Christa Avampato's Blog, page 58

Joy today: My TV pilot script for Emerson Page

[image error]Yesterday I clicked submit on my TV pilot script for my novel, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters. Thanks to the encouragement of my friend and mentor, John Bucher, I sent it off to see if Emerson might have a TV life. I loved the structure and editing process of writing for TV, and am excited about all the possibilities for stories told in this medium, especially for streamers like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. Here’s to dreams, written and made.  

Joy today: Traveling to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for the first time

Next week I’ll be taking the most unique trip I’ve ever taken—to Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates. I’ll be there for work on a film, and will be visiting Jeddah (on the coast of the Red Sea) via Amman in Jordan, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the Empty Quarter, the world’s largest continuous sand desert. I’m excited to show you these countries through my lens and stories, and can’t wait to share what I find. Follow along here, and on Instagram (christarosenyc) and Twitter (@christanyc).

Joy today: Adapting my Emerson Page novel for television

[image error]Inspired by the masterful adaptation of Good Omens on Amazon Prime (have your watched yet?!), the Masterclass with Shonda Rhimes, and encouraging tweets from my friend and mentor, John Bucher, I’m adapting my Emerson Page novel into a TV script. Given its visual nature and dialogue, I’m already halfway there! Thanks to so many of you who have loved Emerson’s story and supported my writing. It means a lot to me and this adaptation is for you! I’m about 30 pages into the 50 page pilot. I’ll finish all the editing this week and then submit it to a the screenwriting competition in L.A. that John Bucher told me about. SMH that this ideas was here all along. I never thought about it for TV until seeing Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens work. He made me realize books for TV can work!

Joy today: The bravery of the writers who were the Murrow Boys on this D-Day anniversary

My senior college thesis in history at University of Pennsylvania was on foreign correspondents in Germany and occupied areas during the Third Reich, especially Edward R. Murrow and William L. Shirer of CBS News, which started their radio division to keep the world informed of what was happening before, during, and after the war, and every day since. I scoured diaries and archives in constant awe of their brave work. Their reporting changed and saved the world, I argued. Without it, we may have never known how dire the situation was and remained complacent when we needed to act. To these brave reporters, all the media outlets that supported them, & to all the troops whom we will never be able to thank enough who gave everything when we were down to nothing, I salute you on this 75th D-Day anniversary.

Here are a few photos that were a part of my thesis.

The first is William L. Shirer writing his report on a typewriter. It was the story of the French surrender in June 1940 in Compiègne, north of Paris.

The second is of “The Murrow Boys”. America’s eyes and ears were those of these correspondents who were hired by and working with Edward R. Murrow. Eric Sevareid, Charles Collingwood, Larry LeSueur, and William L. Shirer belonged to this group. Shirer ran the Berlin bureau while Murrow ran the London bureau. In their report they would take listeners inside air raid shelters, to landmarks all over Europe just before a bombing attack, and then to the ruble that remained after the bombs had fallen. They risked everything so that we would know everything. That’s what writers do.

 

 

Joy today: Talking to 4th graders about writing

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Me talking with 4th graders about writing

I had a blast chatting with a class of 4th graders via Skype yesterday about my book, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, about all things writing. It’s a gift to be an author and encourage young people to tell their stories. Also, teachers inspire me and are the very best humans. Amy Artl is so passionate about helping her students understand the writing and revising process. I’m glad that I could encourage them by explaining that all of the things they have to manage in their writing—finding inspiration, the struggle of editing, and dealing with conflict—are all things that every writer manages, especially me!

Yesterday was their last day of school, and Amy promised them they could finish the book before today was over. They cheered and my heart melted! Want me to chat with your school about writing via Skype or Google Hangout? I’d love to. Get in touch with me and let’s set it up!

Joy today: My camera arrived

[image error]Let the filming begin! I’m so excited that my camera kit arrived and I can start getting a feel for filmmaking with my hands, heart, and mind. Let’s tell some stories that matter, shall we? Take one…

Joy today: 2 pages a day gets a book written

Writers, are you ever overwhelmed by the enormity of your work. Hi, that’s my natural state of being all the time. I love being a writer. I love writing. And sometimes I feel the weight of my responsibility to do justice to a story to the point that I feel paralyzed.

My friend, Laurie, posted about this advice she got years ago from a writing group: write two pages every day. That’s it. Just two small pages. You don’t need whole days to write. You need tiny, focused windows on a consistent basis. One word, one sentence, one paragraph, one page at a time. In a year you’ve got a book, and a pretty big one at that.

Two pages. I can do that any day. So can you. And we will.

Joy today: My new film project

“One thorn of experience is worth experience is worth a whole wilderness of warning.” ~James Russell Lowell

After reading Adam Savage’s book, Every Tool’s a Hammer: Life is What You Make It, and watching Werner Herzog’s Masterclass on filmmaking, I decided to buy a camera kit to start shooting and editing some short-form film. My topic for this project is joy (no surprise there if you know me AT ALL!) Essentially, what I want to do is film you showing me and talking to me about something, anything, that gives you a supreme amount of joy. In exchange, I’ll share the raw footage with you as well as the edit. And, with your permission, I’ll share the edit on Vimeo and YouTube with any kind of attribution you’d like. If you’d be willing to have me film you, let me know and I’ll share more about the project.

Joy today: You can do this

Someone said, “I don’t know how you do it.”

I said, “I wasn’t given a choice.”

I read this online this week and it ran true for me in so many ways. When we need to do something, we find a way. For all of your are being asked to rise to the circumstances in front of you today, and every day, know I’m with you. I believe in you. I know you can do difficult things. I am rooting for you.

Joy today: Not getting what we want is what we need

Sometimes not getting what you want is exactly what you need. This has been a huge learning for me over the past week. I’m feeling so grateful that life often doesn’t work out according to my plans. Here’s a recent example of this:

This summer, I wanted to talk more than one class for my graduate program in biomimicry. Unfortunately, no other classes are being offered this term for which I meet the pre-requisites. (I’m still working my way through the core classes that are pre-reqs for all the other classes that follow.) I was quite frustrated by this because I took two classes last term and found it to be more-than-manageable. (And I got A’s in both classes.) Disappointed, I resigned myself to the idea that I would just take one class this summer.

And then something really amazing and unexpected happened…

Within the hour, I had been offered a new consulting opportunity for an education / communications project that I’m extremely excited about. (More details on that in a few weeks.)

Within a day, I had solved a major plot challenge in my second novel and could proceed writing at a much quicker speed than I thought possible. (To be honest, I thought I was going to have to chuck the entire first draft. Thankfully, I don’t need to now. Whew!)

Within three days, I confirmed that I had the latitude in my job to work on a few passion projects that I thought were out-of-play at the moment. Turns out, they’re in play if I want them to be.

So here’s the lesson: the universe knows how to make room in our lives for opportunities that have yet to step into the light. You can bet that when you’re down to nothing (or at least less than you thought you’d have), the universe is up to something. Sometimes, it’s up to a lot of somethings. When things don’t work out, despite my meticulous plotting and planning, I’m learning to take a deep breath, look around, and see what’s next because there’s ALWAYS a next. And many times, next is much better than what we (thought we) had lined up. Make room, and accept when room is made for you. It’ll be filled in soon enough.