By Ann Minnett

I had the great pleasure to take Kathy Dunnehoff’s Screenwriting class at FVCC in May. She’s taught for twenty-five years but still managed to be enthusiastic and involved with our class. Great feedback and handouts, too! Guest speaker Dennis Foley was a plus.

Kathy inspired me to give screenwriting a try.

I use Scrivener for my novels, and it features a scriptwriting template. Even with that assist, the screenwriting format is initially clunky, and I tend to add details of a novel (a big NO). Nonetheless, I’m writing a screenplay based on my second novel, Serita’s Shelf Life. The novel is funny, sad and sometimes crazy, but readers love the main character. She might translate well to film. About a third of the way into the story, her flamboyance is coming through on the script’s pages.

We’ll see if I have the aptitude. In the meantime, this writer’s having fun getting back into Serita’s head and imagining her on the big screen.