The Writing University conducts a series of interviews with writers while they are in Iowa City participating in the various University of Iowa writing programs. We sit down with authors to ask about their work, their process and their descriptions of home.
Today we are speaking with Kat O'Brien, an instructor at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, who will be teaching a FREE online workshop "Writing Like an Improviser: Overcoming Writers’ Block – Playfully!" next Wednesday, March 12th. There is still time to sign up here! She will also be teaching Adaptation to Film and Television for Novelists and Memoirists and Writing the Short Film in a Weekend this April!
For over 20 years, Kat O’Brien has developed film and television for Universal Pictures, Warner Bros., Sony, Anonymous Content, Focus Features, Rogue Pictures, Alcon Entertainment Morgan Creek Productions, Blue Star Entertainment, and numerous internationally renowned and critically acclaimed independent filmmakers and television producers. During the pandemic, Kat executive produced We Still Teach TV, for which she was awarded the Chicago Teachers’ Union LEAD award as a champion for education justice. As a world-renowned expert in story development, Kat has consulted for the Doha Film Institute and Film AlUla, and teaches at the University of Chicago, DePaul University, and The Second City Film School. She holds a BFA in Writing for Film and Television from the University of Southern California. You can read more and contact her at kobwriting.com.
1. Can you tell us a little bit about the course that you are teaching for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival?
I'm thrilled to share that I'm teaching three courses for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival Spring Online session. On March 12, 2025, I'll be offering a FREE generative writing workshop, Writing Like An Improviser: Overcoming Writer's Block -- Playfully! Inspired by my experience as an improviser in Los Angeles and Chicago, and comedy writer for film, television, and stage, I'll be sharing my top-secret tips and tricks that I love to tell everyone for how to blast past obstacles on the page, and embrace all the joy in your creative process. Then, starting in April, I'll be teaching two workshops. Adaptation to Film and Television for Novelists and Memoirists is a 5-week workshop that runs April 2-30 on Wednesday afternoons. Inspired by my experience developing adaptations for film and television for production companies and studios, as well as being hired to rewrite (an Oscar-winning!) screenwriter on an indie adaptation of a memoir. The practical takeaways from this workshop will help writers thoroughly understand how to conceptualize their own work as a cinematic adaptation and offer each writer a bespoke navigation plan for the first steps they'll need to take toward getting their work noticed in the film and television industry. And for the screenwriting curious who also crave the immediate gratification of a completed project as the takeaway -- I'll be guiding my students to write a short film screenplay in a weekend. Writing the Short Film in a Weekend runs April 4-6.
2. What is the inspiration for your own work right now?
Right now, the inspiration for my own work is a potpourri of research on cross-cultural folklore and mythology, including this amazing workshop I'm taking with ISWF Program Manager, Poet, and decades-long friend, Dr. Becca Klaver, on Writing the Wheel of the Year. I'm also consuming the usual film, television, and books that are in my "Wheelhouse" for the various projects I'm writing, to keep myself current on the marketplace and what I feel works/doesn't. Perhaps the most curious inspo for me right now is a 365 Challenge social media experiment I'm doing, which is connected to my forthcoming non-fiction book on creativity and the creative process. My goal is to intentionally create something new, every day, and document it. What I'm discovering thus far is that this challenge is motivating me to adopt more of a gratitude attitude in every messy, imperfect, unglamorous, not-Instagrammable (or is it?) piece in my creative process. I'm also having a lot more fun as I'm giving myself homework to play more - like making clay pigs with my kids, or running spontaneous improv workshops in my living room as part of a lesson on The Office (Agent Michael Scarne, IYKYK).
3. Do you have a daily writing routine?
My daily writing routine has evolved considerably over the course of my life as a writer. The best advice I got early on in my writing career was from one of my favorite childhood authors, YA novelist Julie Reece Deaver. We connected as adults when I began to pursue the rights to adapt my favorite novel of hers. I asked her how she did it -- what did her writing day look like? What were the hours she put in? -- and she led with: I treat writing like my job. And that advice is like the lucky penny I've carried around in my pocket ever since, shining it between my fingers whenever I need to conjure the magic of that brilliant reminder. What does treating writing like your job look like, for you? For me, that means showing up for myself with consistency, and devotion. It means being a kind boss to myself, giving myself grace and encouragement to keep going even when, especially when, it feels impossibly hard to do. Also, it means not comparing myself to other writers, because each writer's journey is as unique as their voice and the stories that only they can tell. I say all this, and know full well it's really hard to keep up that compassionate inner monologue, patience, and positivity. It's hard to juggle writing with being a mom, professor, producer, and citizen of the world we live in today. So, on a daily basis, that writing routine involves a color-coded planner and schedule that maps my creative energy for me between teaching, consulting, and writing. I try to keep my writing blocks consistently protected, and inevitably fail to do so on a regular basis which means staying agile and adaptable to "make up" the writing blocks I miss. Starting my day with yoga, meditation, journaling, even if it's just a few minutes of each, and committing to exercise and talking to friends and family on the phone while I do so is probably my best tool for keeping myself able to transition between creative energy demands, and focused on the writing when it's time to show up for that.
4. What are you reading right now? Are you reading for research or pleasure?
Currently, I'm finishing Kate McKinnon's YA novel, The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science and about to start Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, which I am reading for both research and pleasure. I try very hard to overlap my research and pleasure reading, ensuring they're also in my writing wheelhouse. Same goes for film and television. I'm currently binging The Diplomat with Kerri Russell, and The Office -- while planning to see the new Marvel movie, Captain America: Brave New World in the theater with my family tomorrow. As a writer, while my focus is comedy, I love to genre blend and I find that staying agile across genres helps me hunt more effectively structural and storytelling voice treasures.
5. Tell us about where you are from - what are some favorite details you would like to share about your home?
I'm from Chicago, and I think it's been a huge influence on what I write and why. I feel like I've embraced so much of what comes with Chicago being known as The Second City, and City of Big Shoulders. There's a lot that we carry here, for others and ourselves, and I think my writing voice, my perspective, and the stories I've lived myself into and through deeply reflect my devotion to this city. Less abstractly, I love how we can witness the changing of the seasons even in the heart of the city (especially in the parks along our mercurial lakefront). I love that we enjoy authentic food from pretty much any regional or global cuisine, fanatically and fair-weatherly support underdog sports teams because we remember the time when each one was the world champion, and that we have some of the most gorgeous architecture and vibrant art scenes, of any city, anywhere in the world.
* * *
Check out Kat O'Brien's ISWF courses:
Writing Like An Improviser: Overcoming Writer's Block -- Playfully!
Adaptation to Film and Television for Novelists and Memoirists
Writing the Short Film in a Weekend