Screenwriting : What I remember when I am writing scripts by Claire V. Riley

Last week I posted about how writers create jobs and advance careers for actors, directors, producers and crew. My dear friend reminded me that audience members also benefit from our writing.

I experienced that when the movie Anne Renton made from my script THE PERFECT FAMILY, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

I went to every screening of the movie because I loved hearing people laugh throughout. At the end, some people cried. It’s a touching story about a control freak mother who comes to accept that her daughter is a lesbian.

From their comments in the discussions, it was clear some people were moved by the story.

A co-worker told me in private that the movie had a powerful impact on her. She had trouble accepting her daughter’s wife as her family member. She tried but was stuck. However, seeing the movie shifted her and she was able to embrace her daughter’s wife as her daughter in law.

That’s when I realized my writer has an impact on people.

We have power as creative people, whether we are writers, directors, actors, producers, musicians, etc. We send messages to our audiences. Now when I am writing, I ask myself, what message do I want to send to people?

Currently I am marketing a lesbian western TV series. It’s about two women in 1865 who are madly in love and want to live as a couple. But at that time, women did not have full social and legal autonomy, and queer sex was a crime.

There are many messages it imparts. One is the importance of creating the life you desire.

These two women do not accept the gender and sexual constraints of their time and choose to determine their own lives. One poses as a man and they risk everything, even their lives, by taking a wagon train west to create a new life as a married couple.

What messages are you giving to people through your creativity?