TEEJAY SMALL
 TEEJAY SMALL
Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
For the past four years I’ve lived in an undisclosed location in the American Southwest, though I’m actually in the middle of packing up for a cross-country move at the moment. For now you could sort of say that I’m like Jack Reacher. Of course, Jack Reacher is a 6’5” retired military Major and I’m a hobbit with an English degree who writes run-on sentences for a living. To more succinctly answer your question, I live in Beyoncé’s United States. 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? It’s truly an honor that people are enjoying it. I’ve been committed to writing funny stories since I was a child, and I’ve dreamed of getting something on television for probably the last decade at least. This particular pilot is (incredibly loosely) inspired by real stories from my friends and family members. It’s also inspired by a few of my favorite TV shows, which is why writing it in a screenplay format just made the most sense to me. 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? This pilot had an incredibly abnormal process in that I woke up one morning with like 90 percent of it already mapped out in my head. Like I said, some of the jokes and storylines are based on true events, so I’ve had years to mentally synthesize them into a concise work of fiction. Normally I take a few weeks of outlining before I can really sit down and sink my teeth into a pilot, but for Danger On The Roof I just sprung out of bed and vomited out the first 20 pages before lunch. What is your ultimate ambition as a writer? I would love to land a staff writing position on a television series at some point. Whether that means penning deep character studies under Vince Gilligan, constructing gut-busting puns for Chuck Lorre, or firing off hundreds of monologue-style jokes per night for Seth Meyers, I’m game for it all. Right now my main focus is finding a way to break into that extremely competitive industry, and trying not to feel like I’m running out of time at the ripe old age of 28. Was your entry at The Wiki Screenplay Contest a full script or “the first ten pages”? Why did you make that choice? I submitted with the “first ten pages” option. That’s partially because I feel that Danger On The Roof has a really compelling opening act that your judges would enjoy parsing through, and partially because I was also submitting to 5 other Coverfly contests that day, so my shopping cart was already starting to look like an angry phone call from the credit card company. Having said that, I’d be happy to pass along the full thing, so holler at your boy if you’re itching to see how this absurd adventure plays out! What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show...and why? Oh my gosh there’s just too many to name! I’ll say that this particular pilot is heavily inspired by The Sopranos and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which are two of the greatest shows of all time in my personal opinion. If we want to round out my Mount Rushmore I’d say Better Call Saul and BoJack Horseman take the other two spots. Severance, Atlanta, and The Good Place also deserve to be mentioned… is there a monument with seven president heads instead of four? What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have? I don’t know if I’m even qualified to give advice on this topic, but I’ll pass along something I heard from Daniel O’Brien on a podcast. He used to write articles and sketches for Cracked back in the day and has since gone on to win a flurry of Emmys writing on Last Week Tonight. I’m paraphrasing, but he basically explained that writing professionally comes with a lot of baggage, and sometimes makes you feel like you need to create something deep, and perfect, and significant. Your writing doesn’t need to be a heavy meditation on the human condition to be good. It doesn’t need to bring down tyrants or change the course of the world as we know it. It just has to be something that you enjoyed creating because you’re a human being and you’re entitled to be artistic. If you happen to write something that other people can enjoy the way that you enjoy it, that’s really just an added bonus. What else are you working on that the world needs to know about? I may not be an established professional screenwriter just yet, but I do still pay my bills with the written word. You can find my work published in a variety of sites just about every day, including those owned by Blavity Inc. The Blavity crew is absolutely fantastic and I really can’t say enough great things about the work that they’re doing and the positive environment they’ve fostered for writers. I’m also available to write comedy content on Fiverr, if you’re into that sort of thing. Links to all my pertinent material can be found at https://linktr.ee/teejaysmall |
