Meet Christina Hamlett - Playwright, Novelist, Ghostwriting and More! (Part 1)
CHRISTINA HAMLETT is a former actress, theatre director and award winning author whose credits to
date include 42 books, 175 stage plays, 5 optioned feature films and squillions of articles that appear
online and in trade publications worldwide. She is also a script consultant for stage and screen (which
means she stops a lot of really bad projects from coming to theatres near you) and a professional
ghostwriter (which does not mean she talks to dead people).
I was fortunate to meet Christina through a writing forum - Women Writers, Women’s Books - and immediately gravitated toward her energetic spirit and passion for sharing everything she knows with up and coming writers and those just starting out. Her wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry has given me renewed inspiration in achieving my own dreams and aspirations in the literary field. I think you’ll agree.
This segment of Ms. Hamlett’s interview focuses on her experience as a playwright…
Screenwriting and playwriting sound interchangeable, yet when I talk with writers in either field, I'm told they're actually quite different. How so? Are they different industries altogether or just different writing styles? How are they alike?
Apples and oranges! Although screenplays and theatrical scripts are about the same length and follow classic three-act structure, that’s where all similarities end. Movies are about action and visuals. Stage plays are about character development and dialogue.
In a play, we don’t mind watching characters talking at a kitchen table as they drink coffee. In a movie, this static tableau would drive us crazy! The reason is that when you’re sitting in a theatre, there are plenty of other things you can look at while the conversation unfolds (i.e., the set design, the furnishings, the props, etc.). In a movie, you’re only seeing things from the perspective of the camera lens; in other words, not the full picture.
Theatre is also a more immediate and intimate form of storytelling. Not only does the plot develop in “real” time as opposed to “reel” time but the actors are the same size as the people in the audience and, thus, feel more relatable to us as human beings.
Lastly—and from the standpoint of screenwriters and playwrights—the finished product we see on the silver screen is the result of multiple fingers in the pie and oftentimes far removed from the author’s original script. The production of a play, however, more closely emulates the author’s vision. Further, a play can be launched in hundreds of different venues and with different casts worldwide over the course of eons. (Just ask William Shakespeare.) A film is a one-shot deal that never has the latitude to grow.
Isn’t live theatre “limiting” compared to what can be accomplished with film production?
I get asked this a lot and the answer is, “Quite the opposite.” In my opinion, theater-goers are smarter than film-goers and can process what they see at a higher level of abstraction and suspension of belief. Whereas someone who goes to a movie wants to see all of the details spelled out, a theatre audience can be told that a scene is taking place in the middle of the Black Forest or on a street corner in Berlin in the 1920s and their imaginations will easily fill in the trees and bushes and buildings and cars … even if the actors are standing in a soft spotlight on a completely bare stage.
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) that so dominates today’s movies has come at the expense of compelling plots and characters. Audiences have become so accustomed to special effects, car chases, pyrotechnics and explosions on the big screen that it’s hard for them to fathom why anyone would want to go to a play where, presumably, none of these elements can physically happen. This completely discounts the use of sound, lighting, dry ice, revolving platforms, hydraulics, scrim curtains, wing space, fly space, mesmerizing set designs and even holograms. As an example, Titanic, the Musical opened on Broadway in 1997, the same year as James Cameron’s epic romantic disaster about Jack and Rose. With nary a drop of water in the entire production, the musical not only sinks the fated ocean liner right before our astonished eyes but also delivers something the film fell short of; specifically, characters we genuinely cared about.
Are you a solo act in your writing or do you work with collaborators?
For the 40+ years I’ve been penning scripts, novels, business books and articles, I’ve been a solo act. In the summer of 2012, however, an amazingly talented writer named Jamie Dare got my attention. Jamie was actually a screenwriting student of mine and I loved both her sense of humor and her ability to craft smart dialogue. When an opportunity came up with Pioneer Drama Service to do a series of “Seusspeare” scripts—plots that combined Shakespeare with pop culture and silly rhyme—I initially planned to turn it down. It was my husband who suggested it might actually be fun if I had a mirthful co-writer. Jamie had never written a play before but thought it might be interesting to give it a go.
The way it works is that I write a scene or two, then hand it off to her with a brief summary of “reveals” on what’s going to happen next, new characters to introduce, etc. Within that framework she has a lot of freedom to edit my scenes as well as come up with fresh spins herself. Since that first venture, we’ve written eight plays (including a trio of Jane Austen spoofs), a contemporary chick-lit novel called While You Were Out, and are already at work on a new novel called Saving Captain Cupid. Our writing styles are so uncannily similar that if I show my husband something Jamie wrote and something I wrote, he can’t tell us apart. (And he knows my writing better than anyone on the planet.) The really remarkable thing about my relationship with Jamie, though, is the fact that although we both live in Los Angeles County, we have spoken only once on the phone and have never met in person. Nor do we have plans to ever meet in person. Hey, if it’s a perfect system, why mess with it?
The writing world is hard to break into, the entertainment community even smaller. How did you break into writing for the theatre? Any tips or secrets to getting your foot in the door?
