What:

I write dramatic feature screenplays and teleplays (original and spec). Feature scripts run between 90-120 pages. One-hour teleplays are typically 50-60 pages, and half-hour teleplays are 22-32 pages. While some writers don’t include act breaks in their teleplays, I like to use them. They can always be removed for outlets that don’t require commercial breaks. In every kind of script, each page equals about a minute of screen time.

All of my scripts boast female leads with diverse casts. My feature screenplays often venture into historic events and social issues. For example, WONDER DRUG is about the DES drug disaster; RESISTANCE is based on the life of WWII teen resistance fighter and Holocaust survivor Vera Laska; and A NATIVE LAND is a thriller that explores homelessness and the opioid epidemic.

My TV scripts are pop culture on the surface with serious undertones. “Virtual Vida” is about a teen STEM prodigy; “Free Skate” is a dramedy about skaters in a touring ice show; and “Pass/Fail” follows teachers on the front lines in an urban vocational high school.

Why:

I’m a born storyteller. In the second grade, upon discovering that my father had access to a Xerox machine, I created an end-of-the-year booklet for classmates. I wrote various stories that incorporated all of their names. My booklet was so popular that I continued making them for several years.

In the fifth grade, I started publishing in the Poet’s Corner section of the Happy Time page in Worcester, Massachusetts’ Sunday Telegram. When I “outgrew” the Happy Page page in junior high, I moved into editorials for the local newspaper. In high school, I wrote articles for the student newspaper and published poetry in the literary magazine. Throughout college, I was co-editor of the college’s literary magazine.

As a grad student, I did my thesis work in young adult fiction. I originally planned on being a novelist, until I met Oscar-nominated director Matia Karrell years later through a teaching colleague. When Matia asked if I could turn my unpublished novel into a script, I said, “Yes!” I then ran out to the bookstore, looking for screenwriting guides – and a new passion was born.

In addition to screenplays, I engage in other types of writing. My essay “A Soapy Life” appears in SOAP OPERA CONFIDENTIAL: Writers and Soap Insiders on Why We’ll Tune In Tomorrow, As the World Turns Restlessly by the Guiding Light of our Lives, edited by Elizabeth Searle and Suzanne Stempek Shea (McFarland & Company, May 2017). Another essay, entitled “Confessions of a Would-Be Duran Duran Groupie,” will appear in an upcoming teen idol anthology edited by Elizabeth Searle and Tamra Wilson (McFarland & Company, June 2018).

Moreover, I have written blog posts for Ted Hope’s Hope for Film website and Elizabeth Searle’s Celebrities in Disgrace website.

I’m a big fan of social media, especially Twitter. I’ve written over eighteen thousand tweets, and that number is sure to rise.

When I’m not writing, I’m reading or watching films and TV shows. I’m also an English teacher at an urban public high school. I marinate in words every single day.

My favorite “writing moments” are when everything is a possibility, and when a script finally feels finished.

How:

I’m the queen of writing down ideas on little pieces of paper and stuffing them into my pockets for later use.

Outlines are a necessity for me. Unlike novels, scripts have page limits and acts. Feature screenplays have three acts, while teleplays can have up to six or seven. I like to know how everything fits together before I start writing.

Writers with survival jobs must make a choice: write in the morning or write at night. I’m not a morning person AT ALL, but I’m committed to waking up at 3:00 am and writing before work (which starts at 7:10 am). This routine enables me to write without the clamor of the classroom in my head.

Routine is a writer’s best friend. It’s important to set aside time to write, no matter what. Artists aren’t machines, but as the novelist and short story writer Louis L’Amour once said, “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”

If you want to be a writer, you must put your fanny in the chair and stay there until you hit a certain word count every day. It’s that easy… and that hard.

Bio:

Caitlin McCarthy received her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Emerson College, which is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best graduate programs in the country. An award-winning screenwriter at international film festivals and labs, Caitlin has written two feature films: WONDER DRUG, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation script at the Hamptons Screenwriters Lab and a Semifinalist in the 2017 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting (one of only 151 entries to advance from the Quarterfinal Round, with 7,102 scripts entered); and RESISTANCE, a script accepted into the exclusive Squaw Valley Screenwriters Program, which is made possible with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Academy Foundation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Caitlin is also partnering on writing/creating the TV series “Pass/Fail” with Jim Forbes, a multiple Emmy, ALMA, AP and Golden Mic award-winning writer, producer, correspondent, and narrator (most notably VH1’s iconic “Behind The Music”); and writing/creating the TV series “Free Skate.” Furthermore, Caitlin’s TV spec scripts have won awards or advanced in prestigious competitions such as the Austin Film Festival; Final Draft Big Break; and Stage32. In addition to screenwriting, Caitlin serves as an English teacher at an inner-city public high school. Prior to education, Caitlin worked in public relations, where she fostered relationships with the press and crafted messages for companies that were delivered worldwide. She is represented by Barry Krost of Barry Krost Management (BKM).

Links:

Official Website
Twitter
Facebook
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YouTube
Google+
LinkedInb
Stage32

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