Gregory Gottfried - Screenwriter

Gregory Gottfried first knew he wanted to be a writer when he started rewriting the scripts of his favorite television shows. He didn’t think he could write them better, he simply wanted to retell them in his own way. From there, he studied film and scriptwriting at community college and eventually moved on to writing and editing scripts for friends. He still produces music videos and other projects for friends and uses his writing talent to weave compelling stories onscreen and on the page. Gottfried is now at work on his first novel, a thriller same ilk as Lee Child and Vince Flynn stories.

 

Gregory Gottfried was always enraptured by how a story can develop without exposition and only from dialogue written on the page. He was fascinated by how the authors of some of his favorite scripts from his favorite movies could create a story and a new world only with dialogue and setting. Gregory Gottfried worked hard to craft his own stories using the classic formula of action and dialogue at every turn to help his characters come to life. By their actions, characters of the best stories turn the plotline. Gottfried continues to work on his scripts to create tension, build character, and create ways for the audience to identify with his story and his characters.

Gregory Gottfried edits other works, rewrites scripts, and revises his own writing constantly while also holding down a day job as a front desk clerk at the Tarrytown Sheraton in Tarrytown, New York.
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Gregory Gottfried - On Plotting a Novel

Novels are difficult to write and even more difficult to write well. Gregory Gottfried, undaunted by the task, has already begun working on his first novel, a thriller similar to some of the works of a few of his favorite authors, including Lee Child and Vince Flynn. Gottfried has found, as he has gone through the many drafts of his work, looking for ways to improve his writing and storytelling throughout, that sometimes the best thing he could do is set everything up in order and move pieces around as he sees fit.
                                    

Gregory Gottfried also has to consider information about the characters he is portraying and their various attempts to get past the many obstacles and tests that Gottfried has set up for them. The key to generating suspense is letting the tension grow naturally and slowly. Gregory Gottfried has caught himself many times trying to rush the action to its conclusion, which Gottfried is usually very excited about. But readers don’t want to see the action coming. They want to guess and think about what might happen and make predictions based on what they know about the characters and what the author has shown them so far. Gottfried has slowly begun to master the art of keeping his readers enthralled by suspense and tension in his prose over time.

Gregory Gottfried began writing in middle school and high school. He started with movie scripts and screenplays, often writing his own episodes of his favorite television programs and rewriting the scripts of several of his favorite movies. He eventually decided to write novels sometime after high school.

Gregory Gottfried - Experiences Turning into Writing

Gregory Gottfried has been fascinated by writing since he was a teenager in high school. He began writing his own screenplays for a few of his favorite television shows. Over time he began obtaining copies of the scripts of some of his favorite movies and rewriting the scripts to see if he could make them better. He also began to help his friends who wanted to improve their writing. His experience editing and rewriting prepared him for the next step in his writing career after he graduated from Clarkstown High School North. He attended Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden, New York, where he worked at the school and studied film and scriptwriting.

 Today, Gregory Gottfried works as a front desk clerk at the Sheraton Tarrytown in Tarrytown, New York. Through his work, he meets people from all over the world, each with their own perspective on the area and their own lives leading to the moment when they open the doors of the Sheraton and talk with Gottfried. He uses his experience and skill working with customers to learn about their lives as much as possible and inform his own writing. Gottfried isn’t planning on writing a literary novel about a hotel attendant, however, he wants to wow his audience and create a suspenseful, thrilling story that will take them by the arm and lead them through the story at a breakneck pace.

Pacing has always been a point of emphasis for Gregory Gottfried and his writing. Some of his favorite authors, such as Vince Flynn and Lee Child, are known for their abilities to pull readers in from the first chapter and never let go. Gottfried wants his writing to be as or even more compelling than these authors. His favorite aspect of reading thrillers and suspense novels is the feeling that he gets when he knows he’s close to a key point in the plot or a surprise. The best plot points he can guess at but never completely predict. Gottfried believes this is a delicate balance that he has to strike in his own fiction. He knows it will take many hours of work and revision, but he has never been afraid of the blank page or his own writing; nor has he been afraid of working hard.

As Gregory Gottfried gains experience speaking and interacting with people of all kinds from all over the planet, he gains new perspectives on life and different philosophies that he can incorporate into his writing. It’s easy for people to say that they are gathering experience for writing a story, but Gottfried actually takes his customer service experience seriously as fuel for his stories. Gottfried also understands the importance of reading his favorite authors religiously and studying how they build plots and suspense.
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Gregory Gottfried - Aspiring Writer with the Skills to go Far

Gregory Gottfried

 

Gregory Gottfried has several jobs at the same time. By day, Gottfried pays his bills by working as a front desk agent for the Sheraton Tarrytown Hotel in Tarrytown, New York. His job involves greeting and welcoming guests, mostly travelers in town for a limited stay at the Sheraton Tarrytown, checking them in and out, answering phone calls and making calls to satisfy the operational needs of the hotel and on behalf of customers. He works with tourists often to help them make their stay in Tarrytown the best and most convenient that he can. In the process, he listens to their stories, the small glimpses into their lives—and it all goes to his writing.

