Mick Lexington

Thank you Mick for taking the time to answer all of our questions. We are grateful for everything you have shared with us. At Oxford Script Awards we are wishing you a huge success with your next projects. Keep up the amazing work!

Hello Mick, can you tell us about your background and how you got started in screenwriting?

I studied Film at a small community college in the Midwest, but I wasn’t a very good student. After a few semesters, I left and moved to Europe. I first went to Paris, where I was pretty much a bum for about a year. To quote Hemingway, if I’m going to starve, it’s going to be somewhere the food is good. I then moved to London, where I worked as a musician for the next eight years until I returned to the United States. I went first to San Francisco, where I studied writing. I thought I was going to be a novelist, but my writing style leaned more toward screenplays. I didn’t want to go to LA, so I moved to New York, where I began my career as a writer/director.

What's your writing process like? How do you go about creating characters and developing a story?

I start with a premise or an idea for a story and begin with an outline. With an outline, I can get the story down fast and then go back to fill in the details, which often changes the shape of the story. I like to think of an outline as flexible scaffolding that can change on the fly as the story evolves. Often, I’ll base characters on someone from my past, but these too are malleable through the writing process. It then becomes a series of rewrites, and knowing where to stop. A story never stops evolving. When you read a screenplay, you are seeing a moment of its evolution frozen in time. The real craft is in knowing where to take that snapshot of the story’s evolution.

Can you talk about a recent project you've worked on and the challenges you faced while writing it?

My current project, Mr. Jack, is based on a novel-length manuscript. The challenge is taking a one-hundred-thousand-word story and paring it down to a 120-page script while still maintaining the story’s integrity.

What do you think is the most important element of a great screenplay?

Character motivation. I want to see a story that unfolds through dialogue and events motivated by the character’s desires, not by a need to explain to the audience.

How do you approach writing for different genres and audiences?

I don’t. I’m not a screenwriter for hire. I write existential dramas that I plan to develop and direct.

How do you feel about the current state of the film industry and the role of screenwriters in it?

I feel you may be hinting at AI, which is fine, as it is the elephant in the room. AI is likely here to stay, yet its final form remains to be seen as it continually evolves. Will it replace the screenwriter? Only those who can (and should) be replaced. I don’t see AI writing a screenplay with the subtleties of a Wes Anderson, David Lynch, or Ruben Östlund with consistency. Artificial Intelligence, by definition, lacks life experience.

How do you handle feedback and criticism?

Very well. Next question.

Can you talk about any upcoming projects or collaborations you're excited about?

My current project is a drama based in the Lower East Side of New York City entitled Mr. Jack. It’s the story about the detriment of not accepting love with grace. Seen through the eyes of an artist, Val Shepard, who returns home after a self-imposed exile to find his career in turmoil, his girlfriend married, and his studio occupied by the enigmatic and charismatic Jackson King, known as Mr. Jack.

How do you see the role of screenwriting evolving in the future?

I think we are likely to be flooded with a lot of poor-quality work. We’ll probably see more screenwriters becoming filmmakers. Thanks to digital technology, the barrier to entry as a filmmaker is lowering every year. As with any art form, a low barrier to entry leads to an increase in substandard work. It also creates the potential for some truly brilliant work to emerge that might not have been possible under previous circumstances. Unfortunately, the latter seems to be the exception.

What advice would you give to aspiring screenwriters?

First, learn the craft of writing. Too many people think that because they can read and speak, they can write. I wrote three novel-length manuscripts before I attempted a screenplay. Learn the craft of storytelling. Then, perhaps more importantly, go out and live some life. Have a few drunken nights, have your heart broken, get arrested a time or two, live in a foreign country for a few years, and get yourself so lost you have to make a new home for yourself. Do this first, then pick up a pen.