LON FAIRCHILD
How did you discover The Wiki Screenplay Contest and how did you decide to enter this contest among all the others?
I had seen the Palm Springs International Screenplay Awards on FilmFreeway and then read about it in the Hollywood Reporter. I was looking for a legitimate competition and was pleased to read that Palm Springs was considered top tier. Where do you live (City, State, or Country)? I live in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Your script stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your story and why did you write a script instead of a short story or a novel? What inspires your overall journey into screenwriting? I spent 32 years as a Special Agent with the Diplomatic Security Service, the law enforcement agency of the U.S. Department of State, and my wife was a Special Agent with the U.S. Secret Service. “Buchanan” is about two married federal agents, so I wrote what I lived over the past couple of decades. I am currently adapting the screenplay into a novel. |
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How do you decide which stories to tell, and what draws you to these particular themes?
The federal agent slant is a no-brainer. I mean, that’s the life I lived for so many years, and you always hear “write what you know,” so, easy peasy. What is your typical writing routine? How do you structure your workday to stay productive? I work from home eight hours a day. Then, I’ll run into our barn and get in a quick workout. I can’t miss my workouts. They’re like fuel for my brain. I’ll come back in and write for at least two-to-three hours. After that I’ll chill with my wife and son, oh, and Shay and Jasmine, our two Border Collies. How long did it take you to write your script...and what is your writing process? Do you outline...use index cards...white board...or just start with FADE IN? I wrote “Buchanan” with my nephew, Jared Pettit. Jared is a writer/actor with a Master’s in Screenwriting from DePaul University, so he was the technical guru with respect to formatting the screenplay, while I was more or less the subject matter expert on the Fed stuff. We just decided to put our heads together one day a few years back and “Buchanan” was the result. “Buchanan” has had many revisions and it has taken us nearly three years to get it to its current state. We’ve never been satisfied with “good enough.” We’ve always pushed the story further, revising dialogue, editing scenes, deleting characters…whatever it takes. How do you handle writer's block or moments of doubt (we all have them) during your creative process? As we all know, writing is tough. Sometimes what’s in our heads just can’t be translated to paper, and that can be frustrating. When that happens, I’ll go into the next room, which happens to be our game room, and throw darts. Now, I’m a terrible dart player, but I’ll throw for ten or fifteen minutes. Before long I’m so mad at the stupid darts for not going where I want them to go, that I’ve completely forgotten about the stupid scene that just isn’t working in my stupid script and I’m able to sit down with a whole new perspective. Might be a little…off…but, it seems to work. What tools or software do you find essential to your workflow as a screenwriter? Pure and simple, Final Draft. How do you approach competition entries, and what have you learned from participating in these contests? Which contests have you entered...and how has your work been received overall? Have those contests been helpful to you in your writing? We’ve entered several competitions and done relatively well. “Buchanan” won Best Action Pilot at the Spring 2025 Big Apple International Film Festival and was a Finalist in the Palm Springs International Film Festival for Spring 2025. “The Arc of Diplomacy”, a feature version of “Buchanan,” was a Finalist at the Dallas International Film Festival for Spring 2025. Can you share a specific challenge you've faced in your screenwriting and how you overcame it? Very few screenwriters nail it on the first time out. It would be like stepping out of the stands as a spectator at a Major League Baseball game, sauntering up to home plate in your street clothes, flipping off the pitcher and then crushing a 500-foot home run. It just doesn’t happen. It takes time and effort. I guess that’s one of the issues I faced. I’ve got all this knowledge and experience in the field of international law enforcement and when I initially put it into a script, I was too technical and the readers at the various competitions were like, “I don’t get it.” I was writing for other law enforcement subject matter experts when I should have been writing for subject matter experts in films and entertainment. Once I learned that lesson, the script was improved and began to do pretty well. So, I guess the lesson of the day was, write for your audience. If you are balancing your “writing time” with a “day job”...how are you managing that? It’s not easy, for sure. Things start at 5:30 am and I’ll work on my day job until 3:00 pm, or so. I’ve got a gym in our barn, so I’ll go in there for an hour after work. I find if