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Screenwriting Journey

As a programmer, which I used to want to want to be, I guess this would be the place I would say

Hello World.

I'm a screenwriter now so let me just start off with a

FADE IN:

 OVER BLACK
CHYRON: HELLO WORLD!
FADE TO BLACK

or something similar in a 12 point Courier font in Final Draft.

But I just wanted to be out and open about coming into screenwriting.

My name is Jacob Gregory Dammons, I was born in 1998. I grew up in Michigan, moved with my mom to New Jersey in the middle of high school, graduated in 2016, and attempted to go to college that year.

I only attended for a semester. I saw a private school with high employment rates post-graduation and figured that it didn't matter how much debt I racked up, if I got through school I could just pay it back because of these high employment rates.

That made sense to me then.
I dropped out after one semester.

Afterwards I was mostly aimless for the next several years, moving around with disparate family members across the country, not really sticking anywhere.

It wasn't until 2018 that I moved in with my elder sister and was mostly stable. 2019 was about working and while I was working I found myself. I kept coming back to the fact I liked writing, on top of it being the thing my family, friends, and everyone said I already had a penchant for.

So in 2020 I set out to find out how I could do what I liked. I liked writing. I loved cartoons and animation. I couldn't draw. So what could I do? I found screenwriting and set off to learn how to do that.

The COVID-19 pandemic hit, and by the end of March I decided to invest in Final Draft and start writing my ass off.

Turns out the screenwriting format is the most fun I've ever had writing. It reminds me of everything I liked about programming, and none of the things I didn't. It clicks, it just makes sense. It's wonderful. And I'm going to be telling my own stories.

I'm going to be writing about nuances of queer sexuality for adult animation at Netflix, and maybe head my own show some day. I'll get there. I'll be putting my writing samples here. I'll land a spot at the Nick Writing Program. I'll write alongside my friends. It'll be great.

Jacob Dammons
04/30/2020

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