Graphic by Aman Upadhyay
After submitting to their very first screenwriting competition, 22-year-old Emma Staff took home the grand prize award from the Create Your Own Adventure (CYOA) Screenwriting Contest. Emma graduated from the University of Iowa in the Summer of 2020 with a B.A. in Theatre, but they can truly be considered a jack of all trades. Emma has experience in all realms of theatre production but specifically focuses on costuming and playwriting. They are the perfect example of how passion and commitment can be much more important than years of experience. After stumbling across the CYOA contest while scrolling through TikTok, Emma honed the screenwriting skills that they gained from a few college screenwriting classes and got to work on “Webs of the West,” their contest submission that follows Peter Parker through his crime-fighting adventures in the Wild West.
The CYOA Screenwriting Contest was founded by TikTok content creators Daejah (@daejahtalkstv), Jo (@MomoIscariot), Kenna (@human_espresso), A.J. (@A.J.LastName) and Chin (@ChinForShort) to encourage writers of all skill levels to put their work out into the world. Due to its no entry fee policy and the founders’ expansive TikTok presence, the competition is more accessible to young writers than most writing contests out there. This was the first time this competition has been held, but the founders expressed commitment to holding at least one contest per year under different themes. This year’s prompt was to throw Spiderman into a new genre, from sitcom to period drama, in the form of a television pilot script. The CYOA judges awarded Emma as the grand prize winner for this year’s #SpideyScript theme with their television pilot placing Peter Parker in a Spaghetti Western.
Growing up in Iowa, where Emma jokingly claims “nothing happens,” they are very familiar with the United States’ history with the Wild West. They drew from their knowledge of Spaghetti Western tropes to insert Marvel superhero Spiderman into this new environment. “It wasn’t just my physical surroundings, it was also my current emotional state.” They continued, “Something about spaghetti Westerns — even if they’re cheesy — they’re always about the bad guys trying to use the common folk for their own gains.” Emma saw this theme in our country’s current political state, so they channeled their frustrations into creating a new version of the western genre. “The world right now is a new Wild West. This [TV pilot] was me getting my frustrations out about the injustices in the world and the pandemic, and all of the change happening in my life.” Once Emma knew they would place Peter Parker in the Western genre, it was time for them to choose additional accomplices and villains to throw into the Wild West with Peter.
Almost every character in Emma’s script is a recycled Marvel character that they knew from the comics, with the only new character being Jeremiah. Growing up, Emma would rent comics from their hometown library and read anything they could get their hands on. Through this comic obsession, Emma was introduced to America Chavez, the first openly gay Latin American superhero in the Marvel universe. They felt it was very important to include a Latinx hero in their TV pilot because “Latinx people were hugely influential in the west; they made up a large majority of cowboys, and obviously it was Mexico’s land that was being taken.” Chavez’s ethnicity was not the only thing that made her a perfect fit for Emma’s story. They also felt a personal connection to Chavez being the first openly gay character in the Marvel comics; while Chavez is slated to appear in the next “Doctor Strange” live-action film, the character has yet to be on the big screen. “That was a huge thing for me. At that point in my life, I hadn’t seen any openly gay comic characters yet. She was really influential in opening my eyes to that Marvel characters can be a variety of things, including queer.” Emma felt deeply connected to Chavez after reading so many of her comics that they found it easy to write in her voice. Peter Parker, on the other hand, was more of a challenge: “Peter was the most difficult one to write for because so many people have written him. I kind of just self-inserted a little bit!” Emma said with a laugh. When writing for a character as prolific as Spiderman, it can be daunting to channel that character’s voice authentically. Emma decided to take on this challenge by empathizing with Peter and drawing from their own life experiences. “He’s a hero, and he’s doing his best to keep people safe, but it [crime] just keeps coming. In a way, I sometimes feel like that because I try to do my best every day, but sometimes it just feels like life is overwhelming.” In Emma’s pilot, Peter copes with this feeling of overwhelm by recruiting Chavez, Jeremiah and Bruce to assist him in taking down the villains running rampant in the Wild West. Needless to say, the trio’s expertise is exactly what Peter needed to fight Wild Western crime.
Upon submitting their pilot to the CYOA contest judges, Emma was definitely not expecting to win the grand prize. “On submitting it I just told myself, ‘you finished this, and that’s all you can expect of yourself.’” Many of us have experienced setbacks in our motivation and productivity this year, and Emma found it difficult to get back into writing amid the draining beginnings of the pandemic, the current political state of our country and after graduating college in unexpected circumstances. To combat this stubborn, creativity-killing beast, Emma kept reminding themself: “Even if you don’t win, you have completed something and submitted it.” And sure enough, this attitude allowed them to submit the TV pilot that would go on to win the grand prize of the entire contest.
The fact that Emma won the first screenwriting competition that they ever submitted to is the perfect example of how aspiring writers should never underestimate their abilities. Emma shares this sentiment by saying, “If anybody wants to try writing then they absolutely should. You got nothing to lose!” It can be so easy to tear yourself down and make excuses for why it is pointless to share your work or submit to a seemingly far-fetched competition. But Emma encourages you to believe in your work: “If you think your idea is cool or has cool aspects, chances are someone else is going to think so too. And that is applicable to all art.” What is next for Emma you may ask? Well, they see this opportunity as a “kick in the pants” to keep developing their writing skills and submitting to more screenwriting contests. Additionally, they plan to pursue a job in theatre costume crew while also working on their plays and screenplays on the side. If you want to keep up with Emma on social media and read their contest-winning pilot “Ride With Us,” see the links below!