John Cleaver
I'm John ...
And I've been a storyteller all my life.
My writing can best be defined by its exploration of morality, change, and hope.​
I learn all I can from the stories I take in; I believe storytelling should support, educate, & elevate as much as it entertains, and I try to reflect that in what I write.
I also love to be on set! While my primary focus is, to be sure, screenwriting, I'm someone who likes to have his hand on the pen and boots on the ground!
Inspirations
Most of what I write is Realistic Fiction, so I find myself inspired by History altogether. If it's from a time period I find interesting, I'll probably draw from it; I like to write Westerns, for example, because I consider the American Old West to be the most unique point in US history.
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I always think about the psychology of a character when deciding how they'll react to things, so I'd say the Mind is something I take a lot of inspiration from as well. Since most of my stories have to do with ethics and emotions, my own meditations on the human mind inform my writing a lot.
Favorite Stories
Certain stories are especially impactful to me. Here are some of my favorites...
Books/Graphic Novels:
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, This Boy's Life: A Memoir by Tobias Wolff, Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Watchmen by Alan Moore, The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman
Films:
Wind River, Children of Men, Come and See, The Revenant, all things Akira Kurosawa & Sergio Leone, Guardians of the Galaxy, Logan, Jurassic Park, Every Indiana Jones Film, Every Star Wars Film
TV:
Avatar: The Last Airbender, Band of Brothers, Daredevil, Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, Barry, Attack on Titan, Every Star Wars TV Series
Video Games:
Halo: Reach, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Spec Ops: The Line, Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption 2, The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War (2018), Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order