Gregory Gottfried became interested in writing screenplays and stories in high school. He had always been enraptured by movies and novels, and from an early age he thought about the writing that goes into making his favorite movies come alive on the screen. He followed that passion throughout his life, re-writing famous movie scripts while he studied film and screenwriting at Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden, New York before transferring from Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York. He considers his work in the hotel a part of his normal day job, along with improving his writing constantly by working on his craft and reading voraciously.

Gregory Gottfried learned how to create and edit videos as well with his post-high school education. He helps friends who have bands and the desire to make videos for their music create better products that they can share and improve their image with. Gottfried also sharpens his storytelling skills by helping others strengthen their own stories and writing. His friends know that if they need any kind of their writing edited for content or technical clarity (punctuation, grammar, spelling, etc.) they can come to him. Gottfried is extremely busy holding down his many jobs and responsibilities for himself and his friends, but he loves the rush of creating a new story from an idea or an observation, or just a wandering thought.

Gregory Gottfried has plenty of professional experience in addition to writing talent and skill. He has worked in many retail stores in his young career, including the GAP and Aeropostale, and has plenty of customer service experience supporting his current position at the Sheraton Tarrytown, including stints at Olive Garden and Applebee’s. Gottfried uses his unique experiences in customer service to create his stories and weave in elements of his life and observations. He is on his way to creating his own books and stories for others to read and enjoy. Hopefully they will be inspired by Gottfried’s perspective on the life and world around him.

Gregory Gottfried - Tips For Writing Fiction

As an aspiring novelist and screenwriter, Gregory Gottfried understands how to craft a fictional story that will compel people to keep reading through to the very end. He has compiled the following list of tips that should help people who are taking their first steps into the world of fiction.


Keep It Believable

When we talk about believability in fiction, that doesn’t necessarily mean making sure that what you write could occur in the real world. Instead, it means taking into account the various “rules” of the universe you have created to ensure that everything that happens is believable based on those “rules.” Failure to do this could result in you using cheap tricks to resolve plot points, which the reader will spot in an instant.

Create Your Universe

Before you start writing a fiction novel you need to have a good understanding of the universe you are creating and the people that inhabit it. Create a backstory that may not be used in the writing itself but will give you a better idea of how everything you write fits into the universe that you have created. This will make it much easier for you to get into the flow and make sure that everything in your writing makes sense in the context that it is written.

Read

Gregory Gottfried notes that one of the best things that a writer can do in order to improve is to read the works of other writers. This will help you to understand what readers of the genre you’re writing in expect from a book, while also offering a wellspring of inspiration and ideas that you can bring to your own work.

Gregory Gottfried - Reasons to Write An Entire First Draft Before Editing

Gregory Gottfried has found that many writers struggle to actually complete any of their work, instead getting so bogged down in redrafting that they never manage to take a story through to its conclusion. There are a number of reasons why you should avoid doing this if you want to find success as a writer, including all of the following.

You Actually Finish

Writing can be a slog but it starts to feel pointless if you never manage to finish what you started. Instead of making constant edits, get everything that you can down on paper and conclude the story. It will almost never be great at the first attempt, but you get the sense of achievement that completion brings and can then work on touching up weak areas to make the story even better.

The End Helps You Understand the Build Up

Your entire story will be building up to a conclusion that you probably already have in your head, but you may not fully grasp how it all fits together until you actually get that conclusion written down. You can then go back and examine how everything ties into that ending, allowing you to tighten up loose plot threads and make sure the story continues to build to that climax in the way you wanted.

Less Difficult to Edit

What do you think is more difficult between making cuts to a manuscript that you have redrafted time and time again or making cuts to a rough first draft? Gregory Gottfried points out that the more you edit before you get the story finished, the more invested you are in the end product, which makes it all the more difficult to see the faults that it possesses.

Gregory Gottfried - Keeping Customers Happy

Gregory Gottfried has worked in a number of roles that required him to interact with the public and he has found that there are certain things you can do in customer service to make sure that people are happy. Here are just a few of them that should be helpful to anybody who works in a role where they deal with other people on a daily basis.

Smile

If you approach a customer with a scowl on your face, they are instantly going to be wary of you. Instead, maintain a positive attitude at all times and try to do everything that you can to help them. You will find that people are much more receptive to you if you make it clear that you’re here to help, plus you can diffuse tenser situations more easily.
 
Be Honest

Honesty is always the best policy when it comes to customer service as trust is a huge part of building relationships with people to the point where they use your service more often. As such, if you don’t know the answer to a question you should never try to bluff your way out of it. Instead, tell the customer that you are unsure but you will do everything that you can to find out for them.

Listen

Gregory Gottfried has found that customers do not want to be told what you have to offer them until they have told you what they are looking for. As such, you should always take the time to listen to a customer so that you are abler to assist them, rather than going in for a hard sell on a product before you have even established whether or not it’s something they want.