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Alyson Mead
Better Living Through Storytelling
Interests
Basketball, reading, hiking, music, art, travel
Books
Currently working my way through: a volume of Rilke poetry and Creating a World Without Poverty, by Muhammad Yunus
Movies
The Naked Kiss, Talladega Nights, Rushmore, The 400 Blows, The Awful Truth, The Palm Beach Story, In a Lonely Place, Superbad
Television
Six Feet Under. The Wire. Currently digging The Shield and looking forward to another season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. 30 Days, The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman. Californication (yes!), the first season of Damages, Breaking Bad, Dexter, Big Love. And basketball. Lots and lots of basketball.
Blog
Always Shifting
I like to tell people I grew up "all over the place," even though we were mostly confined to the Eastern Seaboard for the earliest parts of my life. Eventually, we landed out in one of the serene, sandy areas of suburban Long Island, and stayed there for a time. But for many years before that, we moved constantly.
Some of my strongest memories are out the windows of cars, watching other people's lives fly by. Consequently, at least it seems to me, my perspective has never been one that tends to dig itself in. I can see both sides of nearly every argument, and part of me believes it is this quality that allows me to see behind other people's eyes for a living. Whether I do it well or not I cannot say. All I know is that these characters stay with me longer than any elementary school friend, or teacher, or coach.
My first publication was in college, a poem, one of few I've ever written. Then came screenplays, and scribbled notes I sometimes return to for inspiration. These ideas had no form; it didn't occur to me then. All that mattered was that spurt, that forceful momentum out of my brain and onto the paper, or computer screen, as it turned out. I started writing fiction and non-fiction in my thirties, and published pretty regularly after that.
Now I'm writing a play, my first. Thinking I could probably figure it out for myself, I turned to my screenwriting. I'd written and optioned, not to mention produced, a few films myself, I reasoned. I could figure this out. But there's nothing like a new form to make you feel like an absolute amateur every single time.
People told me the two were enough alike that I'd figure it out.
They lied.
Screenplays are like action-driven manuals, offering a skeleton for other people to adorn. They're like the dress designer who makes a pattern and leaves it on the form for others to finish.
Plays, by contrast, are like music, focusing on interplay of the words. Action is secondary, stage directions are secondary.
It's all about the words.
Maybe you already knew this. It took me a few weeks to figure it out. I'm better now, and ready to push on.
Still shifting ...
April 24, 2009 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | Add Comment
About Me
I am interested in the moment of conception, the split second of genius, that spark of eternal nothingness that may be the stupidest or the best idea you've ever had. Inspiration comes from dreams, absurdity and the deep, aching knowledge that writing is the most painful yet inevitable thing to be done.
Goal
To meet other writers and professional people who share a similar worldview, and to somehow make life more tolerable (and funny) through the act of creation.
Professional Experience
Writer/Editor
1989 - Present
Twenty years' as an editor for Scholastic, Prentice-Hall, Silver Burdett & Ginn, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, Glencoe and others.
Eighteen years' experience as a writer of fiction, essays, articles and screenplays. Published in over 30 newspapers, magazines, web sites and zines.
Author of Wake Up to Your Stories: Using the Art of Personal Narrative to Heal Your Past, Nurture Your Relationships & Ask for What You're Worth and Wake Up to Your Weight Loss: Using the Art of Personal Narrative to Achieve Your Best Body.
Comments
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