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 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 MoreDid you know it’s possible for one person to write 300 plays in just a few years? Or that there are writers who have the fascinating job of adapting romance novels into video games? As soon as I learned these things about the lovely and talented Cassandra Rose, I knew I needed to know more about her creative life.
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 MoreWenonah Wilms is an award-winning screenwriter who won the Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition, the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, and a second McKnight Fellowship all in 2018. She’s written over twenty feature-length screenplays and she’s had six short films produced. Wenonah is a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, and Native American stories and characters figure prominently in her work.
Read MoreI find myself using my piano training all the time when I’m writing. In the world of screenwriting, there are already musical terms in the jargon—a character might be too “one-note,” for instance, and scripts move in “beats.” For me, sitting through a good movie is virtually the same experience as sitting through a good musical performance.
Read MoreLisa and Laura Bunbury are a sister screenwriting/producing team who write multicultural young adult and teen/family dramas. They were recently selected as fellows and Team Leads of the Blackmagic Collective’s Breakthrough Initiative, a fellowship that champions BIPOC TV directors and writers, and they’re mentees in the #StartWith8Hollywood program.
Read MoreI used to be a confident performer who loved the adrenaline rush of performance. As time went on, the adrenaline rush became anxiety. This anxiety grew until the point that I got so nervous—shaking, sweating, heart pounding, stomach churning—before performances that, a couple of years ago, I decided to stop for a while.
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