David Bennett Carren is a screenwriter who has worked for six decades to deliver countless stories, characters, and worlds through film and television. He has been passionate about writing since childhood and has continued to pursue the craft of words.
Since his first ambition was to be a novelist, Carren pursued journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, where he did well and graduated a semester early in 1974. In practice, however, Carren discovered he wasn’t very fond of working in a newspaper industry in remote Big Spring Texas, only enduring his first reporting job for a few months.
“I think part of the reason I wasn’t very good at being a journalist is I wanted to create stories. I did not want to record them. I did not want to just record reality. I wanted to make my own reality, my own stories,” said Carren.
Abandoning his ambitions to be a reporter or novelist, Carren made a big move to Los Angeles, or LA, with the hopes and dreams of making movies.
“I decided to get on a bus and go out to LA and be a screenwriter. Don’t ask me why, I just really like movies. I went out there, and my first job was on Starsky & Hutch.”
Starsky & Hutch, an over-the-top action show about two police detectives breaking the rules and catching criminals in California, was very much a product of the 1970s, though an excellent start. For the next twenty-five years, Carren wrote a wide range of work, contributing to approximately 200 projects, from TV series and pilots to comic books and cartoons. However, despite the number of pieces he created or contributed to in Hollywood, he never wrote a movie, which was the reason he had moved to LA in the first place.
Among the many programs he participated in, he fondly remembers one specific television project.
“I’m very proud of the episode I wrote for The Twilight Zone, which was based on a graphic novel story I got published in Twisted Tales. It was called “If She Dies” and turned out very well. It was the only truly original piece I ever wrote on TV. Most of the time, I was writing for someone else’s idea, whereas that time, it was my own,” said Carren.
He also particularly enjoyed the writing he did for Star Trek the Next Generation, as well as Diagnosis Murder and Walker, Texas Ranger, where he worked with famed actors Dick Van Dyke and Chuck Norris.
After many years in LA, Carren returned to his home state of Texas, finding a place in Houston. Although he describes the city as not known for its creative industries, he ultimately found success there.
“There is almost no film or television business in Houston, but somehow, I managed to get my career going again. I was the only professional screenwriter in a city of four and a half million people, and I actually got movie and TV deals,” said Carren.
Ironically, his first feature film was produced not in Hollywood but in Houston. Mr. Hell, a horror movie released in 2006, enjoyed considerable commercial success and was distributed nationwide.
Another of Carren’s aspirations has been to teach and share his expertise as a screenwriter. In 2007, he was offered a position at the then-University of Texas-Pan American, now the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where he still works today. Prior to that, he had taught at various venues, including UCLA Extension and the MFA Creative Writing graduate program at Wilkes Barre University.
During his time here, he has written several film projects that have been optioned by production companies and created two textbooks designed to educate readers on screenwriting. The latest, Creating Big Ideas for Less in Feature Film, is scheduled for a March release through Routledge and is available for pre-order.
He has also written and directed two movies, Waiting for Sandoval and The Red Queen. Produced through the university’s film program, these projects provided students with invaluable working experience as well as credits on the Internet Movie Database.
For individuals aspiring to be screenwriters who wish to break into Hollywood, Carren has the following advice:
“Be aware that you don’t know anything, and be willing to learn. Be willing to take criticism but carefully. The response you’ll get is very difficult to manage when you’re selling material to people because so much of it is so subjective.”
He also advises that any artistic craft is best attempted when the aspiration is wholeheartedly passionate.
“Whether it’s painting, sculpture, music, acting, directing, or writing, you shouldn’t pursue it unless you’re just married to it. Unless you can’t think of anything else you want to do. Unless it’s a true calling, when it comes to any art form, always follow your heart.”
