Ask the Author: Masha Savitz
Answered Questions (3)
Masha Savitz
Just WRITE. Write, write more, then rewrite.
Masha Savitz
I had finished the documentary RED REIGN in 2013, did another screenplay for hire, and was trying to decide on my next project. So I was actively looking at a few ideas I had for screenplays, and developing them to see which would be feasible, which had legs, as they say. Or maybe heart and soul, more appropriately.
The project that seemed to have the most energy was an old file of prose writing that was a screenplay that I could not wrangle into the rigid structure of a screenplay. I would get so frustrated trying to stay in this particular form, that I just started writing free style.
The book's nontraditional style was born from a need to match form and content. This is a story of an artist who is always doing just that- so it is an unusual form, under the genre "experimental memoir' perhaps, a term which I only came across this week. But it is an authentic voice of an artist, and this is her/my story, so the structure had to match the story. A story of, perhaps, one who follows invisible structures, or something like this.
Still, when I began, I didn't know exactly what or why I was doing this, but I had a strong sense that I should. I made a commitment in the late fall to give myself 100% to this endeavor, so I was in. But it wasn't till 3 months later, that I had an overwhelming emotional realization about the work, what and why I was doing it.
As I was writing, I remembered learning about the sculptor, Camille Claudel, when I was a young woman just starting my career as an artist. Her story was so painful to me, that I never considered her again- until this day in February, sitting at a cafe writing. I felt this was in part why I was writing. As I say in the book, to help guide those ghosts home, and my own.
The project that seemed to have the most energy was an old file of prose writing that was a screenplay that I could not wrangle into the rigid structure of a screenplay. I would get so frustrated trying to stay in this particular form, that I just started writing free style.
The book's nontraditional style was born from a need to match form and content. This is a story of an artist who is always doing just that- so it is an unusual form, under the genre "experimental memoir' perhaps, a term which I only came across this week. But it is an authentic voice of an artist, and this is her/my story, so the structure had to match the story. A story of, perhaps, one who follows invisible structures, or something like this.
Still, when I began, I didn't know exactly what or why I was doing this, but I had a strong sense that I should. I made a commitment in the late fall to give myself 100% to this endeavor, so I was in. But it wasn't till 3 months later, that I had an overwhelming emotional realization about the work, what and why I was doing it.
As I was writing, I remembered learning about the sculptor, Camille Claudel, when I was a young woman just starting my career as an artist. Her story was so painful to me, that I never considered her again- until this day in February, sitting at a cafe writing. I felt this was in part why I was writing. As I say in the book, to help guide those ghosts home, and my own.
Masha Savitz
I am working on a screenplay that appears in 'Fish Eyes For Pearls'. I have also been taking notes for the next book. I am very much looking forward to getting back to the pros.
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