DON’T KILL THE MESSENGER

I never actually meant to write DKTM.

I wrote this piece during my second semester at film school. Coming off Biscayne Bay, I wanted to test out a different genre, one I hadn’t tried in script format before. I had kept fantasy exclusively for my prose, but this was my first attempt to mix the two. The idea I pitched to the class was called The Big Leagues and every single note I received about the idea was that it sounded like the Hunger Games. But I, being far too stubborn, plowed ahead with the idea. 

This was when I learned that, if there’s more than one note about something, it’s probably not random. But, I charged ahead with The Big Leagues. I wrote pages and pages and pages of script (probably half a pilot). I had dozens of world-building documents and dozens of pages of character background. But class after class, I was met with severe plot holes, false-sounding dialogue, and the note that this sounded like the Hunger Games. 

It was the beginning of April when I decided to scrap the project.

The end of the semester, and my deadline, was May 5th-ish. I had a month, give or take, to create a whole new pilot of better quality, and most importantly, not make it sound like the Hunger Games. So, I pivoted. Hard. I don’t exactly remember how much time I spent rebuilding my pilot, but it was certainly unhealthy. 

So, I never actually meant to write DKTM. It was created by accident, and desperation, and a lot of coffee. But this fantasy world continues to be one that intrigues me, and one that I’ve grown to love.