Emerging Screenwriters Interview Series - Elaine Loh and RB Ripley

Elaine Loh and R.B. Ripley have both run the gauntlet of an exhaustive race. Both Loh and Ripley are writers whose finely spun voices landed them in one of the most prestigious writing fellowship programs around, the WarnerMedia Access Program (aka HBOAccess). They have also both been featured by the ISA as Top 25 Screenwriters To Watch and have both won the Table Read My Screenplay Competition. Since then, their initial successes have led to a variety of career jumpstarts in the entertainment industry. However, both attest that their entry points were anything but straightforward. Between years of artistic development as writers and the ups-and-downs of navigating an ever-changing professional landscape, Loh and Ripley are both testaments to the value of hard work, artistic sincerity, and gratitude. 

Loh had applied to HBOAccess previously before securing her spot in the class of 2019. A few things changed for her in between applications. “I just kept writing and getting better. The other major thing I did was that I had decided to work with a consultant.” Working with a consultant, Loh says, helped assure that her application was “as competitive as it could be.” Though wary of the time, money, and exertion it takes on behalf of a writer to hire and work with a consultant, Loh’s decision-making ultimately came from a place of pragmatism and industry-savvy. “I hate to say ‘you need outside validation for your work,’ but guess what, we’re in a business of outside validation.” 

Ripley echoes a similar sentiment. Continuing to develop your own voice as a writer is imperative for the fellowship process. But in addition, Ripley cites sincerity and earnestness as a differentiating factor between his 2021 application for WarnerMedia and his previous applications to other programs. “I think a lot of writers ask themselves ‘What do they want?’ And finally, a few years ago, I said ‘I’m done asking that question,’ and I’m just gonna be me.” Letting down your guard and removing any filters between you and what you put on the page is something that Ripley feels resonates for prospective fellows. 

Once in the program, both Loh and Ripley emphasized the importance of getting to know your fellows, and the successes and pitfalls that come with such an overwhelming life change. Ripley stresses soaking up as many connections and perspectives as you can through a fellowship like WarnerMedia’s, even over pandemic-necessitated Zoom calls. “The people are the best part of a program like that. And we had a lot of different speakers from a lot of different sectors of the industry.” Ripley’s time in the program featured guest directors, executives, and more who offered their contrasting perspectives on what appeals to them in writing. “The more I do this,” Ripley states, “I’m trying to walk that fine line of making sure that what I put on the page doesn’t just appeal to a reader, but potentially for an actor or director.” 

Shortly after entering the program, Loh was staffed on the reboot for Gossip Girl on HBO Max. In addition to the joy of landing that first staff position, Loh also cites the people as an important aspect of any fellowship program. “In this business, who you know is important. Some of that means other writers, and some of that means network executives.” Making time to participate in fellowship-directed networking events on top of working a staff position wasn’t always doable, Loh states, but an imperative undertaking. 

Since their time in the program, Loh was also staffed on Dynasty for the CW, while Ripley has gone on to write in the studio feature sphere. Both attribute their time as fellows as essential preparation for navigating the industry at large, but also cite some crucial learning experiences as formative hallmarks in their careers. Beyond honing your craft as a writer, the art of the meeting proved to be its own challenge for both. 

Loh’s first meeting with Gossip Girl showrunner Joshua Safran was “magic.” But past her time at Gossip Girl, Loh recounts how you can’t always predict when a showrunner meeting will bring about some tough realities. In between Gossip Girl and Dynasty, Loh recalls a separate meeting in which she was grilled about the characters of the series and had to improvise some of her answers. Feeling inadvertently pushed back on her heels allowed Loh to “prepare for Dynasty in a way that I wouldn’t have done otherwise. Prepare for an established show like you were the showrunner. You want to know the person you’d bring on cares just as much.” 

Ripley also emphasized the importance of nailing those first few meetings. While WarnerMedia had prepared him to collaborate and converse with other writers, Ripley recalls a barrier he discovered between writers and executives when he first began to take meetings. “Producers and development executives don’t speak the same language as writers. They talk in emotional terms.” Using overly flowery terminology or zooming in too close on the details of a scene proved unhelpful for him in general meetings. The only important thing to convey when talking with or pitching to an executive is “what is the audience going to be feeling?” 

Regarding craft itself, Ripley and Loh approach development from two different angles. However, the value of getting interested in an idea remained important for both. “When I have an idea,” Ripley says, “I’ll write down a sentence or two about it on a note card, stick it up on a whiteboard, and I just sit with it.” Letting his subconscious churn away at an idea for weeks or months at a time allows Ripley the insight to discover what concepts are actually interesting to him. “Usually, what I find is that I go back to one or two [ideas] over and over again.” Allowing yourself the time to let an idea marinate reveals what’s interesting about it in the first place. 

“I’ll write any idea,” Loh chuckles. “It can come from a friend, it can come from God, but if it interests me, I’ll do it. And if it doesn’t interest me, I’ll find a way to make it interesting.” In developing work that comes from outside sources, Loh allows herself the space to find her own way into an idea, even if the idea might not feel like her own voice. When working on an action show she wasn’t sure she cared for, Loh recalls that “once I found the way in, I thought ‘now it’s interesting to me.’” For Loh, anything can become in line with her voice. She emphasizes that while she’s known primarily for “nighttime soap,” so many different genres are really soaps at heart. “I have a brand,” she says, “but it’s an easily transferrable brand for me.” 

Regarding his brand and voice, Ripley explains that understanding yourself can be a long, arduous process. Many years back, Ripley explains, he suffered a near-death experience after falling two stories and shattering half the vertebrae in his back. “It took me a long time to understand the effects of that.” His recovery period was lengthy and exhaustive. Ripley had to learn not only how to walk and talk post-injury, but how to let go of the person he was. “I became so acutely aware of what it was like to walk in someone else’s shoes, because I was doing it for myself.” Learning to understand the new person he had become after his injury gave him a greater sense of empathy. “And that’s what writers do. We create characters we have to empathize with.”

What’s perhaps most compelling about both Loh and Ripley’s respective successes is their continuing gratitude and humility. When attesting to what made their fellowship applications stand out, Loh cited a commitment to craft, while Ripley emphasized the importance of sincerity. And yet, in the thick of the next phase of their careers, both Ripley and Loh’s advice for prospective fellows and emerging screenwriters remains the same as their advice for themselves.

“Getting good at your craft” is important, Ripley states. “But the other part of it is to live your life. Get experience in life. In the end, that’s all we’ve got to put on the page.” Understanding his own life experience has been just as instrumental to Ripley as understanding his craft. Loh’s advice to emerging screenwriters is also the “most annoying piece of advice” she ever received. After setting a goal for herself to land an agent, Loh’s manager told her “’Why don’t you focus on writing, and then the agent will come when it’s time.’” Loh poetically notes that her manager was not only right, but how “that’s still where I am right now.” Loh calls this her “full circle moment.” While searching for her next job and pursuing her next goal, she advises newer writers (and herself) to “just keep writing. Everything else will fall into place. But it can’t fall into place if your writing doesn’t continue to improve…and improve…and improve.”