My First Screenwriting Project Is Streaming on Hulu!
“Something Real” is a dark comedy about the particular fuckery of modern life
The short film I co-wrote with my friend Tamara just came out on Hulu this week, and I’m so excited for my friends and family (and strangers, eep!) to watch it.
“Something Real” is a dark comedy about what happens when we try to outsource our emotional labor. My hope is that the film reminds us there are some problems technology can’t—and shouldn’t—solve, at least not if we’re trying to retain some semblance of our humanity.
It’s only thirteen minutes long, so I hope you’ll watch it and share with friends. Click the button below or search for “Rising Voices” to find it on Hulu. It’s the first episode of season 5.
How the eff did I get into screenwriting, you ask?
As a one-trick fiction pony, I never thought I’d write a film, but what I love about writing is that it’s filled with surprises.
Sometimes I imagine my writing career as a long hallway with doors on either side, and the longer I walk, the more doors there are. I could keep opening doors forever and ever, stumbling into random rooms—new ideas, new projects, new genres, new opportunities. The trick, I’m learning, is to not stay in any one room too long—cut to me happily revising the same novel until I’m a skeleton—or leave a room too early just because it feels uncomfortable inside.
For me, the screenwriting room felt uncomfortable, but I’m so glad I stayed.
It all started at a magical residency in the forest…
In the spring of 2024, I attended a writing residency at Hedgebrook on Whidbey Island. At Hedgebrook, up to six writers at a time get to hermit away in a series of mystical little cottages, each containing a wood stove, a reading chair, and a kitchenette—everything a writer might need to get. shit. done. At the end of each day, the group gathers in a communal kitchen for dinner, dessert, and conversation.
I’ve had the privilege of attending a few writing residences now, and though the underlying intention is always to get work done, the true gift is the people you meet there.
My cohort at Hedgebrook was incredible—I loved all of the women I met there—but I was especially lucky that my time overlapped with Tamara. Along with another writer from our cohort, we’d stay up late (well, late for me, maybe 10 p.m. ha ha) watching shitty reality TV and drinking tea. We’d talk about art and politics and our careers and books and the different animals we’d heard in the night.
At the end of the residency, it was hard to say goodbye—to the little cottages that had protected and nurtured us, to the jar of unlimited cookies (!!!), to the forest paths outside our doors, and to each other. Anyone who has attended a residency knows the strange summer-camp magic that happens—bonds form quickly, and it feels hard to imagine life beyond the residency dreamworld.
As we were saying goodbye, Tamara told me to email her some short stories; she was curious about my work and wanted to read it. I thought she was just being nice, but not long after the residency, I sent her a few of my stories, and she asked if I wanted to turn one of them into a screenplay. I said yes, even though I had no idea what the fuck I was doing. I’d never written a screenplay before. I had, in fact, only read one screenplay, randomly, because a screenwriter friend here in Bellingham gave me the script for “Before Sunset.” I didn’t have a screenwriting platform or understand how the formatting worked. But I was curious, and so I gave it the old college try. My friend here gave me some guidance, as did Tamara, and I guess I figured out the rest because Tamara submitted it to a contest and…
it didn’t get picked! 😂
This is, of course, how much of writing goes. You make a thing, it gets rejected, and then you move on to the next thing.
Do you want to know the difference between writers who get published and writers who don’t? It’s that second step: the moving on to the next thing.
Anyways, not too long after this, Tamara saw another contest called Rising Voices that called for scripts about “the future of work.” With the deadline approaching, we got on a call and quickly brainstormed some ideas (a few more doors off that infinite writing hallway!).
After considering a film about a retirement community/work camp on the moon, the idea we kept coming back to was a film about outsourcing emotional labor. We were fascinated by the ways people can buy their way out of doing this work—hiring people to mourn at their loved ones funerals or chat with potential partners on dating apps (a job I applied for many years ago and, ha ha, didn’t get).
What we ended up with was a story about two people, Dax and Beau, who so badly want to love and be loved, but can’t figure out how to be vulnerable with one another. The film is about what happens when they try to avoid the messy work of figuring out their relationship. Spoiler alert: things get weird!
On writing 17,384 drafts
Okay, I’m going to share with you the secret to how I work: I write a thing really quick, it sucks, and then I have to rewrite it 700 million times while banging my head against a wall. Cool, right?
Turns out, strange as it may sound, not every writer works this way! One of those writers is Tamara, who prefers to meticulously plan out her work ahead of time so that, when it’s time to put pen to paper, the story just neatly unfolds according to her plan. Quite the concept!
It was interesting when our two processes collided. Tamara kept wanting to write outlines and character studies and understand what the film was trying to say. Meanwhile, I was over here like “I wrote four different drafts this morning after guzzling six shots of espresso, ha ha, maybe one of them will work!?”
I’m not exaggerating when I say we wrote 16 different versions of this screenplay, passing it back and forth and meeting over WhatsApp to talk through changes. It was probably more drafts than this when all was said and done. In the end, we got some generous guidance from the folks at Rising Voices and eventually sculpted the screenplay into a version that we loved.
When your characters become real people
The best part about working on this film was that I got my first glimpse into how a movie is made. Tamara directed the film, (she is a beautiful director, you should check out her other work!) and would send me photos and updates as the project came together.
Let me tell you, it was WILD when I first saw the actors who would play our main duo, Dax and Beau. I’m a huge Saturday Night Live fan girl (I think I’ve seen every single sketch from the last ten years!), so the fact that we got Sasheer Zamata to play Dax still makes me giddy. I also fell in love with Tommy Dewey as our leading guy. Seeing the two of them bring this script to life was nothing short of magical.
I wasn’t at the shoot in L.A. so I can’t say first-hand what it was like, but Tamara made it seem like a total whirlwind, in the best way. (Lights, camera, action, mishaps, prosthetic melting faces, etc.)
Like any well-laid plan, certain things didn’t go the way they were supposed to. Settings changed last minute. Chunks of the script were cut. But Tamara, artist that she is, stitched the whole thing together seamlessly.
Credit also goes to our amazing producers, editor, cinematographer, costumer designer, casting director, and the people who edited the music and sound. (Turns out it takes a village to make a film, even a short one!)
My favorite shot
The scene below is one of my favorites, because Tamara was able to recreate the lonely, beautiful coziness of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks.” Isn’t it gorgeous?
And then it premiered at Tribeca!
A dream I never even thought of dreaming came true, and I got to attend the film’s premier at Tribeca in New York City. I got a little drunk on free margaritas, so the evening is kind of a blur, but I remember feeling a rush of adrenaline and nerves as “Something Real” played for a packed audience. It was thrilling to hear people laugh and cheer for these imaginary people that Tamara and I had created.
From there, the film screened at festivals around the world and the country. And now it’s only Hulu!
When you’re done watching “Something Real,” check out the films from the other Rising Voices directors. The season as a whole is an incredible mosaic of what talented young filmmakers are creating right now.
As you’ve probably seen, my next novel, HOMEWRECKER, will come out from Spiegel & Grau next year, so that’s my focus for the moment, but Tamara and I have a few irons in the fire, including a feature about trad wives and witches we’ve been chipping away at. You haven’t heard the last of us!
If you have any questions about the film, please leave a comment! I’d love to talk to about it.
Amazing! Congrats! Can’t wait to watch it!
This is so cool! I am so happy for you. I love how you talked about the different ways you and Tamara write. I can't wait to watch it!