Q&A: Screenwriter VJ Boyd Knows How to Make You Squirm
From 'Justified' and 'Lincoln Rhyme' to, later this year, 'The Madness', the recently minted showunner talks his professional journey, creative frustrations, and crafting kick-ass suspense for screens
Making it in Hollywood doesn’t involve a splashy first sale and an avalanche of follow-up gigs that make the trades grow annoyed with seeing your name yet again, but that’s how I worry many aspiring screenwriters expect it’s going to happen for them. One day you’re you, the next day you’re the “it writer” everyone won’t stop talking about. But the reality is, the vast majority of us — close to 100% of us, in fact — will never be Diablo Cody. We get our foot in the door, then it’s a never-ending fight to stay in the room where it happens. These writers are the ones who most deserve your admiration and study, as far as I’m concerned. And that’s why I was excited to talk with my friend VJ Boyd about his creative journey from a white-collar job at IBM, to TV staff writer and producer, to the oh-so-coveted role of TV showrunner.
A bit of backstory before I dive into it with VJ. He got his big break when he joined the writers’ room of “Justified” in its second season. From there, he moved on to “S.W.A.T” and more and more impressive job titles. In 2020, more than a decade into the TV game, he made the jump to the big chair when he co-created and co-showran “Lincoln Rhyme: The Hunt for the Bone Collector” for NBC. Later this year, “The Madness”, which he is also co-showrunning, will premiere on Netflix.
He and I are about to discuss how he got this far and the fears, anxieties, and frustrations he’s had to contend with along the way, as well as get into the weeds about craft .
For emerging and aspiring screenwriters, I would encourage you to pay special attention to VJ’s thoughts on the fundamental questions behind a good screenplay and how to write great suspense sequences.
COLE HADDON: It’s been too long since we broke bread together, VJ. One of the downsides of moving out of the States was how it impaired the growth of a lot of newer friendships like ours, but I don’t know how much time you would’ve had for that anyway because you’ve been blowing up since I left.
VJ BOYD: Appreciate it. I’ve definitely been busy, especially over the last year, although I am jealous at times of your world travel.
CH: It’s fun, bouncing around the globe, but not for the faint of heart. Frankly, it’s exhausting and I’m grateful to be finally settled for good in Australia. So, since I last saw you, you transitioned from “S.W.A.T” to creating “Lincoln Rhyme” for NBC and, more recently, you’re running “The Madness” for Netflix, which will premiere later this year. That doesn’t even include all the development I don’t know about, but I’m sure was in there, too.
VJB: Well, I should first say that “The Madness” was created by my co-showrunner, Stephen Belber. Netflix brought me in to work with him because he hadn’t run a show before. So far, it’s looking great, really solid cast, and our pilot director, Clement Virgo, just won a bunch of Canadian Screen Awards for his film, Brother.
CH: And you’ve got Colman Domingo as your lead, who was nominated for Best Actor this year at the Oscars for Rustin. I’m a huge fan of his work.
VJB: He’s tremendous, and he’s been great on the show. I wish I could share screenshots — he’s perfect for this. I’ve wanted for years to be part of creating an iconic Black television character, and I feel like Muncie Daniels in “The Madness” might be it. Colman is certainly doing his part.
CH: Okay, so things seem to be going right in your career at the moment, so instead of interrogating all that awesomeness, I’m going to instead ask: what’s not going right at the moment? What’s eating away at you or causing you to lose sleep when everyone else would assume you’re high-fiving yourself in the mirror?
VJB: I’d say the primary thing eating away at me is my desire to have complete control over a project at some point, and my realization that this is probably never going to happen in television.
CH: Why is that?
VJB: Primarily, I have no interest in directing. And even if I did, the path to getting a network to allow me to write and direct every episode of a show is long and difficult, and there’s no guarantee I get what I want at the end of it. I could make a movie, but that path is just as long — if not longer — and even in success you’re talking about spending years thinking about, writing, rewriting, rewriting, more rewriting, shooting, and editing a two-hour story, and I don’t know that there is any story I care enough about to do that. Which makes me think I should write a novel – like you – and maybe I will, but that means taking months off work, which I can’t yet afford. I’m a slow writer, even with scripts, and it’s been years since I tried my hand at prose.
“The primary thing eating away at me is my desire to have complete control over a project at some point, and my realization that this is probably never going to happen in television.”
CH: When I started writing Psalms for the End of the World, it had also been years since I’d seriously written prose outside of essays. Are you worried that muscle has grown flabby in the interim?
VJB: Yes, for sure. I don’t think I’ve written prose since grad school. I’m encouraged to hear it had been a while for you also, though. One thing I think I have going for me is I’m a writer who loves words. By which, I mean one of my strengths is my word choices and combinations. The story as a whole — the big picture stuff, where the reversals should be, the midpoint turn, etcetera — is a weakness of mine, and I have to work really hard on it. But, I can make even a meaningless scene of a character buying a candy bar at a corner store sound fantastic on the page.
CH: I appreciate that level of self-awareness on your part, as well as honesty, that you can identify your strengths and weaknesses and have developed the wisdom to acknowledge them. When you say you have to “work really hard on it,” where does that primarily take place — the outlining stage? What I’m getting at is, how do you actually protect against and address that weakness in your work?
VJB: I hate outlining, and when forced to do anything past a cursory beat sheet, I generally end up straying from the outline, because the scene doesn’t work in my head until I start writing the dialogue.
CH: I understand that pain all too well.
VJB: Generally, what happens is I’ll have written a script — or most of a script — and I’ll read it and realize something is wrong that I can’t put my finger on. I do a lot of writing by feel — thus my hatred of outlines — which has its downsides. Anyway, if something doesn’t feel right, I go through a mental checklist of the fundamentals. Do the characters actually want things or are they ciphers I’m forcing to behave a certain way to make the plot work? Are there constant choices and dilemmas and reversals or is it just a lot of self-indulgent banter? Did I make the characters suffer or did I protect them because I like them too much? Is there even a real inciting incident or mid-point? Why now? I ask myself all the things until I find the problem and fix it. I am sure there is a better process, but this is mine.