There’s a saying I’ve heard many times in my writing career journey, both in terms of the stories we write and the relationships we build: “People don’t remember what happened; they remember how it made them feel.” This is true of events too. Austin Film Festival is jam-packed with amazing people, brilliant minds, and incredible projects.
Read MoreAll year, industry screenwriters have shared their accounts of not being properly compensated for vital contributions to an industry that makes an absurd amount of money off their ideas. Many writers and other artists are having existential crises. It feels like we’ll never be respected or rewarded for creating things, so why bother?
Read MoreNo matter the format or the genre, rejection is almost always due to one of a few common missteps. I want to share them so that we can all put our best writerly feet forward—because I, too, am a writer who submits my work to the mysterious realm of Readers who I hope will take my work seriously and consider it for a next step. First, some good news: readers are hoping to be enthusiastic about your work.
Read MoreI made a rejections collage. Yes, a real-life collage—the kind of collage you buy a poster board and glue sticks for—of my rejections. Not all of my rejections, but the ones that were easiest for me to find through my Submittable account and old emails. I wanted to write about rejection, and it felt important that I spend quality time with my rejections in order to do so.
Read MoreI’ve always had a physical journal to write in, and most of my non-journal writing projects still begin on a sheet of paper. This process feels sacred to me. Writing by hand feels more like I’m connecting with the “earth” of creating—making something in messy, slow, real life. It feels special.
Read More“Writing is rewriting” gives off a lot of that “practice makes perfect” energy, doesn’t it? It implies that you have to actually, you know, work and struggle. I like writing because in writing I don’t “have to rebuild all the time” in the way I have to do as a musician. But most expert writers seem to agree this is the real work of it all.
Read MoreWhether or not you “believe” in resolutions or the blank slate of the New Year, the idea of stepping back and taking stock of ourselves allows for a useful reflection we might otherwise skip. The dictionary says “to resolve” is “to decide firmly on a course of action.” It’s really just about a little active planning: Who do you want to be? How will you do it?
Read MoreI try to keep separate notebooks for separate writing worlds: one for screenwriting, one for fiction, one for creative nonfiction, and so on. However, as my creative life has gotten ever crazier, I couldn’t tell you which notebook is which. At least I know I’m not alone. Even Mozart once wrote: “Altogether I have so much to do that often I do not know whether I am on my head or my heels.”
Read MoreLoneliness plays a recurring role in creative work. Feeling lonely can connect us more deeply to our emotions, keep us undistracted by the needs and demands of others, and free us from others’ expectations—plus, our imagination kicks into gear because it works most when it’s needed.
Read MoreI really think that finding this balance between wildness and discipline is key in creativity, which is not only about thinking of ideas and expressing them, but also about developing them into some form of finished project. I don’t know how wild my mind is, but, having grown up a classical pianist, discipline is kind of my jam.
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