النص الكامل لحلقة The Writing Life with Gwenda Bond!

WEBVTT 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:10.480 We are back with the Inside the Block podcast with Gwenda Bond. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:11.599 How are you? 00:00:11.919 --> 00:00:12.400 I'm good. 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:13.039 How are you? 00:00:13.359 --> 00:00:16.399 So you have a million titles, which is kind of a pun. 00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:17.440 And no titles. 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:21.280 Actually, you have several titles because you're an author. 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:24.320 So you're an author of some best-selling books. 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:28.079 You're also head of the Lexington Writers Room, which is where we're filming right now. 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:29.600 An incredible moment. 00:00:29.839 --> 00:00:32.320 Um, and you're also like Lex today. 00:00:32.479 --> 00:00:33.520 So you're the editor. 00:00:33.840 --> 00:00:34.240 The editor. 00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:36.640 That's probably the actual only official title. 00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:39.679 Well no, author counts. 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:40.399 Well, that's true. 00:00:40.479 --> 00:00:41.600 And executive director. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:42.079 Yeah. 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:42.560 Yeah. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:43.200 Or board. 00:00:43.280 --> 00:00:44.479 I'm not the executive director. 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:45.359 I'm the board chair. 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:45.920 So see. 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:46.399 Okay. 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:47.679 That's way less formal. 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:48.159 Yeah. 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:51.439 We don't have an executive director right now. 00:00:52.880 --> 00:00:54.960 When did you start writing? 00:00:55.280 --> 00:00:56.159 Oh gosh. 00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:02.640 Um, I was that annoying kid who decided I wanted to be a writer before I could actually write. 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:06.560 Um, I just always loved books, and and there were books around. 00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:13.120 And the story I tell that is the moment I think that everyone knew what they were dealing with. 00:01:13.359 --> 00:01:18.079 Um, so I would memorize picture books as my parents read them to me. 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:22.079 And this was before there was pre-K children, so don't judge. 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:25.040 But in kindergarten, we were learning how to write. 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:27.680 And um, my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. 00:01:27.840 --> 00:01:35.040 Little, called me out for reading, pretending to read the story of like you got in trouble? 00:01:35.280 --> 00:01:37.439 She said, Gwenda, that's not what happens. 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:38.879 You can't read. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:42.159 And I said, Maybe you can't read. 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:49.040 And then she sent me to visit my father, who was the principal of the elementary school. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:51.359 And um, yeah. 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:57.120 But anyway, yeah, I was making up stories really early, and so I always knew I wanted to write. 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:03.200 Um, I kind of uh still took a circuitous route to writing books, though. 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:10.560 Even though I loved books, I sort of got fascinated with screenplays in college, had a really good prof uh professor who taught screenwriting. 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:20.000 So I did that for uh a minute and kind of got to that point where you sort of either have to move to California or stay where you are. 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:21.280 And I didn't want to move. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:22.319 I love it here. 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:29.599 So I started writing books, did what you should do, and um went to grad school and got a bunch of student loan debt immediately. 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:30.960 Whatever working writer. 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:32.080 My girl. 00:02:32.240 --> 00:02:34.159 That's the only way to do it. 00:02:34.639 --> 00:02:38.560 So wait, why do you have to move to California to be like a screenwriter? 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:50.719 I don't think you necessarily do now as much, but I still feel like if you don't have industry connections, or at least back then, if you didn't, the conventional wisdom was to get in the room to meet people. 00:02:50.960 --> 00:02:56.319 You had to have um some way of doing that, and the best way was in person. 00:02:56.639 --> 00:02:57.120 I see. 00:02:57.280 --> 00:03:02.240 Um now I did meet a lot of screenwriters, like in an online writing workshop. 00:03:02.479 --> 00:03:12.319 Um, and uh I and I also thought, well, I'll just write books, and then once I've written enough books, if I still want to write screenplays, I can try doing that. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:18.879 So that's kind of like where I am now, like wanting to try dipping my toe back into screen, yeah. 00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:19.360 Yeah. 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:22.319 So what's the biggest like difference between the? 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:25.520 I mean, obviously, one's like a script for like a movie, so to speak. 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:29.840 Well, the reason I went to grad school actually is the biggest difference. 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:34.879 Uh, if you get good at screenwriting, it's it's external storytelling. 00:03:35.199 --> 00:03:42.800 Whereas the thing that novels do that no other art form does is show you the inside of a person or people. 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:43.199 Yeah. 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:45.199 So it's the interiority. 00:03:45.599 --> 00:04:00.800 And in film, you don't have that, or I mean, you might nod at it with voiceover or something, but in in general, you have to show everything visually, um, emotion, story, and you don't have that inner access in the same way. 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:05.039 So it's almost it's like typical to like a or similar to like a play. 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:23.199 So like while you're not showing like the inside of somebody's brain and what they're thinking, but you're still like having to deal with like, you know, the camera pans this way is to be able to show maybe what they like let the audience infer what