23 September 2012
Posted in
Writers -
Neely Swanson
“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” – Lewis Carroll
What are your questions? Who do you want to ask? Click on the "Ask a Writer" button below. I will attempt to get it answered by the writer you direct it to or, if not to that writer, to another who might be able to help. I’ll turn the center section into a forum for your questions and comments about those questions and we’ll see where that leads.
So many writers! So many answers! Lets make No Meaner Place more interactive and focus on you and what you want to know. Why this direction and why now? As you may have been noticed, I have slowed the flow of new material due to my new job responsibilities. I was rehired as adjunct faculty at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in the writing division and shortly after, I was rehired by David Kelley, this time as Executive Vice President of Development.
But, with new responsibilities come new pitfalls and I have been trying to wend my way through potential conflicts of interest or the appearance of impropriety. Most film reviews have been abandoned as bad reviews of commercial films come under the category of biting the hand that feeds us; good reviews of commercial films might be viewed as insincere, or stroking the hand that feeds us. But what I can still do is review foreign and independent films and connect you to interesting review sites that you may not know.
Interviewing writers becomes tricky as questions might be raised as to why I chose one writer over another – am I favoring writers with whom I am trying to curry favor? What’s in it for me? Motivations are always suspect under the circumstances. It was so much easier when I was financially unemployed and could write anything I wanted about anything I wanted. But of course, at the time, all I wanted was to have a paying job again. I'm looking forward to talking to creators of webisodes and will soon be posting an interview with the fabulous Jason Kravitz who, besides acting on stage and screen, has created a great online series called "Lords of the Playground."
Certainly the blog I wrote for Studio System, where I vented my harshest industry criticism, has been discontinued, and it is unlikely that I will be able to follow up on my yearly analysis of women writing pilots (Women Can't Create and White Men Can't Jump).
I will still try to write the occasional piece for “Written By,” the magazine of the WGA West, where my article on Bill Cosby as a mentor to writers appeared in this summer’s issue (Paying It Forward). The article was a direct result of my No Meaner Place interviews of both Kasi Lemmons (Kasi Lemmons) and Janet Leahy (Janet Leahy, A Writer I Love).
So I’m leaving it up to you to keep No Meaner Place active as I find ways to keep it current and viable with as few conflicts of interest as possible. Got a question? Get an answer. Click that bar below!