What do you enjoy most about your role?
When the "hive mind" comes together to break down quality text, we can learn patterns and better understand structure, which we can then infuse into our own stories. Each member can point out elements others may miss. This means we're able to get more out of the story than if we simply studied it on our own. And seeing people’s knowledge expand as we move forward, how cool is that?
Tell us a little about your writing.
While I write copy and commercials in my Creative Director role, I’ve also written some short films. When I drastically reduced my word count in an exercise by Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass workshop, picture books turned out to be a medium for me to learn and practice. 500 words to tell a story? Sure. It’s both challenging and a training ground to better learn the rules and structure. I can then build on those foundations for long-format stories like feature length screenplays. But then something happened. I found SCBWI and I fell in love with the community. Such beautiful people! Now I want to pursue this path as I work toward writing, producing, and directing my first feature film.
What advice would you give to anyone considering volunteering in our region?
If you have any interest, give it a go. You can always choose not to do it later if it's something that doesn't fit you. Ask yourself: When you have low risk actions you can take in order to learn more about yourself and/or to give back to others, what keeps you from going after it?