“Writers Shouldn’t Compare Their First Draft To An Oscar Winner’s Final Draft” Steve Harper Talks Screenwriting

“I started out as an actor and that was in the driver’s seat of my life for a couple of decades. I did a bunch of that and I felt like I eventually hit a wall in terms of the kinds of things that I was getting offered and the kinds of projects that I was hearing about,” says writer/ actor/ producer Steve Harper. The creative has worked on many plays and various films and television shows, most notably, Stargirl. In search for another outlet for his creative energy, he turned to writing to create work that was closer to his interests.

Harper got his start in theater. “I think that there’s something really fundamental about the space of theater because we learn to create drama from character.” A play can be interesting based on two people talking. In contrast, the visual aspect of film and television might eclipse the power of these relationships. “The relationships in theater can be smaller and more granular and create a bigger impact.”

In his television work (Covert Affairs, God Friended Me, While We Breathe), Harper has the opportunity to expand his vision both in terms of exotic locations as well as character. “It comes down to stakes. It might be the big fights in a superhero space or the international takeover in a political space.”

Harper’s interests extend into “culture, spirituality, sexuality, race, class, mythical beings and powers beyond human understanding.” His diverse passions are academic, so he doesn’t consciously use them as the starting point for his stories. They gently filter through during the writing process. “One of my biggest drivers are what am I dreaming about, what am I afraid of, what am I unaware of, what is smacking me in the face, and what am I obsessed by,” elaborates Harper.

Growing up as a black kid in New York City, Steve Harper experienced a profound sense of otherness. “The flavor and the energy of race permeates through our lives, but we’re not necessarily talking about it.” He compares the feeling to the evil influences in Stephen Kings’ stories that we can’t see or don’t know about, but are aware of. What’s happening under the radar? “By and large, these ideas that I write about come to me and they insist that I pay attention to them. I don’t intellectually ferret them out. I think ideas are drawn to me too and then we find each other in the middle.”

Harper’s work crosses into some difficult subject matter such the serial killers in Tell Me Your Secrets. Other times, it can be much lighter, such as in Stargirl.   The writer doesn’t see this range as an issue. It all comes down his love of excavating stories beneath their surface. He sees the intention of Tell Me Your Secrets as subtext. “What secrets, what revelations can we dig out? I’m looking for the ways in which the characters are digging to the next level and invading each other’s space.”

His creative curiosity drives his interest in the other characters that inhabit his worlds whether they be superheroes or serial killers. “The comic book space asks the same question of what are we capable of? What am I capable of as a human being that I’m not aware of.”

“I think we spent a lot of time asking these questions on Stargirl. How does Courtney Whitmore (Brec Bassinger) deal with her extra responsibility? Is she handling it well, or not? What is her anxiety about that? Those are character spaces that I relate to.”

Creating Television

“We talk about writers’ rooms and writers being able to go on set and produce episodes. To me, this is the space of craft. We write TV, but we also build TV. We also collaborate on TV. Having come from the space of theater, we learn to build those things together.”

“Being able to go on set, is much more than just an idea that goes from the page to when we see it filmed. It’s working with all of these artists to create something that hopefully will connect with the audience. It’s a way of improving the writing craft.”

Steve Harper has written books, is a public speaker, done podcasts, written, directed, and produced film, television, and theater. We asked him if has a platform preference. “When I grow up, I just wanna be busy. But there is part of me that feels like the notion of leaning into the next project, or leaning into something that I haven’t done before. I don’t have a favorite medium. It’s, ‘What’s the next exciting story?'” The platform is consequential. The creative adds that he’d love to do graphic novels and short films. Maybe even dip  his creative toe into animation in the future.

A Writer’s Voice

“I’d describe my voice as adventurous, playful, empathetic, imaginative, socially challenging, and funny,” asserts Harper.

Steve declined to state whether he has a career-defining or favorite piece of work. “I often say that my signature piece of work varies, because as an artist, where your head’s at creatively, varies from day to day, decade to decade.”

“Ask if there is something, not necessarily that you like best, but rather, closest to my heart because it really reflects who I am at a moment in time.” After further prying, he considers his web series Send Me one of his signature pieces of work. “I think it’s a defining piece for me, partly because it speaks to this sort of magical realism space, but also to the history of black people in this country. It’s about time travel back to the days of slavery. I feel like there’s something that feels fundamentally core to me, there’s so much of myself, so much of my things that I’m obsessed with in that piece.”

“I’m currently working on a one person show, which is a theater piece. It is the story of me getting lost in a freak snowstorm on a car ride between Reno, Nevada and LA. There’s a lot of me in that piece too. There’s a lot of my questioning about what is it I’m doing on the planet. I thought I was going to die several times during that trip. What’s going on? Am I using my life well? Am I using my skills well? That feels like those are very core ideas for me.”

Clearly not every story idea that Steve has is written or performed. “Sometimes, there are pieces that I feel need to be urgently told. I feel really compelled into something that has to be told now. And there are other pieces that I work on that feel like like writing practice, in the Zen sense, which feels like I need to show up on a regular basis in the space of this piece and see what happens. It’s more of an exploration.” Much of it also depends on how formed the idea is.

Harper also announced that he’d love to be on a medical show. “When it’s done right, there’s something really interesting about the literal life and death stakes of that that aren’t about somebody taking somebody hostage or trying to kill somebody every week.”

He also declared his interest in the sci-fi space. “I’ve always been a fan of the Twilight Zone and Black Mirror. I would love to work with Robert and Michelle King. To me, their work is so strong. If you read a script of The Good Wife, they take Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), who’s a very talented attorney, but she isn’t the person who necessarily speaks the most. But their stage directions on the page put us on her shoulder and we will be with her as she reacts and responds to what other people are saying in a way that keeps us understanding that she’s the lead of the show.”

Advice To Writers

“ I think one of the things that I definitely end up talking about a lot with writers is about gentleness and forgiveness. I feel like we are so hard on ourselves as writers, as artists in general. Part of the challenge for us as writers is that we only get to see other people’s finished work.”

“Every writer that I work with is comparing themselves to an Oscar-winning something or an Emmy-winning something and we don’t know how many drafts it took that person to discover those things. We don’t know how many other writers came in to shape the story.”

“So, I invite people to give themselves some grace, some room, and some kindness and just keep chipping away.”

Find out more about Steve Harper HERE.