Interview:

My name is David Jagernauth. I live in Woodburn, Oregon with my wife Christina. After earning a liberal arts degree from Whitman College, I quickly discovered the ability to pontificate about Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” was not exactly a marketable skill. So I went back to school, got a degree in journalism, and I’ve worked as a newspaper reporter ever since.

Is  SECOND BORN your first script? If not, what else have you completed?

Second Born is my first script, but considering the number of iterations and rewrites, it feels like my second script as well. I have since finished an indie romantic coming of age drama (I’m not good with genre labels) and I am currently touching up an absurdist comedy.

Why did you write SECOND BORN And how long did it take you to write it?

I love the idea of using an outlandish sci-fi conceit to explore common everyday questions of love, identity, death, religion, etc. The journey from kernel of an idea to finished screenplay took 8-10 months, but I was studying screenwriting during that time. I still am.

Describe your process; do you have a set routine, method for writing?

I spend a great deal of time brainstorming ideas, outlining plot, developing characters, and note-carding every scene before I type a word. Once I start writing, I try to complete 15-20 pages per week. Then I rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite more, until my wife tells me to move on.

What inspires you to write?

Since fourth grade, when Mrs. Woodruff first introduced me to the wonders of creative writing, I haven’t been able to function without regularly putting words on a page. And I am constantly awestruck by the power of movies to move and electrify an audience. The opportunity to inspire someone else with my storytelling – that is what inspires me.

Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

All the typical human stuff -- family, friends, and classic cocktails. You haven’t lived until you’ve had a Manhattan with rye whiskey, Antica Formula vermouth and a few healthy dashes of Angostura bitters.

What influenced you to enter the Movie Script Contest?

I heard good things. Good industry contacts. Good feedback.

Do you feel that screenwriting contests are worthwhile for writers and why?

Definitely. The experience of receiving feedback from someone other than my wife, my mom and my dad (all severely biased) has made me a better screenwriter and inspired me to continue to write. As a journalist I’m not accustomed to strangers saying nice things about me.

Who is your favorite screenwriter or writer and why?

Salman Rushdie taught me good writing is brave, playful, outrageous and bursting at the belly with imagination. I’m still looking for my voice, but once I find it I hope it is half as free-spirited as his.

Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

I’m in no position to give advice. But a friend once told me, “Always write with a pen and never on lined paper.” Take from that what you will. Me? I like writing on cocktail napkins after enjoying a properly made Manhattan.

What’s next for you?

Making movies remains my true love, as it has been since junior high when my friends and I would weasel out of research papers by making video spoofs like “NYPD Greek,” a comedic retelling of Greek mythology as a police sitcom. So what’s next? More writing, of course.