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Author's note: It is two o'clock on a sunny Sunday afternoon (May 6, 2001) and I am sitting on the lawn outside the Pasadena Convention Center with perhaps the best-known fan fiction and Uber writer in the Xenaverse today. 38-year-old Miami native, Missy Good has just finished addressing the mega-crowd that has turned out for the 2001 Xena Convention here, and was kind enough to take some time out of her hectic schedule to be interviewed. In typical, down-to-earth Missy style, she is sporting a blue, Hawaiian shirt. (Hey, if Tom Selleck could do it all those years and still be a babe-magnet, why can't Missy?)
We get ourselves situated on the grass, trying to avoid the gifts the pigeons have left behind, and I thrust a mini disc player under Missy's nose. The interview begins...
In the Beginning (01-08)
The Writing Process (09-16)
College and the Day Job (17-32)
TROPICAL STORM (33-41)
Script Hi-Jinks (42-59)
Filming in New Zealand (60-65)
SHEENA (66-72)
Writing for XENA (73-76)
A Typical Good Day (77-91)
Writer's Block & Writing Classes & Role Modeling (92-98)
TROPICAL STORM: The Television Project (99-112)
The Dating Life (113-119)
Biography
INTERVIEW WITH MISSY GOOD
In the Beginning
LISA ALEXANDER:
[01] Let us go back to your childhood, Missy Good as a kid. Were you always into writing?MISSY GOOD:
[02] I started writing about six weeks after I saw THE QUEST (37/213), so you can figure my writing started in, what was it? 1997? Yeah, six weeks after THE QUEST. I had an idea for a story, and I started writing my first XENA story. That was the first extensive writing I'd done in the fiction realm. I've done technical writing, you know, TCP IP manuals about how to configure routers and things like that. (laughing) Not anything you'd want to read.ALEXANDER:
[03] Well, some people might.GOOD:
[04] Well, I posted some of it online actually. I said, "Do you guys want to see what I actually do for a living? Here, take a look at this." And many people read it. Some people actually went into the IT business. They said, "You know that's something that really interested me, and I'm going to study that in college". (laughs)ALEXANDER:
[05] You were their inspiration!GOOD:
[06] (Still laughing) Okay. Glad I could help.ALEXANDER:
[07] What was your first story?GOOD:
[08] "A Warrior by Any Other Name." Xena and Gabrielle meet up with a character that is different, and it's how they deal with this character being different. How they reconcile his essential humanity with how different he is from them and end up being the better for it.
The Writing Process
ALEXANDER:
[09] What is your writing process? Is it just kind of stream of consciousness or do you map an outline?GOOD:
[10] When I start a story, I know where the story begins, what happens in the story, and how it ends. But, between point A and point B, it's always a big surprise as to how the characters get where they get. Many times, I'll write sections and I'll think, this is what the character's gonna do, and when I'm writing they do something different, and I'm very surprised by that.ALEXANDER:
[11] Do you jump around in the story, if you have a particular scene in your head already?GOOD:
[12] No. It's very linear. What I do is I write for enjoyment and relaxation. So, when I get home at night, because I work 12-14 hour days at EDS, and I'm done answering all of my questions about technical crap, if I'm at a point in the story where it's very serious, sometimes I don't feel like writing serious that night. That's where flashbacks come in. So, I'll do the flashback, and it'll be a warm and fuzzy flashback, because that's what I needed to write at that moment. So, that's kind of how I get around that, because sometimes, especially if it's long battle sequences, I've got to break it up with something. Otherwise, it becomes too much.ALEXANDER:
[13] How many drafts do you write before you post a story?GOOD:
[14] None. I write into the word file that I'm using. When I finish writing that section, it gets clipped, pasted, put into an e-mail message, and sent. I don't spell check it. I don't even reread it.ALEXANDER:
[15] That is amazing. Most people cannot do that. Is this something that you had developed over the years, or have you always just been able to work that way?GOOD:
[16] Written and oral communication is a specialty of mine, and always has been. I instruct on how to do all this technical BS. My specialty is instructing technical BS, so that non-technical people can understand it.
