Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Thompson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, reading science fiction and assuming somebody else got to make it.
I started as an actor in indie film. You learn a lot about writing by saying bad dialogue out loud for free. Eventually I got tired of fixing other people’s lines in my head and started writing my own.
That turned out to be the job I wanted all along. Acting taught me how people talk and what they hide while they’re doing it. Writing lets me decide what they’re hiding.
Science fiction is still my first love. Horror and drama are where I do my best work. I like stories where ordinary people get hit with something far bigger than they are, and the people in charge are no help.
Today I’m a writer, full stop.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth? No. If there’s a smooth road, nobody gave me the address.
The big one is finding a manager. A manager is how you get a foot in the door for paying work. Right now I’m outside that door with a stack of scripts and a very polite email. I’ve sent a lot of very polite emails.
Then there’s money. I’m a writer without a manager, so you can do that math yourself.
And my network is small. I’m growing it the slow way, one person at a time, which is apparently how everybody does it and nobody enjoys.
So I keep writing and I keep hitting send. Somebody’s going to open one.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a screenwriter. I write science fiction, horror and drama, usually about ordinary people standing too close to something enormous.
I’m best known for War of the Worlds, a 10-episode audio drama I wrote, direct and showrun, produced under a SAG-AFTRA agreement with Silver Lining Studios. It drops the Wells invasion on a small Ohio town in October 1962, the week the world was already expecting to end. It’s slated to premiere in January 2027.
I also have three scripts ready to read. War of the Worlds is the television pilot of that same story, an ensemble hour about a town finding out the Russians were the good news. The Greensboro Four is a limited-series pilot about the 1960 Woolworth sit-in. Doped Youth is a dark comedy feature set in 2010 Antelope Valley that starts as Superbad and stops being funny on schedule.
I’m proudest of The Greensboro Four. I grew up in Greensboro and learned the story by walking into the building. I wrote it as a tribute to four teenagers who sat down and made a country stand up.
What sets me apart is the dialogue. I started as an actor, so I’ve said enough bad lines out loud to know one when I type it. My characters curse, dodge the subject and say the wrong thing at the wrong time, the way people do.
I’m looking for a manager and for paying work in other people’s rooms. The scripts are ready whenever somebody is.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Full disclosure: I write from North Carolina, on the other side of the country. What I like best about the Central Coast is that it sits a few hours up the 101 from the rooms I’m trying to get into. What I like least is everything between here and there.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://blcklst.com/s/fv2fjkh
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanthompsonwriter?stkn=MXMwMjd5eTZ0NHE5eA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/19QMTPyeiM/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Twitter: https://x.com/writerrthompson?s=11
