An Interview with Jimmy Diggs
Interview conducted c. early 2010s
Life as a Writer
How did you get into writing?
I always thought that the writer was the most important person in the creative process, but I never dreamed I would get the opportunity. Around 1992, I lost my airline job when PSA was bought by US Air. My wife at the time didn’t want me to turn forty with regrets, so she told me to follow my dream and she would handle most of the bills while I figured out what I wanted to do.
I loved everything about space, factual or fictional, so I decided I would either try to get a job with NASA or write science-fiction. NASA had a hiring freeze, so I decided to look into writing science-fiction screenplays. That led to a job at Stu Segall Productions, where I eventually made friends with some writer-producers.
When did you first realize that you have what it takes to be a writer?
A producer on Renegade gave me a break and let me pitch ideas. After I pitched, he said something that changed my life forever:
“Jimmy, when I invited you up here, I thought I was just doing a favor for a fellow Vietnam vet. But you are an artist, and I want to do that story for the first episode of the next season.”
Where did you learn to write?
I’m largely self-taught. I never took a class. I read the books that made sense to me and ignored the ones that didn’t. I’ve been blessed with good advice from mentors, and just about everything I wrote made me some money somehow.
Premise
Where do you get your ideas from?
I take a little walk out on what Ernest Hemingway called “the premise prairie” and ask myself one question: What if?
How do you develop your ideas into a story?
I take my central character and make him dance on the head of a pin. I tear his heart out, stomp on it, then painfully and agonizingly build the poor bastard back up again.
Genre
What kind of stories do you enjoy working with?
Stories where a new technology or discovery has to be reinterpreted in human terms. It isn’t the gadget—what Hitchcock called the MacGuffin—that matters. It’s what happens when humans use it.
What genres would you like to explore?
Steampunk, Dieselpunk, Weird West, and something I call Crypto-History.
Structure
Do you work from an outline?
Absolutely. First I write a story—some people call it a treatment or synopsis—then I create a beat outline: the skeleton of the script without dialogue.
Plot
How do you build your story?
Every character begins in a state of equilibrium. The inciting incident knocks that balance out, and the rest of the story is the attempt—often futile—to regain it.
Character
What makes a great hero?
A great villain. Heroes only become great when challenged by an opponent who believes the story belongs to him.
If one of your characters described you, what would they say?
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Setting
How much time do you spend researching setting?
The story dictates the setting. Sometimes the setting is a character itself—organic to the story.
What settings would you like to explore?
I’m considering an animal-based animated story where the dialogue rhymes from beginning to end—almost a hip-hop opera.
Theme
Do you like to know the purpose of your story beforehand?
Absolutely. Theme exists to teach us how to live better lives. That’s the storyteller’s job.
Dialogue
How do you approach dialogue?
I believe in “invisible ink.” What’s unsaid is often more important than what’s said. Dialogue should serve theme and subtext.
Any favorite lines?
From my Gothic-Horror Western Sundown:
“The first thing you learn about common sense is that there ain’t nothin’ common about having sense.”
Writing
Do you have a routine? A certain place to write? Do you listen to music?
I listen to music and work best from midnight to eight in the morning.
How do you deal with writer’s block?
If you have a problem in Act II, it’s because you have a problem in Act I. Fix Act I and everything else falls into place.
Scene Breakdown
Let’s discuss a particular scene to showcase your work. How did that scene come to be?
In a Voyager episode, the ship was surrounded by creatures that mistook it for a member of their species and began a courtship ritual. The crew didn’t want to kill them to escape. When they noticed the females rolled over and turned blue, they rolled Voyager and vented plasma so the ship appeared to turn blue. When it worked, Tuvok said,
“Captain, it appears we’ve lost our sex appeal.”
When the producers laughed, I knew I had them.
The idea came like a golden bullet shot through the back of my head. I knew instantly it would sell.
Story Development
How do you fix a story?
Larry Niven once told me story problems aren’t problems—they’re opportunities. Inside every problem is the core of the story.
How do you know when to stop?
When the character reaches a new equilibrium.
Zombie Apocalypse
So what is YOUR plan for the zombie apocalypse?
My father was a mortician. I lived above the funeral home. When I was three, I rode my tricycle around the morgue and pushed a cadaver’s arm back onto the table when it slipped off.
Later, at a neighbor’s house, I searched under beds and in closets. When asked why, I said, “Where do you keep your dead people?”
Given my lifelong relationship with the dead, I’m confident the zombies will recognize my authority and hail me as their rightful leader.
My first act will be to decriminalize zombie porn and move surviving humans to a safe zone where they can be properly bred—I mean protected.
Our motto will be:
“Whatever kills you makes you stronger.”
Final Thoughts
How important is the title of your story?
Extremely important. It must be thematically tied to the project.
What’s the best thing you’ve ever written?
As a screenplay: H.M.S. Victory.
In print: The Seven Deadly Sins of Star Trek.
Pitching
How do you pitch your stories?
There are as many ways to pitch as there are stories. Once, I even brought a deck of Star Trek cards and built a pitch like tarot. George Clayton Johnson used a card-based story system too—each card represented a story element, and writers voted ideas up or down until a story emerged.
What are you working on now?
An animated series with an African American superheroine, a Gothic-Horror Western, a steampunk franchise, an epic space opera, and an original Star Trek animated concept.