College and the Day Job
ALEXANDER:
[17] Did you go to school for that, or are you self-taught?GOOD:
[18] I have a degree in Technical Theater from the University of Miami, thank you. (laughs)ALEXANDER:
[19] Technical Theater?GOOD:
[20] Yup! Lighting design. (still laughing)ALEXANDER:
[21] And I see you've put that to good use.GOOD:
[22] Oh yeah. I was IA Worklist (a list of people the IATSE union calls when they need extra people to help with things like stage lighting and other technical work) for a couple of years, so I did actually get to use some of the lift and carry kind of things that you learn in Technical. But, no, I went right from college into the computer industry. First I was doing computerized cash registers. I was doing accounting and that kind of stuff. I was working in clubs in hospitality services. That's what my father did. Then at one point I decided, you know I'm always the person in the office who -- I'm the geek. I'm the nerd with the projector. Every time something breaks, they call me regardless if it's anything I'm involved in or not. I thought, "You know something, if I'm the geek, why don't I go find a job where I can get paid for being a geek." And I did. I started working for a software development company as a technical support specialist. Now I work for EDS. I've been working for them for six years.ALEXANDER:
[23] What are your bosses' thoughts about your writing projects?GOOD:
[24] I didn't tell them for the longest time what the heck I was doing. They knew I was involved in something having to do with fandom, because they knew I did something on the Internet and something having to do with writing, because every once in a while I'd get packages. And every once in a while I would go to conventions. They knew I had something, but they had no idea of the breadth or the depth or the scope. I didn't have any Xena stuff on my desk, because at EDS, with their EEOC policy, putting up scantily clad pictures is not allowed, because it crosses the line into sexual harassment.ALEXANDER:
[25] (laughing)GOOD:
[26] Yeah. So, you know, I have Dilbert pictures in my cubicle. Somebody asked me, "Do you like Dilbert?" I say, "I AM Dilbert." Believe me, I'm Dilbert. I even have a Dogbert. I don't have a Ratbert or a Catbert, but I have a Dogbert. So, it was really funny because when I signed my first contract with Studios USA, I had to file a notice of secondary employment with EDS. Because of the position I have, their legal department looks to see if it's a conflict of interest. So, I'm filling out the form on the EDS website, and I'm looking and they've got a list of things that you can do. You can be an engineering consultant, an engineer, or a consulting analyst. I mean, they have a list of things that you could use as a job description. They don't have television scriptwriter on there.ALEXANDER:
[27] Hmm. Funny.GOOD:
[28] Funny, yeah. So I click "other", and I type in "freelance television script writing assignment for Studios USA for XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS". Click. Hit enter. You don't know what that caused. (both laughing) I was getting e-mail from legal going, "What?! What are you doing?" They think it's bizarre, but certainly interesting, because it shows that their people have different facets, and creative facets. They're not disapproving at all. They think it's actually a good match, because it's not anything that conflicts with my regular course of business. It's obvious that I'm not pulling off of EDS resources or using EDS gained knowledge to do this. (laughing) So, they're fine about it now. As a matter of fact, when I actually went into production on the two episodes, a friend of mine at EDS sent out a broadcast e-mail to everybody within the company telling them about it, and I almost killed her for it. It basically said, "Hey, Missy wrote these two episodes, and this is when they're playing and --"ALEXANDER:
[29] Everybody watch!GOOD:
[30] Yeah. So, it was, uh, it was interesting. It's funny, because I'm very high profile within my organizational part of EDS, not within EDS as a whole. There are 125-thousand people in EDS, and the org chart is such that they'd have to send a sled dog to find me in it. Really, we're at the bottom level. Not entry level, but not anywhere where EDS management.ALEXANDER:
[31] Most of the collars still kind of blue?GOOD:
[32] They're bluish gray. But, within my little organizational structure, I'm probably one of the most high profile people in it because I am the senior escalation technician. So, the technical buck stops at my desk. All the tough problems get escalated to me. I'm the one that they use for consulting or for catastrophic issues. I develop training plans. Whenever there's a high level technical consultation to be done, I'm the one. So, I'm very high profile, and they find it very difficult to reconcile that person that they know with a scriptwriter.
