Write Now with Ela Thier

Photo courtesy of Ela Thier

Who are you?

Ela Thier

Writer-Director, and Founding Director of The Independent Film School

Based in New York City

What do you write?

I’m a screenwriter. I write quirky comedies that crescendo into hopeful tear-jerkers. I got started writing when I first learned that the alphabet exists. I believe I was three. At that age I was writing stories and poems. When I was seven I wrote my first novel. When I was sixteen I wrote my first screenplay, and have been writing screenplays since (that was almost 40 years ago).

Themes I avoid: I don’t like work whose sole intention is to scare people. I also don’t like good guys / bad guys stories. In my stories, no one is pure good or pure evil. Every character is doing the best that they can, given the circumstance. I believe that’s true to life.

It feels odd to say that I love what I do. It would be like being asked, as a mom, if I love my kids. The answer “yes” really cover it…?

Where do you write?

Describe your writing environment. Include the tools, apps, notebooks, pens, etc. you prefer using.

When my husband and I joke about where we want our ashes scattered when we die, I always say I want them scattered in my home office. I write at home. At my desk. I love the feel of the clicking keyboard. I’m old enough that I began writing screenplays on a typewriter. I also spent years writing longhand; it was the best way out of writing blocks. But at this point – I love the speed of typing, and the very tactile feel of the keyboard at my fingertips. I’ve gotten so accustomed to it now, that I use screenplay format even when I journal. That’s why my book flows back and forth between prose and screenplay format.

When do you write?

Off season, I write in the mornings. I start some time between 5 and 7am, and I write til 9 or 10am. It’s when my brain is freshest, and the world is free of distractions.

“Off season” means I’m not under a deadline or focused on a long-term project that requires all of me.

During “writing season” (say someone I’m collaborating with is waiting on a script), I “go nuclear”. That means I shut the world off for 2-3 weeks and write full time. Eight hours a day. This often means having to disappoint people by making myself utterly unavailable. WiFi off during the day.

To do this, I do usually need to get away from the bustle and distractions of my home office. It’s daily trips to coffee shops, or an AirBnB in the country with a friend. We get away from the world and write. The “friend” part of it is important. If I went to the country by myself, I would get too distracted by the loneliness. Outside those eight hours, I need to check out the local diner, play cards, take a walk to the nearest creek, and get a lot of laughs in. This is something I try to do once every year or two.

Most recently, I discovered that long train rides are a great place to get hyper focused for long periods of time. My last screenplay was completed on a 40-hour train ride.

Why do you write?

Writing doesn’t feel like “something I do”. It’s who I am. In my memoir I describe early childhood memories (starting with infancy) that I believe led me down this path – the ways that my imagination and make-believe got me through tough times. Whatever the reasons are – writing and storytelling is what my brain is made of.

My “Big Why” is what fuels and motivates me. My personal mission statement is to do my part, as a writer and filmmaker, to transition human societies from ones organized around fear and greed, to ones organized around the needs of humanity and the planet – and to enjoy my life as I do so.

Writing and filmmaker accomplish both of these goals.

My films and my writing are designed to remind us of the best of humanity – our spunk, our caring, and our intelligence as a species.

How do you overcome writer's block?

Describe ways or routines that help you get going again.

The second most effective tool to handle writing blocks is freewriting. I used to set a timer and put words on the page, no matter what they are, until the timer goes off. These days I don’t use a timer any more. I just dump words on the page until I figure out what’s in there that wants to come out. Once I plug into that, whatever I’m writing just writes itself. I take dictation.

The foremost tool to handling writing blocks is involving other humans in the work. No writer enjoys that. You have to think of it like medicine: taste bad, but you have to take it.

Whether it’s scheduling a table read even before a script is ready (this pushes me to make sure it becomes ready!), or finding the courage to share a work in progress with one person that I trust, or paying for an AirBnB and inviting a friend to enjoy a week in the country that I pay for – these are just some of the ways that I applied my creativity to figuring out how to involve people in my work.

Isolation is the foremost reason that we get stuck. Involving people in our work is the ticket to creative freedom.