Totally a matter of being in the right place at the right time. My first job out of high school was being a movie/play critic for a weekly newspaper. The newspaper office was down the street from the local melodrama theatre, and my boss sent me to write a review of the latest show they were doing. I’d never seen a melodrama before but I loved it!
A few months later, I wrote a letter to the husband and wife (producer and director), reminded them of who I was and told them I’d love to audition. This, despite the truth I’d never taken drama in school and had never been in a show in my life. They sent me a very nice letter stating they had enough actors to preclude adding anyone new but that I was welcome to come and watch the next rehearsal for their upcoming production. That letter arrived on a Saturday and their next rehearsal was Sunday.
I often wonder what path my life might have taken if the letter hadn’t shown up until Monday. As Fate would have it, the heroine was painting her house that day, forgot there was a rehearsal, and they needed someone to stand in and read her lines. C’est moi! Apparently they loved my enthusiasm and natural stage presence and put me in the show as both the understudy for all the female roles and a chorus girl in the song and dance numbers. I went on to spend the next 16 years treading the boards. Half of those years was in the development and management of my own touring theatre company, The Hamlett Players. By then I had started writing and selling one-act scripts and monologues, teaching acting classes and developing wonderful relationships with play publishers that still exist to this day.
While my own “break in” was clearly a case of fortuitous timing, my advice to anyone who wants a career as a playwright, screenwriter or novelist is to aggressively hone your craft, study what has already been done (and why it was successful), and don’t be shy about asking for what you want. The number of yesses just might surprise you.
It's no secret some writers find themselves type-cast with a specific genre. Do you find this to be true in your experience? Why or why not? And in what ways do you find this to be problematic when taking on a completely new project unrelated to past themes?
I once had a literary agent who told me that she only wanted me to write romantic suspense. She explained that no one would ever take me seriously if I was “all over the map.” The truth of the matter is that romantic suspense was the only genre she knew how to sell. And so I ignored her. Although I occasionally still dabble in romantic suspense, I’ve also written time-travel, chick lit, business books, humor, YA, three titles on the craft of screenwriting, and (with Jamie) am planning a mystery series set in Boston.
In my ghostwriting assignments, I’ve taken on memoirs, romances, health and wellness, law, YA and New Age. Because of the diversity of styles in my arsenal and my ability to do research on topics I’ve never tried before, it doesn’t just keep me from getting bored or getting writer’s block. It keeps me from being pigeonholed as someone who only knows how to write one thing.
What’s your latest release?
A subject dear to my heart: playwriting! The Play’s The Thing (and how to write it) is available in paperback on Amazon as well as digitally with Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple, Scribd, Playster, and Baker and Taylor. It was great fun to put this one together because it reflects four decades of passion for all things theatrical along with squillions of writing exercises and resource lists of publishers and production companies that are open to reading new scripts. As for my latest playwriting projects, I am in the midst of penning 17 new scripts between now and year’s end about famous women for 365 Women A Year. Just wrapped work on a new one-act about Marie Tussaud and her macabre career during the French Revolution.
What are some things you've loved about working as a playwright (and the things you hate about it - shade our rose-colored glasses!)?
The bulk of my playwriting credits (175 to date) has been for the high school market, and I have to say it’s one of my favorite groups. Although I enjoy writing adult plays (golly but that sounds a bit pornographic, doesn’t it? Let me rephrase and say “plays for adults”), it’s a challenge to come up with characters that will be fun to perform as well as storylines that subtly impart lessons about history and literature. In many cases, the members of this age group have yet to fully figure out what they want to be when they grow up.
Once they hear that first addictive sound of applause, I always like to imagine how many will decide at that magical moment to become actors, directors, costume designers … or even playwrights. My scripts are performed across the country and around the world, which also means I get teen fan mail. One of my favorites was from a young girl in Japan who wrote, “Dear Ms. Hamlett, I just want you to know that I beat out my best friend, Kimmie, for the role of Celia in your play, The Knight of the Honest Heart. Everyone really liked it. Even Kimmie. I have now decided to become a famous actress when I grow up. Just thought you would like to know. Have a nice day!” As for what I hate, I honestly can’t think of anything.
We all want to quit our day-jobs and pursue our passions, but sometimes it's just not feasible or realistic. You've worked in a variety of facets of the literary market however and seem able to keep yourself afloat. Which sectors have you found to be the most lucrative in sustaining your career - playwriting, book authorship, consulting and/or ghostwriting?
It’s actually a healthy combination of all of these things because the income stream includes advances, royalties, hourly fees and contracted projects. Even better, they are spread out throughout the year so I have the leisure to take vacations with my husband and naps with the dog.
Tell us about your script consulting for stage and screen. Do you have a preference?