TROPICAL STORM
ALEXANDER:
[33] So, this is where the skills of your Dar Roberts character come from? (Paladar "Dar" Roberts is Uber Xena in Missy's novel "Tropical Storm" and three sequels). You are writing much of what you know.GOOD:
[34] Yeah. I only wish I were as effective as Dar. (laughs)[A Missy fan walks by and asks how she came up with the name Kerrison. (Kerrison Stuart is the Uber Gabrielle in "Tropical Storm")]
GOOD:
[35] That one just kind of popped into my head. I had a fan actually name their kid Kerrison.ALEXANDER:
[36] Oh my. Quite a tribute.GOOD:
[37] Yeah. Cute kid too.ALEXANDER:
[38] Any Paladar's yet?GOOD:
[39] No Paladar's, but a couple of Kerrison's. I've seen a couple Kerrison's as a second name too. People really like that name. I think people probably have dogs named Paladar.ALEXANDER:
[40] Really?GOOD:
[41] Don't know. I have a dog named Gabrielle. (chuckle)
SCRIPT HI-JINKS
ALEXANDER:
[42] You're always very low-key about this newfound celebrity. I have to ask you, honestly, when you got the call about the script, didn't you just want to go crazy? Weren't you excited?GOOD:
[43] I remember Steve (Sears) calling and me sitting there in utter disbelief after he said, "Okay, here's Rob's (Tapert) phone number. Call him." [Steve Sears is a former executive producer of XENA and now creator and executive producer of the TV show SHEENA]ALEXANDER:
[44] So, now you have Rob Tapert's telephone number.GOOD:
[45] I have Rob Tapert's phone number and I'm looking at it going, (pause) "Okay". So, I call Rob's office in Los Angeles, and his wonderful then administrative assistant, Melissa Blake, who's now a writer herself, answers the phone. I said, "Hi. This is going to be a really strange phone call." She says, "They're all strange." And I said, "Steve Sears asked me to call to talk to Rob Tapert about me writing an episode of XENA." I gave her my name and number, because Rob was not in the country at that time.ALEXANDER:
[46] So, you are dialing Rob's number. Are you shaking? Is your heart pounding?GOOD:
[47] I'm not even thinking. It was surreal at that point. And I hang up, and I say, "You know something, nothing will ever come of this. I'm sure it was just one of those things." So, I go about my business, and I do my EDS thing and I don't think about it.ALEXANDER:
[48] You don't think about it!?GOOD:
[49] I don't think about it, because, well, I don't think about it. So, it's seven o'clock that night, I'm walking across the NAC, that's where I work, the Network Assistance Center, and I'm trouble shooting some problem with some technician and my cell phone rings. I open my cell phone and the person on the other end says, "Hi this is Melissa Blake from Rob Tapert's office. I have Rob Tapert for you. Would you like to talk to him?" I'm like, "Uhhhh. (laughing) Sure!" The next thing I know, I have Rob on the phone, and, after I hung up from THAT conversation, I freaked out. I just hung up the phone and I went, "Oh my god."ALEXANDER:
[50] Did you call everybody you knew, or --GOOD:
[51] I didn't tell anybody about it. I told my mother, and I told my best friend, Jen who's with me here. Just because it was just so strange, and it was something that was so out of my box and out of left field. I felt that if they (Renaissance Pictures) really wanted people to know that they were doing this, they would announce it themselves. They're a big company; they have a big organization. So, I just kept quiet about it. In fact, I didn't tell anybody until I had turned in the third draft of LEGACY (117/605). It had been that long.ALEXANDER:
[52] You were used to writing in book form. Was there a fear that "Oh my god, I have to write this in script form and it has to be blocked out a certain way"?GOOD:
[53] They made it easy for me. First Rob asked me to send him a sample of my prose writing, so he could just get a feel for how I felt about the characters. Many people think they picked me because of my stories, or because I was an alt-fic writer. No. They picked me because I was the name Steve gave them, because I think Steve had a comfort level with me because he knows me personally. He knew that I would treat it in a very responsible and respectful manner, and in a very professional manner, and hopefully get it successfully done.[NOTE: When this interview was conducted, Good did not know that Sears had read any of her writing prior to telling Tapert about her. He did not mention it to her until the Pup Dinner at the XENA Con Sunday night. It is a slippery slope when TV writers admit to reading fans' work, because if any fan fictionesque scenes then appear on their show, any fan fiction writer who has penned a similar scene can sue.]
