Writing

I write the way people speak, while blending humor, wordplay, and social commentary into stories that make you wonder if you’re awake.

Screenplays, short novels, web series, articles, jokes…many, many more jokes…

Never-ending thoughts, carefully chosen.

My screenplay, The Big Indy Hassle, is about a group of mic comedians who experience the largest earthquake in the history of Indianapolis.

It won the Screenplay Contest at the Art Is Alive Film Festival in 2024 (under the title, The Oddly Shaped D).

It was also a semi-finalist in the 2025 Lit Laughs International Comedy Film Festival.

Do you talk to yourself? Bart Hartly does…in wordplay.

“…porous Horace leaks porridge for us…”

Unfinished Poetry, A Short Novel tells the story of a high school senior who can’t silence the wordplay wizard in his head. Will he be able to quiet the voice - and the bullies around him - long enough to finish a poem to his secret love, Miss Flaggerty?

Exercise in Futility is my ongoing short film project where each script is based on jokes from my stand-up I’m using it as a hands-on film school — every short is a chance to learn, experiment, and get better at writing and telling stories on screen.

To read one of the films, click this thing…