This week, I finally pitched the web series I’ve been developing all semester. With a working title called “Drama Dorks,” I’m actually basing the narrative series directly on my own experiences in high school drama club.
To give context, a lot of the stereotypes of “drama dorks” are somewhat accurate. Clashing egos, relationship problems, and chaotic energy were always a given with any production. It’s all very dramatic to say the least. However, one semester junior year, I decided to film the rehearsal process from beginning to end for a journalism project. We were putting on Beauty and the Beast with the middle school and, to simplify, the entire production was a traumatic mess.
In my experience, spending so many hours working with the same group of people resulted in a strange combination of humor, chaos, destruction, and heartbreak. It was simultaneously hilarious and traumatizing at the time, and it all played a pivotal role in shaping who I am today.
So I asked myself, what if I’d just let the camera keep running? What if I had allowed myself to capture more of the particular chaos and comedy and that ensued in my drama club?
Throughout my time in college, I’ve come to realize that the most important part about creative writing is to instill your own voice and experiences into your writing. Obviously, this does not mean that every scene and story must be drawn directly from your own life and memory. But rather, our best writing draws from real moments of vulnerability and connection.
In developing this series, I was able to write directly from my nostalgia. I based almost every character on a person I actually knew, exaggerating their characteristics and deepening my exploration of memory.
Working on this project made me realize just how much I write with my identity in mind, often without realizing it. Even my feature script, a high concept sci-fi about artificial intelligence, emulates so much of my own personality. I always strive to write themes and characters that resonate with my own experiences, even if their story is placed in an entirely different context.
I've learned that I have to dig deep and find the underlying emotion in every line I write, and I'm happy to say it's helped center my creative voice.
Comments