Exclusive interview with author "Dylan Coburn"

Dylan Coburn has been drawing and writing professionally for over 30 years.  In addition to writing original screenplays and consulting on others, Dylan works as a storyboard artist on Hollywood television and feature films, such as “Percy Jackson & the Olympians” and “A Minecraft Movie.”  Awarded multiple times for his original independent films, Dylan believes the screenplay format is the most potent and efficient way to experience new stories.

He is a published horror/thriller author; his new book, Johnny Whisper, is available now.

Dylan sat down with Writer’s Life Magazine to discuss his career, the difference between prose writing and creating screenplays, his new book and all about his journey as an author. Here is what he shared with us.

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Tell us a bit about your background and career.

I came to writing through the visual arts -- specifically hand-drawn animation.  I was trained on-the-job drawing Donald Duck for Disney TV in the 1990s. I started my own studio in 2000, which I managed for 15 years, before landing where I am today in the film business as a storyboard artist and writer.  

Has writing always been a passion of yours?

I’ve only ever had an aptitude for two things: writing and drawing.  Of course, I wanted to buck the trend - to do anything I pleased, at a high level - but nothing came as natural to me as writing and drawing.  Ever since I became instantly obsessed with Batman comics as a kid, the two disciplines were fused in my mind as one. Now I think I know why. My son, Zac was asking me what comics I read and I suddenly realized that I wasn’t reading them.  I just glazed over the words, looked at the images and made up my own story.  So for me, writing and drawing are one.  Whether writing or drawing, I’m always trying to evoke emotion and create images for my audience.  As a practical side note, there’s no better training for a storyboard artist than “reading” well-crafted comics as a two-year-old!  

Tell us about your upcoming book, Johnny Whisper.

Johnny Whisper is a horror/thriller story about a teenage boy’s sick, twisted relationship with an ancient creepy doll named Johnny.  It’s like “Child’s Play,” “M3gan” or “Annabelle,” but told at the pace of a rollercoaster-ride action story.

What was your impetus for writing your book?

I like to address concerns that no one wants to talk about and dress them up as entertaining fiction; because fiction can make very thorny issues palatable for the public.  Johnny Whisper is my metaphor for what can happen when a lonely youth takes the worst possible advice.  Spoiler - a lot of bad stuff!  My agent ran a mile from this book.  My readers said, “Are you sure you want to talk about this?”  For a time, I too, was afraid— but when my goddaughter took her own life— it was time to publish.

The book is also a Pocket Screenplay - tell us about that.

Pocket Screenplays are my new and original format, a screenplay in pocket book form.  It fits easily in a jacket pocket, and as an E-book it looks amazing on tablets and phones.  It’s a book designed for the modern age, with the depth and story of a novel, packed into a novella-length punchy manuscript. My day job is drawing movies from screenplays, and the format is THE BEST way to consume stories as a reader. Reading screenplays all the time made me impatient when reading novels - 70,000 words - are you kidding me!  I feel strongly that the public will love to read screenplays, and get the whole story in a couple of hours using their imagination as they read. They can make movies in their minds on a train or bus, or at night after dinner or at lunch for some midday magic.  I’m excited to launch the format to the world! 

What are the messages you want readers to take away from reading your work?

First and fore-most it’s always about entertainment, taking the reader on an ever-building intense ride, with characters they’ll love to spend time with. Following that, it’s for three specific groups: Anyone 13+ intrigued by the supernatural and forces beyond our control; Teenagers who can experience the thrill and danger of being under the influence of the worst possible advisor; And this is the big one for me— it’s a wake-up call for parents in this digital age… if they’ve got the guts to read it.  My questions to parents, “Do you know who is influencing your kids?  Is it impacting them negatively?  If so— what are you going to do about it?”

Who are some authors you draw inspiration from?

I love the brevity and clarity of William Peter Blatty’s work, and the spiritual undertones.  The Exorcist is known as a horror story, but when he was writing it, he thought he was writing a crime story.  I feel exactly the same way about Johnny Whisper.  Many will see it as a horror.  I see it as a crime story wrapped in the metaphor of a supernatural thriller.  Blatty never wastes time.  He finds the right word for everything, but retains a wonderful open-minded spirituality that I hope to evoke in my readers.

Ehren Kruger made “The Ring” work.  The structure of the screenplay is to my mind nearly perfect. He took a pretty hard sell concept and made it palatable for the mass audience.  I’m constantly trying to make my ideas clear and concise and to get the buy in from my readers that the “good” in my movies is “a unified good”.  Kruger did this.

Thomas Wolfe said it first, but no one does “God’s lonely man” quite like Paul Schrader.  His screenplays for “Taxi Driver” and “First Reformed” show that loneliness can lubricate any rationalization for any action - no matter how diabolical.  In Johnny Whisper - my character Jason is “God’s Lonely Man.”  The death of his father renders him utterly empty.  Unequipped for modern life, Nietzsche said it: “When nothing is true, everything is permitted.”  Those who believe in nothing, will believe in anything - Jason believes in nothing, so Johnny’s influence goes right to his very soul. He is an instant corruption of the spirit. 

What are some of the differences in writing a book versus a screenplay?

The modern advice to prose writers is to show, not tell.  Prose writers often do not abide by this. With a screenplay, show and don’t tell is the art -- if it’s invisible to the eye, it should not be in the script.  Characters must be built from actions and words, not their thoughts.  Only a narrator can reveal invisible elements, and most screenwriters avoid narration. While it can work, it’s not my style. I don’t need it. The other big difference is that screenplays fight for brevity to ease the reading burden, so the need for getting exactly the right word to fit the emotion of the scene is of primary importance. Screenplays full of slabs of descriptive text are not welcome in the entertainment industry. Novelists have many different styles and objectives, but screenwriters share a goal to always be precise and keeping the writing style clean, crisp and clear.  

What are you working on now and what can we expect from you next?

My next Pocket Screenplay is a creature feature focusing on how to combat a world that is full of lies by returning to primitive roots.  It’s kind of my Werewolf story, my Jekyll & Hyde, or my Incredible Hulk.  It’s a lot of fun! The first draft was a blast and I’m in revision right now.  With technology rapidly moving in the A.I direction, I feel like it won’t be long before our world will be utterly cluttered with lies.  Words, pictures and videos can now all convincingly lie and be spread worldwide with a click.  I wanted to write something that presents a possible end game of a world like that, and how humans might regress into animistic ways of thinking to combat it.  It’s another one of my scary ideas wrapped in the colorful gift wrap of escapist fiction!  

On the drawing side, I’m currently storyboarding a feature film with Paramount and enjoying watching the box-office success of “A Minecraft Movie” that I helped craft with director, Jared Hess, who was a joy to work with!

Where can people find out more about you and your work?

All my original books can be found at www.pocketscreenplays.com.  Storyboards and other projects are featured at www.idrawandwrite.com.  Two links, one person and lots of projects!