William Hovey Smith

I grew up in rural Central Georgia and started writing and selling materials in high school. This continued through my college years at the University of Georgia when I sold my first outdoor articles to magazines which ultimately resulted in my becoming a 10-year Corresponding Editor for the Gun Digest Annual. As age restricted my outdoor activities, I progressed to writing well reviewed business books and later novels and screenplays. As a Professional Geologist my work throughout North America plus my studies at Georgia and the University of Alaska provided a wide background of experiences that were used in my novels and screenplays.

Observing people has always been my first step in developing interesting characters around which to build a novel or screenplay. Real people’s experiences combined with elements of my own life often provided the inspiration for plot and motivation which I combine in a place and manner to retain the audiences’ attention. The project is first mentally outlined and then written down. Once writing starts the project is pursued every day until the first draft is done. Then I let it rest for a month or so and begin the first of what may be many rewrites. I typically write during the early hours of the morning often starting at 2:00 A.M. and then continue with my everyday activities until I have time to resume the project. In the case of The Buzzard Squadron my outline grew into a screenplay which has now grown into another novel which is in progress.

I am always trying to write unusual works and stretch my writing experiences into new territories. My most recent novel,  The Goldfarb Chronicles: Moving with Baby, The Solitario, Brewster County Law is a trilogy which follows the same extended family through a situation comedy in Moving with Baby, a Western adventure in The Solitario, and a courtroom drama in Brewster County Law.  I wrote screenplays for each of trilogy’s books which are now circulating through film festivals around the world. This is the same approach I used with my first novel Until Death Do You Part: An American Family Meets Their Sicilian Cousins where the novel inspired the screenplay Sicilian Knots. My most recent project is The Buzzard Squadron screenplay which has been submitted to the present festival. Writing this screenplay required a technical stretch because of the use of a B-36 bomber as a major plot element as its diverse crew must overcome passions of love, lust, and divided loyalties to accomplish a combat mission over the Russian Federation to prevent a tit-for-tat nuclear exchange that threatens all humankind.  I used new AI technologies to gain vital geographic and mechanical information to provide realistic information for the screenplay without having to visit the location as was done with Until Death do You Part where most of the action was set in Sicily.

I believe that characters trump action. I think that if a writer can interest his viewers in his characters, then the action sequences will follow more naturally without seeming to be only an exercise in how much blood, gore, flame, noise, special effects, and destruction can be crammed into a movie. The characters’ motivations should be shown in all their complexity where even the villain might have a soft side while the hero is not all goody two shoes.

I am already using AI technology to enhance my screenwriting, and think that most writers will be forced to do the same. AI is too easy and too valuable a tool to be ignored. The unresolved danger is that AI can and will generate screenplays which will likely become a fact of life. Editing and augmenting AI content may become the dominant part of many professional screenwriters’ work. The original premise of the work may be the last holdout for screenwriters, but even this will be put into an AI model for enhancement, potential plot twists, settings, suggestions for actors, and many other aspects of moviemaking that are now done by limited-scope professionals.

Gays, straights, men, women, and children of different nationalities and races are common characters in all of my works. In Moving with Baby there is Syrian refuge family, Hispanics and native Americans play significant rolls in The Solitario. A gay uncle conspires with an Irish priest in the screenplay Sicilian Knots. Child characters from infants to teens as well as animals are significant players in my novels and screenplays.

I submit my screenplays to film festivals that offer criticisms which have been valuable to improve not only future versions of the screenplays but also follow-up novels. As screenplays are never finished until the movie is shot, there will always be producers, actors, financers, and others who have ideas which might be incorporated into a production. These should not be ignored.

One of my characters in The Buzzard Squadron is a Russian defector named Petrov who grew up in Siberia, spent a winter alone trapping in Siberia, and ultimately became a B-36 crew member as they rebuilt the aircraft and flew its combat mission to drop a low-level nuclear device on a Siberian village. I am now several chapters into a novel detailing Petrov’s adventures and eventual defection. My years as a Engineer Officer and Geologist in Alaska have provided detailed information about Petrov’s experiences in the Arctic and life in the Russian military.

Writers must be able to incorporate suggestions from others and swing with the punches if the collaborative process of movie making will be successful. When a screenwriter writes his novel, he can put whatever he likes in it; but he cannot be too rigid so far as associated screenplays are concerned. The ultimate out is for the writer is to self-finance and produce his movie, but that is not a realistic option for most.

My advice to aspiring screenwriters is to first get a paying job. Once a financial footing has been secured, the new writer can dabble in the field of screenwriting. The chances of having a screenplay made into a movie are so slim that a new writer cannot reasonably expect to make a living at it. This is best a task taken on during retirement where putting bread on the table is no longer a significant concern. Then the process can be enjoyed. If a writer has a hot idea burning inside him, then write it as a novel. If the novel has a degree of success, the derivative screenplay has a better chance of being made.  In the meantime I would like to recommend my audiobook Make Your Own Job Anytime, Anyplace, At Any Age which is available from Amazon and other booksellers worldwide.  It tells how to derive and evaluate business ideas and takes the reader step by step on how to start a business in the US.