Bucking the Odds: Interview with Award-winning TV Writer Dominique Holmes

A Finalist in this year's ScreenCraft Pilot Launch Contest, screenwriter Dominique Holmes has an impressive list of contest wins that has garnered her quick attention in the industry. We spoke with Dominique to find out more about how she made the journey from Kingston, Jamaica all the way to Hollywood.

ScreenCraft: You’ve been in Los Angeles less than 6 months and you’ve already secured a literary manager and lots of meetings at top TV networks and production companies. How?

DH: There’s a saying about how overnight success happens after years of preparation.

ScreenCraft: Samuel Goldwyn, I think?

DH: ScreenCraft, always quick with the quotes! I came to visit LA from Jamaica because of some success I’d had with a few high profile screenwriting competitions and film festivals, but it takes more than festival and contest traction to break in. This is an industry of relationships, and people are eager to help if you express your vision.

ScreenCraft: What do you think of screenwriting competitions and conferences? Have they helped your career?

DH: Yes. Competitions and conferences are great opportunities to meet people working in the industry, especially if you are a screenwriter based outside of LA. I attended the Austin Film Festival for the first time one year ago for the premiere of Sophie, a short film that I wrote with director Alle Hsu. I loved the festival so much that I decided to submit my TV pilot script Bog Walk to Austin’s screenwriting competition on the off chance that I would be able to attend the festival again, and it worked! Bog Walk was chosen by AMC as one of five finalists at the Austin Film Festival this year.

I’ve had similar luck with other festivals – Bog Walk was a finalist at the Nashville Film Festival which led to the opportunity to attend ScreenCraft’s Nashville Writers Conference, where I got to pitch to development executives, producers and established screenwriters. Winning WeScreenplay’s Diverse Voices was a big boost to my career, and I’m grateful to the readers and judges who responded positively to my screenplay. The connections I made through competitions and conferences have become a major part of my network in Los Angeles.

ScreenCraft: How has your writing process has evolved over time?

DH: The biggest change is that I’ve discovered the importance of having a life. I used to turn into a recluse when I had a deadline, but I’ve discovered that nothing good comes from staying home seven days a week to write. It’s a no-brainer, but you can’t write about the human journey from your bedroom. Unless you’re Proust. I am not Proust.

ScreenCraft: How many scripts have you written and at what pace are you coming out with new material?

DH: I have about ten scripts in drawers. Three original pilots, three spec episodes, two features and a handful of shorts. There are a couple plays in there, too, collecting dust, and a dreadful novel. I can write a script pretty quickly now -- about two to three weeks for an hour-long drama, four to five for a feature -- but if I have the luxury of time, I’ll spend months playing with the outline.

ScreenCraft: You attended NYU for your MFA in Dramatic Writing. How did that experience help you in your chosen career?

DH: I attended NYU Tisch Asia, which meant I had the benefit of learning from excellent teachers while living in South East Asia. I’ll be forever grateful for the experience. I came from a visual arts background. I had studied painting and filmmaking at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, which is a notoriously experimental program. A rigorous program, but it nourished the rebel in me. My initial approach to dramatic writing was naïve. I thought I didn’t need to conform to structure, because I had better, more original ideas. What I learned at NYU was that I knew nothing, and that structure is everything. You have to know structure if you’re going to subvert audiences’ expectations. My two years at NYU were all about beating the rebel into submission and drilling structure into my brain. If it hadn’t been for the dramatic writing program at NYU Tisch Asia, I’d still be writing unreadable scripts and proud of it.

ScreenCraft: What advice do you have for up-and-coming screenwriters who want the kind of meteoric career strides that you’ve had this year?

DH: Don’t aim for perfection before sharing your work! There’s no such thing as a perfect script, and you’ll end up holding yourself back when you could be making strides forward. I tormented myself redrafting the first pilot I ever wrote for two whole years, because it was all I had at the time and it felt like my only option. The second I decided to put it away and try something new, scripts spewed out of me like I’d struck oil. It was like a creative embargo had been lifted. Once you have a handful of scripts you believe in, force yourself to step outside your comfort zone. Go to the conferences. Enter contests. Finally, this is an industry of relationships, so be kind, take no one for granted and pay it forward.

And here's an interview with Dominique in The Jamaica Observer, her hometown newspaper: