Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by dianejwright on July 31, 2009 at 2:08pm

So, I'll start us off. My tiny development company, Milk Boss Industries, is always on the hunt for material to add to the slate (who isn't, right?) So I spend some of my workday reading screenplay submissions and looking for a fit. Then there's the story editing/script doctoring part of the day where I work with other writers and their stories (not always screenplays) to help them get all they want from their work. That's so much fun, I can't even tell you. Lets see. I work on my own projects for a couple of hours and maintain my site, THE STORY SPOT (usually I'm inspired by whatever's happening on the script doc front for the day and share that) and chat with readers on Twitter and Facebook. There isn't much time left to promote my novel, Birthday Girl but that's the choice I made. There's only so much time in a day. And, out of sheer adoration of a great read, I've partnered with Kathryn Pope to start Seedpod Publishing as a way to nurture new literary fiction and flash fiction and get it into readers' hands...digitally. We haven't officially opened the virtual doors yet but we're building our list and getting close! It's all good fun and I wish the same for all of us.

Outside of all that (whew!), I live in Santa Monica, CA and Victoria, BC with the brilliant Jeff Renfroe and our two highly amusing cats. I read, gobble up 60's and 70's film (the 40's were pretty good too) as well as silly blockbusters, listen to Ella and Bille when I write and cook, and generally just love every day that I get to write. Sappy, I know, but true.
/djw

Here are my links:
http://the-story-spot.com
http://twitter.com/thestoryspot
http://birthdaygirlnovel.com

What about you? Toot your own horns, ladies! Lets hear it!
/djw

Permalink Reply by Amy E. Greene on November 12, 2010 at 1:58pm

Hi Everyone. I am an American living in Kitchener, Ontario. I took a leap of faith a few years ago and followed my significant other, first, to New Brunswick, then to Ontario, where he now works at the University in Waterloo. I have been working in various facets of education online since then and am looking forward to permanent residency and a work permit in a few months!

Like many of you, I have wanted to be a writer for a long time. My interest has always been in non-fiction writing. I even earned an M.F.A. degree in New York. However, writing -- not to mention the thought of publication -- has always been an intimidating vocation for me. After my graduate school experience, I filled my life with teaching and other concerns and left myself no time to write. The work that pays has always been an easy excuse to run away from my fears. I have lived around the world , from South Africa, to Israel, to England and Nigeria. I had so many stories to tell, and yet I didn't tell them.

My choice to move to Canada, and to restrict myself to online work from the States, surprisingly nudged me to re-commit to writing. I am still trying to find my feet and my voice. Hopefully in the future I'll set my sites on publication. I don't have a specific "project" per se. Just ideas... My significant other is from Kolkata, and we spend two months there every summer. So, I have been doing a lot of writing about that city.

Thanks for having an American on board!

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Young on November 12, 2010 at 8:09pm

Hi Amy and thanks for your interesting post. During the few months I've been part of She Writes there seems to be a continuous thread women throughout everything - the need for encouragement and support from other women. I think you've come to the right place Amy! May this website empower you to do what you've always wanted and assist you find expression from your rich resources.
P.S. My son lives in Nashville, so I would say it's an even trade!
P.P.S. I live in Barrie.

Permalink Reply by Mara Feeney on November 13, 2010 at 9:15am

Welcome Amy! Don't worry about being American--you seem to have the credentials to be considered multi-national. I was born in Canada and my heart and soul have never left, though I find myself living in San Francisco and can't seem to leave (weather, wine, work, and love!). It sounds as if you have tons of rich material to write about. The key to becoming a writer is to write. Just start in and don't stop. The rest will take care of itself. Best of luck!

Permalink Reply by Eileen Whitfield on July 31, 2009 at 3:13pm

Hello. I was an actress, long ago (1974-82), and then went into journalism, factchecking, editing and writing for Saturday Night Magazine in Toronto and the city magazine Toronto Life. I'm pretty hard on my writing, but I'm really proud of 2 long features for SN, one on a violin prodigy and another on the late James St. James, who had AIDS, and who in the mid-80s was the longest-known survivor (at seven years). During my acting years as well as my tenure at magazines, I wrote some plays that were workshopped, and one was produced at the small Rice stage at the Citadel in Edmonton. But I have never been happy with these plays, so I don't publicize them. I found through my magazine writing that I am better at creating compelling narrative through prose. In the late 90s, I finally combined my impulse to act and my impulse to tell a story readers can't put down by writing biographies about performers.

In 1997 I published a biography of Mary Pickford called Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood (Macfarlane, Walter & Ross / University Press of Kentucky). I am now a freelancer, and am writing a bioraphy of silent clown and director Buster Keaton.

I have to balance my writing with two pain conditions -- daily migraine (that's been going on for 25 years) and chronic fatigue syndrome (for 8). This cuts into time, quite drastically. It also affects my lucidity, and my ability to make enough money to fund biography in the first place. (Research costs are steep.) But I manage. I've learned to write whenever I feel well and "clear" enough to do it ... wherever I am, and at whatever hour. (Out comes the pencil or the macbook, and to hell with what other people think!)

While I write about Keaton, I am wondering in the back of my mind how to write a screenplay about Mary Pickford. My Pickforrd biography has been optioned (if memory serves) four times, but no one has created a workable screenplay, either as a 2-hour film or a limited tv series. I'm beginning to think that Pickford is best suited to a fictional screenplay, rather than a biopic. For instance, the British actor/composer Ivor Novello, a star in the same period as MP, turns up in Robert Altman's movie Gosford Park. The context is pure fiction, but the viewer does get a real feeling for who Novello was and how he fit into the world. Writing my own Pickford screenplay is an unrealized dream.

Dianejwright: I adore L.A.; it's like an archaeological dig for silent film historians. I embarrass my friends with my rapture over palm trees and the scent of the Pacific, and have walked the Santa Monica boardwalk many times. I lived in New York City as a child and acted there in the 70s; I adore it as well, and the sight of the Upper West Side's Ansonia Building makes me burst into tears. I spent many years under Saskatchewan's "living skies," so the prairie is another touchstone. These days I live in Toronto's St. Lawrence Market -- the historic buildings in the area are very soothing and beautiful to me. Personal circumstances make it impossible for me to have cats right now, but I've always had them in the past. I'm a serious cat-fan, with a special weakness for big Maine Coons.

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Young on November 12, 2010 at 7:57pm

Hi Eileen, it sounds like you have had a wonderfully interesting life and are continuing to evolve. I have some health conditions that don't permit me to work anymore, but like you I write wherever and whenever. I also am a cat lover. I have a large Persian cat. Two of my grown children live in Toronto and I live in Barrie. Welcome to She Writes and welcome to this group. Looking forward to your participation.

Permalink Reply by Valerie M Honey. on June 26, 2012 at 4:14pm

  Just read your posting today Eileen. Your paragraph which includes  the mention of Ivor Novello is sitting just above the comment box. I remember all of his songs. his music was still around in the early forties when I was born in England.

  How interesting  about your work with the Mary Pickford premise. I think her story is worth telling. Good luck with it.

 I will give closer attention to your piece later today. Your  touchstone places are similar to mine. Toronto welcomed me and sheltered me in surprising ways during my years there. It is only recently that I discovered my paternal Grandmother was born there. In the Queen Street neighborhood. 1879. She had two other younger siblings, and all three children were orphaned at Five, Four and three years old. 

 Settling in the prairies when we first came to Canada in 1967 was a phenomenal experience after coming from Devonshire and Cornwall. I was exposed to the basic elements of this  planet, sky and earth.  it was very moving and terrifying. My dream would be to live in California. My choice would be along the coast road somewhere remote, with the  endless ocean to look out on. I make do with New York, London, Italy and a few other places in the meantime. 

