I was just thinking about the last time I disconnected from everything. It was last December during a lovely vacation I took with my family over the holidays, when I made a point to unplug from social media and work. I usually bring my laptop on vacations in case I feel the inspiration to write, but this time I chose not to so I could focus on the beauty of being surrounded by nature and family. And yet, I felt more compelled than ever to express myself. I wrote a couple of poems on my Notes app and realized, once again, that I can’t live without writing. Writing is how I process life.
After my birthday last month and the fires in Los Angeles, I’m feeling a bit existential and caught in one of those reflective moods, so maybe it’s a good time to share with you (and mostly to remind myself) why I write.
As a kid I wrote mostly to understand death. Because as the daughter of a Medical Examiner, I developed an early and intense fascination with it. Initially, this manifested in my exploring that curiosity through ghost stories. But as I got older, I realized that these ghost stories were really just my way of trying to understand life. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be alive? What drives us? What are we really afraid of? These questions captivated me and I became more and more fascinated by people—our motivations, our fears, our contradictions. So I went on to journal, write poems, and at one point even an entire book (it was pretty bad, I was very young). Then I discovered my love for film and TV, and screenwriting became my passion.
But even when I’m swamped with film and TV work, I feel the need to write in other forms. This is how I understand myself, my emotions, and the people I care about. I write to understand the human condition, to make sense of all the complexities that come with it. The more I write, the more I find myself full of empathy toward others. We’re such complicated, contradictory beings, and trying to make sense of the non-sensical is part of what keeps me going not only as a writer but also as a human being.
Stories offer something people often undervalue: entertainment. It’s a form of medicine for the soul. It can be escapism, deeply moving, or thought-provoking, and when done well it’s always powerful. When I read a great book or watch a movie that evokes something in me, that’s magical to me. The simple idea that writers can gift someone else a laugh, a thought, or a feeling, is beautiful.
During the strike and the months that followed, I embraced the opportunity to focus on my own material again. There was something liberating in being able to explore the human condition at my own pace, following nothing but my own instincts. Looking back, every story I’ve written was really an exploration of a part of humanity I was fascinated by. Even within the boundaries of an established TV Show or film, there’s always room to leave a piece of me. Maybe that’s why I’ve loved every job I’ve had.
Although the themes and subjects can get more specific, I’ve been exploring the human condition by exploring fear. What does fear do to people? What happens when we confront it? What if we let it win? And what happens when it’s up against love? The possibilities for how fear and love clash are endless, depending on the character leading the story. In my opinion, there is no way to write about fear without writing about love.
I’m not religious but if there’s anything divine I believe in, it’s love. I’m interested in the power of love and what happens in its absence. That’s why it always strikes me as funny when people tell me my work is ‘too dark’ when I’m truly just writing about love. Yes, maybe within a horror or a thriller, but don’t let the genre distract you from the themes. In order to highlight the light in life, I have to explore the shadows. Life is full of contrasts, and so are we, so I enjoy spending some time in the dark, before enjoying the warmth of the sunrise.
♥