Meet Cody Smart

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cody Smart a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Cody, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

Creativity is such an important part of what I do as a script doctor working in the film/tv industry. I basically have to be creative and come up with creative solutions to story problems on a daily basis. And that’s not always easy, especially when life gets in the way.

But I’ve found that in order for me to stay creative, I need to constantly be feeding that creativity. That means reading on a daily basis. Watching new films, documentaries, tv shows, news specials, etc. Going out into the world and having new experiences. Traveling. Going on adventures that push me to try new things. Talking to people and people watching. Making contacts. And making sure that I’m always challenging myself to look at life from different points of view or perspectives.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’m a script doctor and consultant, which basically means I help take scripts to the next level and get them ready for production, or to be submitted for consideration. As a script doctor, I tackle script rewrites myself. My philosophy as a script doctor is to always keep my client’s story at the forefront, and not impose my own, while elevating the material. And as a script consultant, I provide creative solutions to story problems, point out areas in a script that aren’t working, and guide my clients as they tackle a new draft of their scripts.

I love what I do. I’m very passionate about telling stories that resonate with audiences, and that have a unique/interesting point of view. I love working directly with clients and helping them flesh out their characters and stories, to tell the best version of said story. I believe the film/tv industry is a collaborative business, and as such, we need more than one perspective to tell a story. It’s hard to do that sometimes when you’re so close to the material. So clients reach out to me to get fresh eyes on their scripts, and to come up with ideas to make things stronger.

In the upcoming months, I’m very excited to share I’ll be participating in the San Francisco Writers Conference (February, 2025) for the first time as one of the speakers in the Hollywood Summit, where I’ll be part of different panels, and will also be participating in events talking directly to attendees. This is a great opportunity for aspiring writers to talk to professionals like myself who read scripts for a living, so they can understand what the industry is looking for.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I think that the first skill/quality would be the love for reading. I became a book worm at a very young age, and I would devour any book I could get my hands on.

The second skill/quality would be a craving to tell stories – this was a bi-product from my love of reading, which started it all, and made me want to be the one telling stories. I would come up with short stories even in second grade, and write them down for my teachers to read.

Then the third skill/quality would be the ability to tell visual stories – scripts are blueprints for the screen, so they need to be written in a way that feels visual, with no internal thought, and where everything is externalized (which is very different than writing novels, for example).

So, my advice for anyone looking to go into Screenwriting would be to read as much as they can, experience the world, and look at it in a visual way, in order to be able to tell compelling stories that readers can picture in their heads as they read them.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

The ideal client for a script doctor/consultant is the one who’s open to suggestions and wants to brainstorm ideas together. Clients who’re married to every line of their script, and have a “justification” for every aspect of the story – even if it doesn’t make sense – are not the best clients to work with a consultant, and also probably not suitable to work in a collaborative industry.

The best work comes from working with clients who embrace the process of fleshing out their stories and characters. We engage in dynamic conversations, come up with a multitude of ideas, look at the story from all angles, and by doing so, we can elevate the script as a whole, and tell a much more compelling story.

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