It would definitely be my working with aspiring playwrights. The reason is that I see much more originality. With screenplays, over half the projects that cross my desk are knock-offs and hybrids of whatever did well in nominations and wins at the most recent Oscars. I fully expect to get one any day now in which Black Panther is being driven around Mexico City in the 1970s by an insecure female songwriter/waitress who likes to blast Queen on the radio. (And don’t even get me started on how many brooding vampire themes came my way when Twilight was popular.) Another big difference I see is that playwrights know-what-they-don’t-know and are eager to learn. Aspiring screenwriters I’ve encountered are the worst at accepting criticism and will say things like, “What’s wrong with you????? All my friends say this is the best thing they’ve ever read.” Yes, well, maybe all those friends can host a bake sale and raise the money to go produce it for you.
No job or career comes without downsides. Have you ever had times you've considered leaving the industry all together? If so, when? How did you talk yourself off the ledge?
Nope. I’m having way much too fun to ever think about walking away from it.
In a similar vein, what are some examples when you wish you could go back in time to prevent your younger self from making mistakes you wish you hadn't?
When I started out, I never really gave much thought to who my target audience was. For instance, the first book I ever wrote was semi-autobiographical and terribly cathartic. I truly believed that because it was based on my own life (I was 20 at the time), everyone would find it absolutely scintillating.
Fortunately, every publisher I sent it to rejected it and I ended up throwing it in a bottom drawer where it still lives to this day. Whenever I take it out and re-read it, I breathe a huge sigh of relief it was never published. If it had been, I would have to tear around to every library and bookstore in the country and steal copies off the shelves.
Another mistake early in my career was to write a magazine article, send it out and not start anything new until I had heard back (which, in some cases, was several months later). Nowadays I have multiple pitches in circulation at the same time and have also refined the art of re-purposing existing pieces rather than creating extra work for myself. The third mistake from the early days was to get all torqued every time I got a rejection letter rather than examining it more closely to see if the editor was actually trying to give me useful advice for future submissions.
It's nice to have a hero or role model in your field. It's even nicer to have a mentor. If a new writer aspiring to join the playwriting community was under your wing, how would you advise him/her? Quit while they're ahead? Always bet on red? Or is it all about who you know - not necessarily what or how much you know?
I’d advise them to first ask themselves why they want to be a playwright. If it’s all because they want to be rich and famous, it’s probably not going to happen. You should only go into this business if you genuinely love the theatre and you want to be a part of its timeless mystique. I’d encourage them to attend as many plays as they can afford, read as many scripts as they can, and—perhaps the best advice of all—take an acting class to understand what goes into the making of a production.
I couldn't pass up an opportunity to hear your inspiration! Who did you look up to in the beginning stages of your writing career? Were you able to meet him/her? What was that like as a professional versus when you were struggling to make your mark?
I was a voracious reader as a child and still am to this day. (Even back then I was writing plays for my puppets and Barbie dolls and supplying all of the voices.) My favorite author was Agatha Christie because I admired her skillful use of foreshadowing and red herrings. I’d often go back and read her books a second time just to see at what point she had purposely but plausibly led me down the wrong path. I’m proud to say that I incorporate many of those storytelling strategies into my own work with novels and scripts.
Once I got into acting, I did a lot of Neil Simon plays and very much admired his character development and snappy dialogue. Although I never got to meet either of them, I do remember all the years I used to watch Columbo and Murder, She Wrote and see the name Peter S. Fischer. Peter was the creator of both programs and I really admired how prolific he was. Little did I know that years later I would not only meet him in person but also now count him among our dearest friends. Though long retired from the Hollywood scene, he is still as prolific as ever with his Hollywood Murder Mysteries series of books and several standalone novels. And guess who is one of only three people who gets to read all those new manuscripts before they go to the publisher?
Who’d have ever thought that someone as iconic as a man whose name I’d watch scrolling up the TV credits every week would be listening to my advice and thanking me for any content discrepancies I catch? He also gifted me with his manual typewriter on which he typed all his original scripts. Funny little ol’ world, isn’t it?
Some writers give up too soon or cast too big a net to possibly master a niche in their craft. How have you balanced idealism with realism without sacrificing your integrity and passion to continue on your path?
By simply remembering that I love what I do and really can’t imagine doing anything else. Since I can pick and choose what I work on, I don’t have to commit to something if I don’t sincerely believe in its worth. I’m also blessed to have a husband who reads all of my new scripts aloud at the dining room table with me over adult beverages. Since we’ve both been onstage, we throw ourselves with gusto into our assigned roles and can do a multiplicity of accents. When the windows are open, I’m pretty sure the neighbors think there are at least 17 other people living with us…
If you enjoyed this segment of Ms. Hamlett’s interview, stay tuned for Part 2 and learn about her experience in Ghostwriting…
Thanks for reading!
—
Simply Sally
“Once upon a long ago time I thought it would be very glamorous to be an ice skater in the Olympics. In elementary school, the closest I got was roller skating around the neighborhood but only getting woefully scraped up knees and elbows to show for it. Someone also told me that you couldn’t be a really serious skater unless you knew how to skate backwards. Which, of course, is physically impossible. This feat is accomplished with mirrors and holograms. I did, however, finally don a pair of ice skates and skate around Rockefeller Center one Christmas. While I neither skated well nor backwards, I can proudly cross it off my bucket list...”