Meet Peter Hankoff

We were lucky to catch up with Peter Hankoff recently and have shared our conversation below.

Peter, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

Nothing writes itself. When I was a kid, I had to sit for two hours on the school bus on Fridays before I got home because we had to wait for a different school to let out. I realized if I did my homework on the bus, I had my weekend free. The idea of undone work that could be completed is a weight I do not enjoy. Waiting to the last minute is a junk adrenaline I do not relish. I know if I want to write, I must write. And I have learned that even doing a little work helps the rest of the work get done. I prefer that to the self-manufactured mad rush.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I have been a screenwriter for 50 years. Some years have been better than others in terms of getting work. I am for sure at my most productive and creative stages now. I redoubled efforts during the pandemic. I stripped everything down to the metal in the last 10 years to understand what writing is, why I do it, what it is supposed to achieve.

I spent ten plus years working on other people’s work as a writer and producer of documentaries. I love that work because it’s mostly been related to history and science and I’ve gotten to interview people who are part of history…and many who are way smarter…even than me.

I have totally thrown out all my old notions of the content of my work and have learned to look for the DNA of characters and the underlying meaning of whatever I am creating.

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?

Research, Research. Research.

If I don’t know what my characters know, I am writing blind. I will go back 4 generations on my main characters to see how they turned out or make sure they are true to the story I hope to achieve.

And then there’s the world i’m creating: how does it work, what does it look like. A painter friend once told me that if he was going to paint a salt shaker, he would have to know what the backside you don’t see looks like before he could paint it.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?

I am currently totally rewriting something I (thought I) completed in 1978. My main characters have flipped as I see that the story has totally refocused. What are their voices now? Why has this story become more relevant today than it was nearly 50 years ago? I have some answers. I’ve committed to writing it even if only 1 page a day. And so it slowly progresses. It’s completely outlined…but outlines are only sketches. The colors and shading are still a challenge.

Image Credits

Peter Hankoff