[Missy and I did an e-mail follow-up to that part of the interview and I asked her about her relationship with Sears and asked her to reiterate how he got her connected with Rob Tapert.]
GOOD:
[54] Actually, I didn't know he'd read any of my stuff. I had met Steve at DragonCon (SciFi Convention) two years running, and we'd corresponded about XENA episodes online for quite some time. I'd always respected his abilities as a writer, and we'd had some interesting discussions about the characters, and whatnot. But I knew he couldn't read fanfic, so it never occurred to me that when he left XENA, he would, and apparently did. At the pup dinner he told HIS version of how I got involved in writing XENA scripts and said he'd read some of my X/G stuff, and some of the Uber and was impressed by the way I wrote, and especially how I handled layered dialog. So, when Rob called him and told him he had this crazy idea of having a fan write an episode, I was the first person he thought of. It was the first time I'd ever heard his (Steve's) side of it. I never asked him why I was the one he recommended, I just knew I was.[55] So Rob said, "I need you to send me a writing sample. Twenty or thirty pages." Okay. So, I'm sitting there at my computer thinking, "What the heck do I send for a writing sample to Rob Tapert, using his characters, from my writing?" Oh my god. So, I sent him clips. I sent him a couple of action clips, a couple of emotional clips, and some comedic ones. One about Xena, one about Gabrielle, how I saw the characters, some intensive action stuff. And I basically sent him a note that said, "I sat here for almost twelve hours trying to figure out what on earth I could send you that you would like. Then I figured out, I have no idea what you would like, so I sent you what I liked. These are the clips that I like the best out of my work and if you like them, that's really cool, and if you don't I'm really sorry." And I faxed it out to him.
[56] Then he called me back, and we started the process. They sent me copies of their scripts, so I could see what their scripts and their formatting look like. So, I had an idea of what it was that I was attempting to do, including beat sheets, and scripts and everything, before we actually went into the process. (You turn in a series of these beat sheets till they have all these beats correct and you know what the story's gonna look like.) So, to my astonishment, by the time that we got to the third beat sheet, I honestly thought they would stop and give the script assignment to a scriptwriter, because I had never written a television script before. I had done something in the way of movie scripting; a little bit with "Tropical Storm". --
[Missy's ever-present cell phone rings and she stops to take the call. It's her best friend, Jen, looking for her.]
GOOD:
[57] I really thought they were going to hire a scriptwriter, because they could have stopped my participation at any point in the process. And, you know XENA is a million-dollar proposition and it's not something you fool around with, so it wouldn't have upset me. I was honored to be part of any part of the process. So, it was always like a milestone for me as we got farther and farther into the process that they thought enough of what I was doing to allow me to continue. As a matter of fact, when I turned in the very first beat sheet for LEGACY (117/605), I think there was a lot of nervousness there because it was very uncertain. I mean Rob pulled someone out of thin air to do this and everybody was very unsure and very concerned. I know there was a big security concern about bringing a fan into the process. But after I turned in my first beat sheet, he called me at work and said, "Missy, thank you for not making me look like a schmuck." (laughing) And I think that's one of the biggest compliments I've ever gotten.ALEXANDER:
[58] That is a big compliment.GOOD:
[59] It meant an enormous amount to me, and my respect for Rob, which had already been pretty great based on the fact that he was willing to try this, went up a lot of notches because he never backed down from it. He stood behind what he wanted to do all the way, and he has always done that, I think.
