In the Spotlight: Latrice Doston

Passion is the fuel of any screenwriter. It’s what pushes and drives us through this difficult journey we set ourselves upon. This is what fills Latrice and I am excited to introduce you to her.

This is Latrice Doston…

Mini-Bio:

I am 28 years old and I love absolutely love screenwriting! I’m a college senior my major is psychology but that’s not my first passion. When I was 11 years old I used to get distracted in class by my own imagination and I would write down things that I was picturing in my head into little stories. When I turned 12 a teacher told me that I should try writing the stories behind the pictures that I drew. And the rest was history as I have written a ton of screenplays, stories, and shorts.

When I’m not goofing off on TikTok I love watching the Handmaid’s Tale or HBO’s Max raised by wolves. When I’m not doing those things, I’m journaling. My favorite genres to write are drama and science fiction. I like science fiction because you can literally do anything with the storyline and your perception of the future is not only exciting and joyful but a creative one of that. I love writing dramas because it’s like real life but cooler and I am in charge of people’s lives and outcomes But I’m talking about my characters ha!

Q: How did you stumble upon screenwriting?

I’ve always liked movies and I always liked writing I had a friend in college who took screenwriting as an elective and he shared some of that with me and I realized this was the writing style and career that I wanted. I’m still learning about screenwriting but this is my absolute favorite style of writing. I visit local bookstores and go to the performing arts section and look over at their screenwriting books. Each time I learn something new about screenwriting and since I love movies so much I thought this is the direction I wanted to go to help create movies, I’ll be the writer.

 

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Q: Who was the first person who believed in you?

My college English and creative writing professor I had his class twice when I was a freshman and sophomore. He taught me about creative writing techniques and a technique in writing where you show don’t tell.

Q: When was the moment you knew you wanted to be a screenwriter?

The first time I wanted to be a screenwriter was when I was 21 after reading a screenplay in college, But I think I got the most excited when it was the academy awards I think the year was 2013 or 14 When I realized that they gave ab award to best screenwriter and I remember thinking I would love to receive an award for my work. That’s the highest honor one can get.

Q: How do you define success for yourself?

My definition of success is that as long as you try and do your best you are successful.

Q: Give us a typical day in your life.

A typical day for me is I get up at 8:00 a.m. if I don’t have to work, I do a few writing projects for about 10 minutes each then I work on my main screenplay. I play Agnes Obel to help me focus and get in the mood.

Later in the day I’m on TikTok and chat up my mom and my boyfriend and I make each other laugh by making up extremely funny scenarios about people that we like. We play a couple of video games and then the rest of the day we chill out.

Q: What’s been the most important skill you’ve developed on your path to screenwriting?

I will say dialogue and character development is what makes a wonderful screenplay If someone can feel what the characters are going through or feel a little bit relatable when it comes to the material that you write, you are successful at what you’ve done.

Q: What’s been the greatest challenge in your writing so far?

I think the biggest challenge of my screenwriting so far is just learning all the steps to it because I’m self-taught but the more that I learn the more I pick up.

Q: What’s been the greatest reward in the choices you’ve made?

It’s absolutely finishing my favorite screenplay and submitting it to contests.

Q: What do you want to learn from a community of your peers?

Just how to be a better screenwriter make some friends and have some meetups