Nick Batchelder is the writer of WHILE OWLS SLEEP, an incredible true story about an A-team of LGBTQ heroes taking on the Nazis that truly deserves to be told. Nick recently shared with us some insights into his writing that we wanted to put out there.
Favorite movie theater experience?
Off the top of my head... The Searchers and Boogie Nights in 70mm, In the Mood for Love, Blue Velvet, Paris, Texas, Blade Runner, and Chungking Express in 35mm... the list is probably much more extensive that though.
What is your favorite genre to write?
There's something magical about historical drama. Ambition. Sweep. Big themes, explored over huge, teeming canvases. A good period piece will evoke a time and place so well, you'll feel like you know it as your own. Beyond the sense of wonder evoked by the superb costumes, cinematic landscapes, and the time-machine trip for the small price of a movie ticket, period films offer a unique way to view ourselves. While the ruling class structures, technologies, wars, plagues, etc. may differ era to era, people, and especially their nature, do not. To be transported to another time, where the problems and stakes may be higher than our own modern ones, we not only find ourselves thoroughly entertained by heightened drama, but relating to and reflecting on what it is to be, well, us — humans.
Is there a genre you'd like to try in the future?
No.
What is your writing process?
Because I'm so enamored by historical fiction, my process usually starts by stumbling upon so new (to me) piece of history, falling in love with it, and then tumbling down the habit hole of learning everything about it. In the case of While Owls Sleep (my script that survived the Gauntlet), I came across my band of heroes when researching for another project. Soon I found and translated the diary of the protagonist, which only existed in Dutch, and eventually wound up wondering the streets of Amsterdam, mildly inebriated with the premier Dutch LQBTQ historian. We laughed and cried as we visited various landmarks to the heroes and antagonists of the story. Then, steeped in ALL the minutiae, putting pen to paper was oh so easy.
Do you have any tips on starting a new screenplay?
Outline, outline, and outline some more — I'm a structure fiend. On a serious note though, the more I structure upfront the easier it is for me to turn off my 'thinking' brain and turn on my 'feeling' brain when I eventually get to the scene writing level. This allows the characters to take the wheel, and then I restructure as needed.
What is the first thing you do after finishing a screenplay?
Drink whiskey.