The best in all you do.

From Valerie M. Honey. (aka Heather Rowan.)

Permalink Reply by Jha Goh on August 2, 2009 at 9:03am

I'm originally from Malaysia, came to Canada to study in 2003 and graduated last May with an Honours Degree in English, minor in Creative Writing. I've been writing novels for a while and still screwing up the courage to send some short stories along to various magazines. My most recent project was co-writing an essay on fashion in steampunk and its intersection with racial issues. I mostly blog (jhameia.blogspot.com or fantasyecho.livejournal.com) and plot world domination. My fiction leans towards fantasy and scifi.

In the real world, I have been the NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison for Halifax for the last 5 years. I work as a marketing intern writing press releases for Medusa Medical Technologies, a paramedic software solution company.

Permalink Reply by Bianca Filoteo on August 3, 2009 at 5:59pm

Hi all,
I've been writing poetry/prose/screenplays my whole life but they were always just for my eyes only (or to a select few friends). Once I finished university and got my BA, I had a minor freak-out about what I was gonna do for the rest of my life. So I finally got enough courage to do what I always wanted to do (as opposed to what I was "supposed" to do). I'm an actor and aspiring screenwriter/filmmaker. I've taken a few classes in screenwriting and sketch comedy writing, and right now I'm working on a script or two, with hopes of producing them in the near future.

Besides acting/writing, I'm into photography (especially taking photos of my dog), social media, and web design.

Permalink Reply by dianejwright on August 6, 2009 at 10:40am

We're writers of all forms and genres here. What's everyone working on at the moment (and what's the weather like outside your window? Inspiring?)
/djw

Permalink Reply by Eileen Whitfield on August 6, 2009 at 3:25pm

dianejwright said:

We're writers of all forms and genres here. What's everyone working on at the moment (and what's the weather like outside your window? Inspiring?)
/djw

Permalink Reply by Eileen Whitfield on August 6, 2009 at 4:43pm

Sorry ... I seem to have submitted a blank comment!

The weather outside my window is serene, and a cloudless evening is falling. Still, the "muse" has been elusive. But I've had to learn that ANY writing, no matter how disjointed, can yield one good phrase, one interesting angle. So I spent the afternoon developing a section for my bio of Buster Keaton (which has a fast approaching deadline), jotting down adjectives and thoughts that are parts of the mosaic, believing that in the end, nothing goes to waste. I'm also starting an essay on the acting of Mary Pickford for the Library of Congress, who are publishing a volume of essays about her. I truly adore writing about this, as it relates to my past career as a performer, so the writing draws on my own memories of acting was well as my views on MP.

I haven't read everyone's links and blogs yet ... will tomorrow!

A song from 1916 has been in my head all day. When I dream about writing a fictional screenplay about that period (and one which can introduce Mary Pickford as a character) I always hear this song. The film I dream is about the start of modern celebrity, which I believe began with the advent of movie fame (MP was the world's first movie star). I've read many screenplays, but I don't have an instinctive feel for their structure, even though I seem to have an instinct for building biography But in biography I don't create the story ... instead I try to make a real story feel new and irresistable. When I try fiction, I can imagine the start and the finish but it's the middle that wanders terribly. The playwright Moss Hart used to call the second act (in his day, plays had three) "the soft underbelly of playwriting," and at least for me the middle is the danger point in any kind of narrative.-- Diana and Bianca, are there some books about classic screenplay structure that you recommend? Or do you think that rather than reading books to advise me, it is better to simply keep imagining and exploring through various drafts? I have never had a creative writing class (I envy you that, Jha) but I'm afraid I can't afford one and don't have the time.

Anyway, are there basic texts about building screenplays I should read?

I can't believe you write novels, Jha. Who do you admire in fantasy and science fiction?

Apologies for any errors. I'm on migraine meds! (thus no pain, but lots of blur.)

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