We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mashael Alqahtani a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mashael, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I truly believe that I picked the right career. The love of my life is writing. It’s the first thing I knew to lean on and the most consistent art-form I’ve enjoyed. It’s both my career and my joy. I do sometimes think about what a regular 9-5 cubicle job would look like for me, but it’s never gotten farther than a preliminary thought because it inherently just doesn’t fit into my life. I’ve never really been able to picture any other path than the one I’m on now as a screenwriter. I am extremely honored to have achieved the success I have, with the recognition of such companies and organizations as Script Pipeline, Blumhouse, Sundance and K Period Media. My goal is to continue honoring my life’s work, established success, and building upon a future that I love and can’t wait for.

Mashael, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m a Saudi Arabian, award-winning screenwriter, with significant placements in several notable screenwriting competitions, and with short films I’ve written on the festival circuit. I’ve won the First Look Deal in Comedy for my action-comedy screenplay “TAFHEET” from Script Pipeline. I’m also part of a horror-screenwriting fellowship with Blumhouse, Sundance and K Period Media, and the Athena Writer’s Lab with the Athena Film Festival. My two short films that I wrote on, “Two Sisters” and “The Witch Pricker and The Hare” were official selections at festivals that include: the Red Sea Film Festival, San Jose International Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival, Sidewalk Film Festival, NewFilmmakersLA, Montreal Women’s Film Festival and more. I’ve graduated from Emerson College with a BA in Film Production and have two MFAs in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California and the American Film Institute, respectively. I’ve worked and interned for several companies and organizations in the industry across several areas — Rideback Rise, Austin Film Festival, FilmNation, Sight Unseen, Borderless Pictures, Grandview Management — now Untitled, and more. The biggest element of my successes has been my work ethic and creative consistency. My ability to focus on my writing output helps me stay engaged with my goals and reach them.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The act of not being precious during the process of writing. I’ve learned that each project needs to be bookended at a certain time, despite whatever I’d like to tweak or change. The most important element of my work that I am refining right now is my ability to move onto the next project and the next opportunity with efficiency — and let go of expectations with any of my work, as that tends to impede progress. I’ve found over the years that when I’m precious with a story creatively, I tend to overanalyze problems or challenges and take valuable time away from other ideas and projects. With time, I have discovered that writing with more organization and less perfectionism has allowed for more efficiency in my work — and has led to more professional and creative success I’ve established.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I’m currently writing a horror screenplay and finding myself going back to one of my favorite horror films, Alien Vs. Predator (2004). The movie is a thoughtful, smart yet simple, effective approach to a “single-location” monster(s) film — which is something I’m trying to achieve at the moment. The lore is succinct and delivers just enough information for the audience to come on board the mission of the story. The characters have wonderfully emotional arcs that move in parallel with the gore and survival objectives of the plot. I love both horror franchises very much, so the movie is also just superbly entertaining. It’s a great take on how to combine both beloved monstrous entities into one world. The movie is endlessly inspiring for me as I write and work at the moment.