The Long Road: From Screenwriter to Author

My life as an author took a rather circuitous route. One that began as an avid reader, alone in my room, on the steps of the Bookmobile, or on the bench before swim team practice.
In sixth grade, our English Arts teacher assigned us with the task of writing a novella. At the time, the class had been reading A SEPARATE PEACE, KON TIKI, and NATIVE SON. I was in heaven.
As far as I know, no copy of my novella survives, but I remember being profoundly proud of my story. DEAR and THE  was a story about a prisoner of war in Vietnam and the increasingly heavily redacted letters of home that kept his spirits alive until he was freed.
Heavy stuff for an eleven-year-old, right?
Without any role models, I had no idea what a life as an author might look like. So when I went to college, I turned to my second love, architecture. I graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Landscape Architecture, and, in a tough job market, landed in Atlanta where I later cofounded Land Plus Associates, a nationally-recognized design firm specializing in high-end residential design.
The idea of telling stories nagged at me, though, demanding attention.
One year, my mother gave me a creative writing course at a local community arts center. There, we focused on short stories, and after having three stories published in literary magazines, I was reminded how important writing was to me.
I bought a copy of Final Draft software and taught myself the art of screenwriting.
I entered my first screenplay, DRUM, in a contest sponsored by The Writers Store and judged by Simon Kinberg (X-Men, Mr. and Mrs. Smith).
DRUM won second place!
I went on to earn over two dozen screenwriting awards, including WRITER OF THE YEAR, BEST SCREENPLAY, BEST DRAMA, and others. What followed were six produced award-winning feature films, and two more currently in pre-production.
Since buying that first copy of Final Draft, my writing focused on stories meant to be seen.
As a screenwriter, you learn to think visually, to reveal character through movement and dialogue, trusting only what an audience can see and hear, and trusting them to understand what is left unsaid.
I still love that kind of storytelling.
But I started wondering what it would be like to follow a character where a camera couldn’t go, where a microphone couldn’t record.
Inside.
There was an image I kept coming back to. A woman discovering a painting that illustrated a private moment from her own life. A moment the artist couldn’t possibly have witnessed.
Who painted it? How could it possibly exist?
And, more importantly, what if finding the answer forced her to reexamine everything she believed about her past?
These questions eventually became YOU FOUND ME.
In the novel, I met Grace Cochran, a successful Manhattan gallery owner who discovers a mysterious painting that seems to tell a story about her life and connect to the first love she believed belonged to another lifetime.
Writing the story changed the way I thought about storytelling.
As a screenwriter, I would have relied on Grace’s physical reaction to finding the painting, and trusted the director, actress, and cameraman to reveal the meaning of the discovery.
In the novel, I could be there.
I could hear her thoughts. I could remember the loss the way Grace did. I could understand why her past could unsettle the life she built for herself after the devastating loss.
I loved that connection.
On September 22, 2026, YOU FOUND ME will become my first published novel.
With this blog, I invite you to share this journey with me. Share in the experience of moving from screenwriting to fiction, the books and authors I admire, the places and relationships that inspire my stories, and news about what I’m working on next.
I hope this becomes a place to talk about the stories that stay with us long after we’ve turned the last page.
I hope YOU FOUND ME might become one of those stories for you.
Some memories never fade. Some lead you home.
Kenneth Lemm
Author - Screenwriter
​