The Write to Know, Issue 3
Recommendations, reviews, randoms and reads
I’m kicking off this week’s curated list of goodies with a real gem from the vault.
Stumbling across this article written by the late Nora Ephron, for Elle, I almost jumped for joy. It’s a lovely Sunday morning (not too) long read.
She talks about her start in journalism (she literally walked into a job at Newsweek within what seemed like five minutes of looking), and what she learned about writing, story-telling and journalism during her early working life in New York.
As we know, the writer, who passed away in 2012, aged 71, became an exquisite storyteller.
Her script for When Harry Met Sally is still, in my opinion, one of the most perfect screenplays in the history of movie-making. People think she was a romance writer but actually she was a diarist of a time in history and a clever translator of human behaviour.
This article gives you an insight into how she got there.
Nora also wrote Silkwood (her first screenplay and a fantastic film), Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, Bewitched and Julie & Julia.
STACK ‘EM HIGH!
Last week, author Lizzie Page answered my Ten for The TEN questionnaire. She mentioned two books that made her feel she could be a writer. “A new world opened to me”, were her words, so I thought I’d place them in front of you again (in the same way I’d present you with a nice Sunday roast).
The first was The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank, and the second was The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.
She also cited Clare Chambers, Gabrielle Zevin, Katherine Heiny and Emma Robinson as her go-tos, so check out their catalogues if you’re looking for a new read.
Lizzie still has some great offers on her own book. When I Was Yours is available to buy for just 99p throughout the month of February, and The Orphanage is currently free, so grab your copies now!
YOUR OWN SUNDAY REVIEW
The 2024 Observer / Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism is now open.
Entry costs £10 and the deadline is February 29th. Here’s a snippet of their blurb but this is a great competition if you want to flex your arts reviewer muscles.
Anthony Burgess wrote for the Observer for more than thirty years, and this prize celebrates his connection with the newspaper. He had a wide range of interests, so there is no restriction on the artform featured in your review.
The winning piece could be about an album, book, concert, exhibition, film, live stream, social media entertainment, or television show, or anything else that offers the opportunity to write a lively and thoughtful piece.
We define “new work” in the arts as anything that has happened since 1st January 2023, although some flexibility with that date is fine. The arts world has changed beyond recognition since last year, and we expect to see some entries focusing on the online world of lockdown entertainment.
Click on the all important link here.
TWO YEARS AND AN UNFATHOMABLE HUMAN COST
Nearing the two year anniversary of the war in Ukraine, The Epica Awards has shared a fascinating interview with Kirill Karnovich-Valua, an Emmy-nominated producer, award-winning creative director and former Russia Today correspondent.
Kirill fled his home in Russia when the war started and is now living in Slovenia, where he has new job with the Pristop Agency.
He told his story to Nicolas Huvé, and I found the interview a stark reminder of the price of war. Kirill talks about ‘staying human’ and why he and his wife decided they had no choice but to start over somewhere else with their little boy.
With no end to the conflict in sight, the pain he shares telling his story is all too real.
Click here to read the interview.
A SPY AMONGST PODS
I get through podcasts faster than Lewis Hamilton takes a corner at Silverstone (I’m winging this metaphor - should I have used the word ‘chicane’?).
I’m also completely obsessed with spy stories. Getting my steps in over the last couple of weeks I listened to The Agent, a podcast about Jack Barsky, the longest-surviving known member of the KGB illegals programme, which operated during the height of the Cold War.
Born in Germany, Barsky moved to Russia and then the States, where he hid in plain sight for more than a decade.
I won’t tell you any more because if you like a good James Bond-style yarn then you’ll love this. You have to be a special kind of maniac, sorry, person to be a spy. The daily acts of deceit would give most people a nervous breakdown.
I also really enjoyed the episodes with his daughter. Her perspective is fascinating and that’s all I’ll say about that. This message will now self-destruct.
THE BEST KIND OF BLACK LIST
I’ve been meaning to post this since Issue 1. In December, the Black List published their list of the best unproduced scripts in Hollywood.
The Black List is a platform for writers to showcase their features, pilots, and plays for industry insiders and get their scripts evaluated. I’ve had scripts hosted on there before and it has lead to meetings so I have first hand knowledge that it does what it says on the tin.
Indiewire very kindly compiled this list of 76 screenplays and it’s worth a look as they list loglines of all the movies. It’s always interesting to see what others are up to and somewhere down the line you may even get to see some of them on the big screen or streaming service. The array of subjects and genre is dazzling.
Really, what it shows is that you should just write what you want to write. End of.
The Black List has been very successful in connecting scripts to producers. In the last 17 years, Black List films have won 54 Academy Awards from 273 nominations, including four Best Picture Oscars and 11 Best Screenplay Oscars.
THEY DIDN’T COME TO PLAY
The Women’s Prize for Playwriting is now open.
It’s run by women, judged by women and for women writers. This is why, from their About page: The Women’s Prize for Playwriting was founded by Ellie Keel and Paines Plough to do things differently. In early 2019, it had become clear that the situation for women playwrights in the UK was both dismal and untenable. Only 26% of new main-stage plays in 2018 were by women, and the National Theatre had just announced a season of 6 plays, all by men. Things had to change.
If this is something that interests you then get a wiggle on as the deadline for submission is Monday, April 17th.
There were just over 1000 entries last year and the winner will have their play produced. Sweet. This is for stage plays only.
Bon chance!
UTOPIA? METOPIA?
That’s my worst header yet. I’m quite proud of it.
I’m reading Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell. Well, tell a lie, I’m going back to it because somehow it got lost in the mix and forgot I was reading it.
Don’t laugh, I know you’ve done this too. (Just say “Yes, Lisa”.)
I was curious to learn more about the author and found a great chat he did with the Guardian when the book, his eighth, was published.
Utopia Avenue is about the trials and tribulations of a rock band that forms in the early Sixties in swinging London. Reading the interview I can see how his love of music truly informed the work.
BE KINDER TO YOURSELF
And finally… *shuffles papers like a newsreader*… now that I’ve had some time to take a good look around Substack I’m starting to realise what a gold mine it is. Honestly, there are so many wonderful writers here if you’re not spending time snooping around the platform, you’re really missing out.
Over the coming weeks, I intend to share posts from other writers and the first this week is called ‘4 ways to be a little kinder to yourself’ by Brina Patel, aka The Tuesday Tapestry.
It blew me away. For years now I’ve been so hard on myself, always pushing and never thinking that I’ve done enough. She suggests you write a love letter to yourself, which is something I’ve never done before.
Let me tell you this, it’s harder than you think. In fact, I found it damn near impossible.
However, the very act of thinking about it has made me ease up a little, so that can only be a good thing.
Thanks Brina!
Where to begin? I guess w/ the Nora Ephron in Elle article. It was amazing. I always knew how fabulous she was but this one really pushed the envelope into the stratosphere. Thanks for that. There was so much good stuff in your post I can't get my head around it all right now. It was great though.
Awww Lisa, thank you so much for the mention! It warms my heart that my piece resonated so deeply and opened you up to the love letter practice :) Hope you continue to build upon that love for yourself!! <3