I don’t get some sort of workout in, I feel sluggish and my wife says a get a little “bitchy,” whatever that means. Throughout the day, I have all these ideas going through my head, like film being sprocketed through a projector, flicking from one frame to another. I look forward to sitting in front of my computer when I can sift through those frames and get things down so they’re no longer just ideas and have become seeds beginning to grow. Where do you see yourself in five years as a screenwriter? Stephen King said, compared to a novel, a short story is like a quick kiss in the dark from a stranger. A movie script is sort of like that, but not quite. As a screenwriter, you have to transfer a story that originated in your mind to a hundred or so pages so that a director can manage a bunch of actors to play out your story on film. As a writer, that’s not a kiss in the dark. It’s more like brushing against someone on a crowded bus and smelling their perfume on your sleeve for the rest of the day. Writers rarely stand in the spotlight. We live and work in the shadows and our art is memorialized by others on the screen. I get that and I don’t mind it one bit. But, remember, without writers, there is no story. There is no director. There are no actors. Most writers are not in this business for the fame or the money. We’re in it to create something. To bring an idea forward that compels people to think, to feel, to laugh. So where do I see myself in five years as a screenwriter? I have no clue. I just hope I’m on that fuckin’ bus. What is your ultimate ambition as a writer? As a writer I want to get better every single day. I want to learn new ways to create interesting stories and engaging characters, to the point where readers don’t stop reading because they’ve vomited all over my script. The film and television industry is constantly evolving. How do you see the role of screenwriters changing, especially with the rise of streaming platforms and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence? Have you used A.I. in your writing; if so, how have you used it? In my opinion, the current cadre of screenwriters/actors/directors/producers in the industry are as good as those during any time period since movies became a thing, if not better. As a society, we tend to revere the past and idolize historical figures, placing them on pedestals far above the contemporary ones. So, a Michael Curtiz is seen as superior to a Jordan Peele just because, well, he’s a voice from the past. But maybe Curtiz isn’t better than Peele. Maybe we’re favoring Curtiz because we’re blurring any negative reflections of his work from a sense of nostalgia. In fact, maybe Peele is better because he’s had mounds of historical data to draw from, creating a more robust and comprehensive perspective that Curtiz could never match. Which film or television writers inspire you? Why? Debora Cahn. She wrote the Diplomat, one of the closest true-to-life series, in my opinion, on the American Foreign Service. Also, Quentin Tarantino. He’s like, “I don’t give a shit what the parameters call for. Stand the fuck back and watch this.” I like that type of attitude and I flatter myself when I say I try to do the same. But I can’t. Nobody shoves it in your face like Quentin. What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show? That’s a hard one, because my taste in film is constantly changing. “Inglorious Basterds” is a film I’ll watch over and over. I especially like Christoph Waltz’s character, Hans Landa, and how he’ll transition from German to English to French without so much as a hiccup. That’s fascinating to me, because my dumb ass will trip over French and Spanish when asking a simple phrase like, “How are you?”. As far as television goes, “Frasier” (the original) is like comfort food. My wife and I enjoyed it when were first married and now we’ll throw on an episode or two whenever we’re feeling sentimental. What advice do you have for aspiring screenwriters or filmmakers? It’s been my experience that most people don’t want advice, they want step-by-step instructions. And they want a money-back guarantee if those instructions don’t produce instant success. What I say to those people is this: There is no express lane for success. Sit your ass down and write. When your ass starts to hurt, stand up and write. When your feet start to hurt, lay on the couch and write. Pound the shit out of your keyboard. If you don’t go through at least one computer every two years, you’re doing it wrong. And learn. Pore over scripts. Dissect movies. Watch interviews with directors and writers you admire. Learn from them and apply that to your art. And for fuck’s sake, be patient. Success stems from knowledge. Knowledge originates from patience. Patience = Success. What else are you working on that the world needs to know about? (links to your projects?) “Maidstone” – a terminally ill woman makes a tough decision on the future of her Autistic son. “Waterford” – Virginians remain loyal to the Union. Where can the world find you online? (Social media links, etc.) Instagram: JohnnyRico125 X: Brock Buchanan |
