How to Write Like Tom Robbins
In 1982, the phone rang and it was Tom Robbins, one of my all time favorite authors. He had read a script of mine and liked it. He told me he was just getting started on a script of his own when he realized that he didn’t know what he was doing. He had never written in screenplay format before, so he felt the need for someone like me to look over his shoulder while he wrote, just to make sure he didn’t make any embarrassing mistakes. He would pay my way to La Conner, Washington, a small fishing village north of Seattle where he lived. He would put me up in a hotel for a month while he finished the project. I would pick up pages every afternoon and return them the next morning with comments. Was I interested? I didn’t have to think long. At the time, I was living in a photo studio above Frederick’s of Hollywood, a location with advantages (living across the street from Musso & Franks) and disadvantages (street...