Art is Your Job. Creator of NBC’s The Blacklist, Jon Bokenkamp, on screenwriting – Love Your Work, Episode 93
Jon Bokenkamp (@jonbokenkamp) wanted to be a screenwriter. So, he decided it was his job. He sat at his desk from nine to five every day, writing frantically, and each night he went to another job. One that paid him. He waited tables.
After three years, he sold his first screenplay. Then he sold some others here and there. Then the phone stopped ringing. After one failed script, he was contractually obligated to write one more.
That script became The Blacklist (Netflix). It’s a thriller on NBC starring James Spader. They’re starting their fifth season this week.
Spader plays Reddington, a veteran, private-jet-setting criminal who acts as an informant to the FBI, and who has a puzzling interest in agent Elizabeth Keen, played by Megan Boone.
In this conversation, we’re going to learn:
- What was the mindset that Jon put himself in to make it through the three-year project of writing his first screenplay?
- How does Jon ward off his distractibility, and channel it into his writing method? I think it’s a great lesson in how in creative work, the final product is totally different from the process used to get there.
- How has Jon’s writing process changed now that he has a whole team, and basically has to write a movie a week?
Jon is a Nebraska-native like me. Hopefully you won’t mind listening to us reminisce a little about that strange place in the beginning. If not, skip ahead, and you’ll hear some really great stuff on doing tough and long creative projects.
Image: Flickr user Thibault
Join Love Your Work Elite
Get 30% off the new Love Your Work T-shirt when you join Love Your Work Elite by October 31st, 2017! Sign up at http://lywelite.com
Sponsors
Skillshare: An online learning community with over 16,000 classes in design, business and more. Get one month of unlimited premium access – absolutely FREE! Go to http://skillshare.com/loveyourwork.
Subscribe to Love Your Work
Listen to the Jon Bokenkamp Podcast Interview
- Listen in iTunes >>
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
- RSS feed for Love Your Work
The post Art is Your Job. Creator of NBC’s The Blacklist, Jon Bokenkamp, on screenwriting – Love Your Work, Episode 93 appeared first on kadavy.net.
I watched this series, it was a wonderful work , Any effort you make is always beneficial
Congratulations @kadavy! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPstop
Notifications have been disabled. Sorry if I bothered you.
To reactivate notifications, drop me a comment with the word
NOTIFY