How are they like your mother? Do they manipulate the way she does? Are they strong the way she is? Does she play favorites even if she says she doesn’t? Do they see only what they want to see? Use your mother (and father, etc.) like a Rosetta Stone. Look at your characters (male and female). Those people, those experiences you had with them, are in your psyche forever. Whether or not you like childhood, your siblings or your parents is completely irrelevant. Choose your locations wisely in your screenplays and let them inform your characters. The desolate landscape sets the stage for characters who are all thirsty for something and if that drink of water, alcohol, love, recognition, justice doesn’t come soon, all will be lost. The West, infertile and unforgiving, pervades his stories, hinting at the idea that death is closer than you think. He used these locations to create a sense of desperation in his plays and movies. Shepard grew up in Texas, New Mexico and Southern California. Here are seven things I learned about writing from Sam Shepard: Shepard is my Bowie and I will forever miss him. The entire world mourned when David Bowie died unexpectedly last year. Just a few years back I wrote a play called Vampire Mouth, heavily inspired by Shepard and Patti Smiths’s Cowboy Mouth. I remember seeing Lie of the Mind at the Mark Taper Forum and being so tearfully impressed by a then unknown Holly Hunter in the startling role of brain-damaged Beth. Buried Child and Fool for Love both blew my teenage mind. His twisted, worn-down characters profoundly opened my eyes to the human condition.

His dialogue came out of my mouth like molten lava. Checkov was good, Shakespeare was better, but nothing affected me like Sam Shepard. I attended an arts school, where I studied acting, which really meant I spent most of my time reading plays. My lifelong obsession with Sam Shepard began in high school.

Seven Plays by Sam Shepard