A long road for Alan Ball Getting the needed meetings to get his script for “American Beauty” actually produced [by DreamWorks] only happened some years after Alan Ball [photo] was discovered by a talent scout at Carsey-Werner Television who had seen his play, Five Women Wearing the Same Dress. Never schlep coffee again In a [...]
The world is a poem As a poet, writer, playwright, director, and producer, Nathalie Handal articulates the primacy of words and experience in responding to an interview question about the inspiration for her poetry collection The Lives of Rain: “To me, the world is a poem, a poem I keep writing and re-writing. All that [...]
In spite of myself, my hunger to write continues. Like a rogue wave, determined to hold up the meaning of my life against the undertow of my culture, my past, and my family’s fundamentalism, it surges and ebbs. I want to trust it. To be carried into the deeper waters of the things I do [...]
Preconceptions about the creative process We live with a lot of mythologies and concepts about the “inspiration” and “craft” aspects of expression that influence how we approach doing something creative. One of those ideas is that anything so complex as a film script must necessarily take a long time to develop. But screenwriter James Lamberg [...]
It’s not enough to be weird “What is it that makes a story compelling? It’s enough to grab our interest that something weird happens. But what we really want is to be transformed by what we hear. “We want something wonderful to happen. A lot of people just stop at the weird and don’t quite [...]
“The outside world sees literature and politics as two separate things. I don’t. “But I think the reason that the establishments have always feared writers, the reason that writers are persecuted or put into jail, is because they have that weapon of clarity, and when they choose to use it, it’s deadly.” Arundhati Roy [laweekly.com [...]
When we approach that blank canvas, empty stage or notebook paper in a state of curiousity, we’re truly opening the door to the muse – to our “inner artist”, our “higher power” and the creative flow of the universe. In “How to think like Leonardo da Vinci“, Michael Gelb tells us just how curious Leonardo [...]
“It’s compulsive behavior, writing a graphic novel. You’re not only sitting at your computer and writing, then you’re hunched over your drawing board like a monk. “Who would do that?” Alison Bechdel [Entertainment Weekly, June 9 2006] photo from her site: dykestowatchoutfor.com her book: Fun Home : A Family Tragicomic > related article: In Praise [...]
Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi “This book is a fascinating find. It’s all about the ways in which writing and mapmaking are similar, and the intersections between maps and books. It’s dense, but a fascinating read.” Marney K. Makridakis – from an issue of her Artellagram newsletter – see [...]
Writers spend so much time trying to determine when they will be a “real” writer. Just like the stereotype that all accountants wear green eyeshades, the stereotypes about writers persist whether they are accurate or not. > from article Personality Traits of a Real Writer – by Julie Hood [image: Winona Ryder as Jo in [...]
One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place… Something more will arise for later, something better. … Assume you write for an audience consisting solely of terminal patients. [...]
What motivates for one person may not motivate another. … But motivation is an essential ingredient for your success. Ask yourself, why do you want to write that book? What good will come of it? Both for yourself, and for others. Now, expand on that good. Specifically what will it mean? How will your life [...]
- just highlight text 
