Rob Cottingham

Three or four spec screenplays on my hard drive, and they’ll almost certainly never see a director’s Sharpie.

Do I care? Sure. I’d love to see them produced. I’d love to see these characters brought to life, hear how actors would interpret the dialogue, watch an audience react.

But the process of writing and rewriting these scripts, workshopping them with friends and strangers, and conceiving the stories from start to finish has improved my own writing immensely. I’ve learned to use subtext, suspense and conflict to write more compelling speeches, blog posts, ad copy, standup bits and much more.

And I haven’t closed the door on writing another screenplay – far from it. I still hear dialogue in my head (that’s not as crazy as it sounds) and the ideas still keep coming. Maybe once the kids are in school…

...but my favourite was on a coldish night, when I phoned a high school friend on the spur of the moment, drove with him up into the Gatineau Hills, and each lay down on the hood of the car - warming ourselves over the slowly-cooling engine - and watched the extraordinary show above our heads, far from the light of the city.

Tag me still full, several months later.