WOTA #060 - ”Inspiration isn‘t an Accident” (w/ Scott Smith)

**Scott Smith** (0:00)
It's your frustration at, I don't want to stand there, I don't care, stand there, fine, I'm standing here. People are like, oh, endlessly watchable because it's real, right? Because you've informed what's really going on with you.
That's it. If I were to say what true creativity is, it comes from the contrast, the conflict of things that come from a real place. The ownership of that is what anybody wants to watch.

**Brandon Colby Cook** (0:31)
This is Way of the Artist with Brandon Colby Cook and Evan Schulte.

**Evan C. Schulte** (0:35)
Identifying your blocks and demystifying your struggles, so that you can claim your own path and make your life a work of art.
Hello, everybody. Welcome to Way of the Artist Podcast. Once again, coming at you from Isolation Town. Pop, like, location the world, really.

**Brandon Colby Cook** (1:11)
Location my living room.

**Evan C. Schulte** (1:12)
Yeah, location everyone's living room, office, whatever it is. Hope everyone's doing well out there, keeping safe, being smart during this time. Always a good thing. We've got a guest on the show who's a friend of ours, who's a super talented guy. He's a screenwriter extraordinaire, Scott Smith. He's shaking his head right now at the praise, but he's a fantastic guy, and we're happy to have him on the show with us. We're gonna get into perhaps some of like our creative laws, things that are going on presently that are relevant to to all of us, I suppose. But Scott, thank you very much for being on the show with us.

**Scott Smith** (2:10)
Thanks for having me guys. Appreciate it.

**Brandon Colby Cook** (2:13)
So Scotty, first question out of the gate, man. How'd you get here? How'd you end up here on this show? Well, what have you been doing with yourself?

**Scott Smith** (2:24)
Oh, how did I get here? I got two talented friends who are blazing a trail and said, come on, come share an episode with us. Now, I've just been finding my way, finding my way, going from somebody who didn't really know much about screenplays to somebody who's working to find their own voice, you know, and write what excites them and not be critical of it.

**Evan C. Schulte** (2:53)
Amanda, that was a loaded comment. But let's carry on.

**Brandon Colby Cook** (3:01)
Well, Ciro, you did a podcast. When we were back in the B&E podcast, back in the early days, Evan and I were just having conversations, really as artists trying to figure out, you know, how to balance artistry and industry. And you did an interview back then when we were talking about that kind of stuff. And now we're talking more about, you know, kind of more about the artist process and how everybody finds their own way and their journey.
And something that I don't think we really got a chance to ask you on the last show was, like, how did you find your way to screenwriting? Like, what's the what's the journey? Because, you know, like, there's a lot of people out there who maybe, you know, don't know if they can be writers. And, like, I know a little bit about your story and how you got there. And I feel like I was a bit a part of it. But like, how did everything happen for you to get yourself to the point where, you know, you're like seriously putting yourself in the ring as a contender to be a, you know, professional screenwriter?

**Scott Smith** (4:01)
Good question. So I always knew that I wanted to do something creative in my life. Always. And it was just a lot of trial and error. It was. I tried acting for a lot of years, and I tried, you know, I bought drums, I bought bass, I bought guitar, I drew. I did a lot of things and you just kind of wait and see what lands with you. But it was screenwriting that I landed on. And with each one of these things, I would do it for a while, and then you just kind of check in with yourself. And there was always a point where it was kind of like, I don't think this is for me, but it never happened with screenwriting. I've always loved movies. I've always loved story. I see things very visually, which I'm very lucky to have that.
And the idea of being an actor was, I don't want to be in front of the camera a ton. I don't mind acting a little bit here and there. But here's the thing. It's not to say that I couldn't have done any of those other things. I probably could have done any one of them, but one that really landed was screenwriting. And it just kind of hasn't ever gone away. And so I thought, okay, well, why don't I try and write a screenplay? And when I completed it, it was like, yeah, that was awesome. It was really difficult, but I felt a real sense of fulfillment that I never felt at the end of doing any one of those other activities. So I just kind of kept at it and it just feels natural. Right.