People Who Inspired Me To Be A Writer: Kevin Williamson (Screenwriter/filmmaker)

As a lifelong lover of cinema and screenwriting, if someone were to ask me who my favorite screenwriters of all time were, one of the top two names that would come up is Kevin Williamson. The films he wrote, as well as his writing style, not only contributed to my love for cinema and writing, but also made me interested in studying the art of filmmaking at a very young age.

Hailing from New Bern, North Carolina, Kevin Williamson rose to prominence in the late 90's with his 1996 debut film, Scream, written by Williamson himself and directed by horror master Wes Craven. Scream was a meta-spoof slasher film that took a serious toned poke of jokes at the stereotypes of the horror genre, especially slasher films. Scream was a smash hit. It grossed $173 million at the world wide box office, it's critical reception was highly positive and it created a new wave of hodunit horror at the end of the 90’s. The success of the film revitalized the slasher genre, which had previously been in a considerable state of mediocrity for most of the mid 90's. I also credit Scream for teaching me how to have an interesting build up when writing a story.

I can honestly say that Scream has been one of my top favorite films of all time since it first came out. When I was a kid I would go over my dad's house for the weekend and he sometimes shared a place with one of my uncles who had Scream on VHS and would let me and my sister watch it when we came over. Eventually my grandparents who lived in California gave me and my older sister Scream 2 (1997) as a gift when we came out to visit one summer a couple years later and I have to say that this movie genuinely scared the crap out of me because of how realistically menacing it was and yet it became my favorite movie at the time and I would watch it over and over again. Even at the young age I was at the time, I was very intrigued with how this movie was better than even the first film, which was an instant classic, due to having a bigger and better story with a more thrilling outcome.

I was always a big movie buff, it's a trait that runs in my family, but watching the Scream films made me want to learn how exactly a film is crafted. It was here that I started watching the end credits to any film I watched so that I could learn who made the film, both in front of and behind the cameras. It was here that I also learned who Kevin Williamson was as the man who created this story and the techniques he uses when he crafts a screenplay. When I learned who Kevin Williamson was I also learned about his other written screenplays of the time as well including I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and The Faculty (1998). I Know What You Did Last Summer and it's 1998 sequel would both become two more of my favorite slasher films ever and I actually saw the sci-fi thriller The Faculty at the movies with my mom, dad and older sister in 1998 when it first came out and was just as obsessed with it as I was the Scream films, Kevin Williamson had become one of my favorite filmmakers, screenwriters, and storytellers without me even realizing it.

What makes the stories that Kevin Williamson writes so captivating to me is how character focused they are. Not too many filmmakers can flesh out a character the way he does it. I have always thought that when you came up with a fictional story that you come up with the story first and then you focus on the characters, but with Kevin Williamson I am truly convinced that he creates a character first and then builds the story around the character. When you sit and think about it, this is the mirror image of reality. We are all born into this world as our own character and then our lives develop from the choices we make based off our character. Whether it is Maureen Prescott from the Scream series or Julie James from I Know What You Did Last Summer, Kevin Williamson starts every one of his stories not with what happened, but with who it happened to and how their choices gave us a story.

Midway through Kevin Williamson's The Faculty one of the main characters mimicked a philosophy shared with them by one of the teachers in the film's plot: "Write what you know". In the case of Kevin Williamson I firmly believe that he was referencing his own solid belief of writing who you know. In every Kevin Williamson story every character he creates is not only entertaining, but very relatable on a personal level. When I was seven years old, the age during which I was most impacted by the Scream films, I specifically remember being able to identify kids in my second grade elementary class who reminded me of all the characters from the series. This is something I took with me as writing became my passion in the future. Today whenever I write a story I always base the traits of my conceived characters off of the identities of people I really know, or at least new at some point in my life.

Kevin Williamson's meta-nature and realistic take on his thrilling scripts had a heavy hand in influencing how I write a story. The most identical trait of a Kevin Williamson film is without a doubt how self aware all the characters in his stories are of what's happening around them. Whether it's a deranged killer imitating murders he or she has seen in a film or an alien invasion taking place under the noses of a couple of science fiction geeks, the discussion of these topics between characters all while they were unfolding around these same characters made for an interesting listen every time around. After watching Kevin Williamson do this my whole life I made sure to incorporate this savvy style of dialoging in with the characters of the stories I craft. Furthermore, the fact that he could craft realistic murder stories out of the basic real world issues we view on the news everyday without having to have a supernatural or ghoulish edge to his story themes was always very impressive to me and is the reason why I have always regarded Scream as the most realistic slasher film of all time.

It takes creativity when mastering a genre when you write, but to master more than one makes you a genius. Kevin Williamson did a great job at mastering teen horror in first couple years as an acclaimed screenwriter, but when created a young adult drama for television known as Dawson’s Creek in 1998 he let it be known that he knew how to create the expressions of young voices not only through scares and thrills, but also through dramatic and even social commentary as well. Dawson’s Creek would become one of the biggest young adult dramas of its time. It really is funny when you look back on it all, Kevin Williamson conquered the big screen and the small screen in two different genres for the same audience. That’s the multifaceted writer I aspire to be, one who can reach many through multiple mediums.

Like Kevin Williamson, I too come from North Carolina. Growing up on his work I’ve always been inspired to know that a fellow North Carolinian has created so much groundbreaking work that set a stage, paved a way and even revitalized a genre. The work of Kevin Williamson is a shining example that I can do it too. For all the work he has written and for how it helped put me on the path to my passion, Kevin Williamson will always be one of my heroes of writing and one of the greatest writers ever who inspired me to want to be a writer.