It’s a build-up and I think the pay-off is worth it. What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show...and why? My all-time favorite movie is John Waters’ Cecil B. Demented. It’s required viewing for the “cinephile”. I love John Waters and I love what he has to say about the film industry and just loving movies. It’s also so funny that I kick my legs and squeal a bit. What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have? Don’t be afraid to be weird with it and write it several times. Of course, keep all drafts, but pretend you deleted it and just rewrite it from scratch a few times. Your love for it will show and judges will see that. You won’t regret spending extra time with it. What else are you working on that the world needs to know about? Now that I’m in the stages of just fine-tuning The Brother Dies at the End and its companion feature On Tip Toes, I’ve been writing/developing just straight-up comedies. I have a buddy comedy about “wedding guests for hire” and another that’s a bit harder to describe but I think it’s my most John Waters-inspired one, which I’m very proud of. |
