What screenwriters can learn from Kelvin Sampson.

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I am absolutely heartbroken for my beloved University of Houston.

Our men's basketball team lost the National Championship game last night to Florida.

Florida was better when it counted. By a hair. But they were better.

It's been 40 years since UH played for the title, and back then they lost on the last play of the game, too.

The team is going to hurt for a while. It's going to sting. 

But I am so damn proud of the teams that Coach Sampson has put on the court year in and year out.

That man has inspired me for years and I wanted to talk about his coaching style, why it resonates with me so much, and how it relates to us, as screenwriters.

When I teach, the most common comparisons I use are sports and improv. 

Partly because these are the things I know, and partly because it is usually apt.

Anything that is performance-based can usually cross over.

I enjoy the entire genre of "self-help" and have found it productive both as a student and as a teacher.

Coach Sampson doesn't bring anything entirely new to this.

No one really does. These principles have remained the same for all of humanity.

What he does bring is clarity and commitment. And those are what matter.

He took a moribund program that no one cared about, no one wanted to watch play, and that the school considered disbanding altogether…

In seven years, he turned it into a national powerhouse and a model program. 

The only thing his Hall of Fame resume is missing is that elusive Natty.

Here are some of the things that Coach has said in the past that have resonated with me as a screenwriter and as a teacher.

Culture.

This is everything to Houston Basketball. Its culture. This is about the expectations and values they establish with every person who comes in contact with the program.

These values and expectations are passed on from one class to another.

It is a culture of resiliency, details, and discipline. This trial-by-fire creates a family-like bond amongst all of them and a determination to not let each other down.

And it is reinforced in everything they do.

Because how you do one thing is how you do everything.

This is vital. The culture and the values that the culture carries tell you what to do. It gives you direction.

But this all requires something absolutely crucial… It requires buy-in.

And UH Basketball recruits specifically for players that will buy in.

"If I cannot get you to buy in to this value system, there is not much I can teach you."

This is what I tell every student I teach in their first class with me.

And I mean it.

Because, even with all the technique, principles, and hints I teach, it is still a value-based system.

Those two values are STORY and EMOTION.

It is the belief that these two things trump all. They guide your decisions and tell you what is important in your scenes and your moments.

If I can't get you to prioritize them, then I am just teaching you how to dribble, and I am not teaching you how to win.

"Winning plays"

This is a concept that Coach talks about often. As fans, we tend to focus on the tangible statistics. This is not unimportant, but he often talks about the little things that don't show up in the box score.

He calls them "winning plays."

The tip out, the diving to the floor, the box out, not leaving your feet on a fake, keeping a ball from going out of bounds, and saving a possession.

In short, "the little things."

The little things add up.

For us, the little things are our scene work. The moments. The action lines. All the way down to the verbs we choose and the adverbs we refrain from.

It means writing in active tense with confidence and building a relationship with the reader.

All those things that don't matter so much in the moment, but when you add them up over 100 pages make a real difference.

"Unscripted points"

The Cougars run plays like everyone else. But those plays break down. Same with the other teams. Shots are missed, balls get loose.

As Sampson says, they "plan for failure."

Those are the "unscripted points" the Coogs rely on for every game.

Adapt when things aren't working, take advantage when opportunity arises.

PLAN for this. Don't get surprised by it.

Yes, you have an outline. But fun and interesting discoveries happen. As long as it's on story, embrace them.

Be adaptable when something isn't working. Remember your story. That's your true north. Fight for the intention, not the words on the page.

"When no one is around."

Last year, J'Wan Roberts was a 65% free throw shooter. Saturday night, under the most intense pressure imaginable, with seconds left in the game, he hit two free throws to take the lead.

Right after, a Duke player, a much better free-throw shooter, missed his.

"It's the moments that you work when no one is around that prepare you for the moments when everyone is."

What was he doing when no one was looking?

Since June of last year, J'Wan has thrown 150 free throws a day. No fans, sometimes no coaches.

150 free throws a day.

When the moment came, he was ready.

"It's not lucky to do what [Houston players] do because that's work. …"

What are we doing when no one is looking?

What do we do that we aren't going to show anybody?

What are we doing when we are not writing that makes our writing better?

Are we writing ideas down? Watching movies and breaking down the structures? Reading screenplays? Pros and non-pros alike?

You are going to lose some games. Especially early.

The Houston Cougars started the season 4-3. Sampson wasn't worried. "We're a good team. But that may be about all we are right now. Just a good team."

He was adamant that had little to do with who they would be in March.

He was right. The Cougars have gone 31-2 since. Their two losses, including the National Championship game, were by a total of 3 points.

Where you are now is not where you will be.

Be teachable. Accept you're not as good now as you will be, so you can keep growing and keep getting better.

A screenwriting career is a mental battle from start to finish. You will lose some games.

But the only true losses are the ones you don't learn from.

"Just hang in there."

Down 14 points, with ten minutes left, Sampson's message to the team was, "Just hang in there."

Keep grinding.

Down 9 points with 2 minutes left.

Same message. Just hang in there.

Keep grinding.

Down six points with 30 seconds left?

"Just hang in there."

“No one ever loses at anything if they don't quit. — Kelvin Sampson

The ones who prosper in this business are the ones who don't quit.

This endeavor is all about how many nos you have in you.

If you can hear "No" one more time, you're still in the game.

Just hang in there.

Keep grinding.

The wins are nice. They can replenish a lot of nos.

It's good to stock up on them when we can because we're going to need them.

Just hang in there.

The two things you can always control.

The shots will not always land. Over any significant stretch of time, no one makes all their shots. The ball bounces weirdly; it does funny things.

People don't do what you expect them to do.

The vast majority of things happening on the court are things that a player cannot control.

But there are two things a player ALWAYS has control of.

Their attitude and their effort.

It takes no talent to be the hardest-working player on the court. It takes no talent to stay calm under pressure or to stay proactive when things are going poorly.

On Saturday night, the refs had a horrible late call that cost UH a possession. It could have put the game out of reach. But the Coogs got the stop, and it didn't matter.

Moments later, the refs made a bad call against Duke and instead of UH getting the last shot to win or lose, it was Duke getting it. And they couldn't do it.

Neither team could control their bad calls.

But UH overcame theirs, and Duke didn't. 

Last night, it was reversed.

The two things we can always control are our attitude and our effort.

We have no influence on industry trends. We can't control the executives or those who write the checks.

We can't force an agent to represent us.

We certainly can't force someone to love our screenplay. And believe me, I've tried!

But we can control our attitude and our effort. We can control what we do next.

We can control what we choose to write.

I'm a damn good screenwriter. I wasn't shown the door because my writing wasn't good enough. I was shown the door because of my attitude and my effort.

It was only when those two things changed that I started getting paid again.

But don't just watch your own attitude. Be wary of it from others. Misery loves company.

The negative and the bitter feel better when you're negative and bitter, too.

UH lost the game.

I feel terrible for those young men who worked so hard with one goal in mind.

But I am also immensely grateful for this program.

Kelvin Sampson was the perfect coach for The University of. Houston. 

His teams exhibit the character of this university and our city college roots. We work for everything, and nothing is given to a Coog. 

In a state where it is constitutionally guaranteed that two universities get more funds than all the others, we do more with less. 

I wanted badly to win. For these players, these coaches, and my beloved school. But I'm also not sure I really care. 

I'm just so proud of where they came from and what they have done.

The Story and Plot Weekly Email is published every Tuesday morning. Don't miss another one.

​ Tom Vaughan
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