{"id":3565,"date":"2020-01-31T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=3565"},"modified":"2020-01-27T11:05:43","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T16:05:43","slug":"as-good-as-her-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2020\/01\/31\/as-good-as-her-words\/","title":{"rendered":"As Good as Her Words"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Screenwriter Karen Bloch Morse \u201995 has had more than two decades of success in Hollywood.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Karen<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Valentine\u2019s Day gift that screenwriter Karen Bloch Morse \u201995 received last year didn\u2019t fit in the typical red-foil heart-shaped box. On that day, Morse\u2019s pitch for a TV movie titled Same Time, Next Christmas<\/em> was picked up for development. \u201cIt is unusual to pitch and sell something in the same day,\u201d Morse says. \u201cIt was fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And a bit terrifying, too: She\u2019d have to speed-write the script to meet rigid Christmas production schedules. \u201cDeadlines are typically flexible,\u201d she says, \u201cbut there\u2019s no postponing Christmas.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, Morse thrives under deadlines. She delivered a polished script
in two weeks instead of the typical 10. The project was greenlighted for filming in May, and in August she flew to work on set in Oahu. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After 24 years in Hollywood, Morse knows the rhythms of the screenwriting business well enough to relish such glamorous moments and on-screen successes when they come. \u201cA lot of your work as a screenwriter never makes it to the screen,\u201d she says. \u201cSo many things are out of your control. The only thing you can control is your own productivity and writing.\u201d    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she entered Colgate, Morse thought she had the script for her professional life nailed down. She would become a lawyer, like her father. She enjoyed creative writing, and even attended a private high school in Maryland known for its writing program. \u201cBut it never occurred to me that writing was a job,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then she met literature professor Fred Busch \u2014 and her script changed. She launched herself into writing classes, including a playwriting course, and in her senior year penned a play that won Colgate\u2019s creative arts competition. Busch and her parents encouraged her to pursue a writing career.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1995, Morse graduated and moved to Hollywood, initially working for fellow Colgate alumnus John Romano \u201970, and then cutting her teeth as a script coordinator on the blockbuster TV show Dawson\u2019s Creek<\/em>. She segued into screenwriting, working on rewrites and feature scripts for such studios as Sony, Disney, and Universal. \u201cThe challenge of screenwriting is you have to hit all of your beats, deliver all of your information as visually as possible, and get all of the emotions into the movie in a finite period of time,\u201d she explains. \u201cYou know that somewhere between 105 and 120 pages, you have to type, \u2018The End.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her first produced film was the 2008 dance movie Center Stage: Turn it Up<\/em>, followed by the 2010 remake of Ice Castles<\/em>. \u201cThe challenge of a remake is that you want to be respectful of the original film while modernizing the dialogue and setting,\u201d Morse says. Feathered hair was out; cell phones were in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morse\u2019s 2016 movie for the American Girl franchise, Lea to the Rescue<\/em>, hit right as her two daughters were major fans of the company. \u201cFor a year, I was the coolest mom at their elementary school,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Same Time, Next Christmas<\/em> aired on ABC Dec. 5. Glee<\/em> star Lea Michele and Younger<\/em> actor Charles Michael Davis play childhood sweethearts who reunite and rekindle their romance years later at the same Hawaiian resort where their families vacationed.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing on set is invigorating,\u201d Morse says. \u201cIt\u2019s an exciting challenge to write on the fly as things change. And when you hear your words come to life, there is nothing cooler for a writer. It\u2019s exhilarating.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for what the future holds for Morse, she has a feature film, Daughter of the Bride<\/em>, shooting this spring. And it turns out that her title Same Time, Next Christmas<\/em> was prophetic: She has just signed on to do another movie for ABC, for next Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Professor Fred Busch inspired both Morse and writer Dan Slater ’00. Read more about his legacy and his contribution to Living Writers.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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