Elissa Vann Struth

Why research rocks

2011-08-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

One of the best parts of writing is the research you get to do. I especially love plundering the depths of my friends' knowledge. Recently, I've asked a family doctor about hemophiliacs getting tattoos, a poker player to explain five-card stud, a Texas judge about the admissibility of juvenile records in court, and just today - a long-haired friend about whether or not she thought she could strangle someone with her braid. So fun.

Cold Reading Series

2011-08-07T12:53:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday, the first 30 pages of my feature script ME AND BRUCE LEE were performed as part of the Cold Reading Series. Big props to this weekly summer event put on by the Evolving Arts Collective and an army of volunteers headed up by Lori Triolo and Colin Speir.

It was great - the actors did an incredible job reading and the narrator kept the stage directions crackling along. It's really a wonderful service for the writer - to hear your words come up off the page and out of the mouths of people as your characters is amazing. I noted some slow spots and a few lines where the actors swapped words around to make the lines sound more natural. The only excruciating part was when I had to get up before the reading and answer a few questions - ack! Painful but thankfully brief. If I ever do it again, I'm going to write a scene where I'm interviewed and just hand the page over to be acted out by the appropriate personnel.

I highly recommend submitting your work-in-progress (play, screenplay, radio play, etc.) to coldreadingseries@gmail.com. After the reading, hang out in the pub at the Billy Bishop Legion and ask the actors for feedback.

Finalisting

2011-05-01T17:24:00.000-07:00

Two bits of good news the last few days - I'm a finalist in both the LA Comedy Fest and the Bluecat Fellini screenplay competitions.

The LA Comedy Fest is the largest comedy festival in the United States featuring film, live acts and a screenplay competition. The contest blurb is here. Congrats to my friend Deb Peraya who is a finalist in the TV Pilot category with Mommy Mafia.

The Bluecat Screenplay Competition is run by Gordy Hoffman (bro to Phillip Seymour). This version of the contest had 1600 entries - the finalists are listed here.

W2 Reading: May 30, 2011

2011-04-14T13:28:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a reading! May 30th, 2011 at the Woodwards space on Hastings. Asked for advice from a writer acquaintance, and she said to either read something funny or sexy. Aiming to please...

Mimi Smartypants

2011-02-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

My all-time favourite blogger in the category of blogs-I-read-by-people-I-don't-personally-know.

Excerpt from her latest post illustrates why:

In another of a long line of business-oriented dreams, yesterday I woke up from a very detailed dream in which I was showing LT a huge binder for a fast-food franchise. I had attended one of those buy-your-own-franchise seminars and I was trying to convince him to invest ten thousand dollars in a restaurant franchise called GAIA WALRUS, which sold “sustainably farmed walrus meat,” presumably made into sandwiches or burgers or something.

I remember the logo, which was a sort of hippie mandala incorporating a cartoon walrus, and I remember some of the details about structure and pricing from the franchise informational materials, but not much else.

Ever since I told LT this dream he has been trying to work out the details, such as how walrus meat can ever be “sustainable,” or even the logistics of “farming” something that lives in water and weighs three thousand pounds, and then I patiently explain that all those issues are upstream, man, all we have to do is run the place. Order the supplies from headquarters, hire the employees to wear the little paper hats with the little paper tusks, rake in the money.

Golden Age of Television - Results

2011-02-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

Just found out on Monday that my screenplay 'Jennifer: A Field Guide' won first place in the short script category of the Golden Age of Television competition! Announcement here.

Working on finishing the first draft of a horror/comedy (mutant ticks, hunters gone mad) and right in the midst of that 'this totally sucks/what was I thinking?' phase. I'm reading zombie scripts for inspiration.

Golden Age of Television - Quarterfinalist

2010-12-18T07:51:00.000-08:00

Same script, different contest. "Jennifer: A Field Guide" has reached the quarter finals of The Golden Age of Television/Short Script contest held by Julie Gray of Just Effin Entertain Me.

UPDATE: Jennifer has reached the semi-finals - see announcement here.

Gimme Credit

2010-11-21T16:58:00.000-08:00

Just found out that my short screenplay "Jennifer: A Field Guide" placed second in the Gimme Credit International Screenplay Competition. Woot!

NaNoWriMo

2010-11-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

I'm doing it this year.
1667 words a day for 30 days.
http://www.nanowrimo.org

literary tattoos

2010-05-29T03:46:00.000-07:00

i am ink-free, but this website is giving me ideas. Sylvia Plath, Charles Bukowski, Kurt Vonnegut - how about a little lemony snicket?

i particularly liked this tattoo for the blind (it reads 'sun').

you don't see much in the way of white ink:

All photos sourced from Contrariwise: Literary Tattoos. If you're interested in submitting your own tattoo, email jen@contrariwise.org.

'Down to the Roots' is a podcast

2010-04-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

CBC has podcast versions of all of the winners of the CBC Literary Awards up on Between the Covers.

You can listen to 'Down to the Roots' read by an actress (with the applicable Ukrainian accent). How fantastic!

james franco writes?

2010-04-07T07:58:00.000-07:00

James Franco acts a lot (General Hospital! Milk! The Spidermen!), and he writes literary fiction too.

Esquire Mag - read Just Before the Black.

This isn't a one-off - he's doing a creative writing degree at New York University and his story collection (published by Scribner) is coming out in October.

Read more:
Salon

'Down to the Roots' wins second prize!

2010-03-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

I am delighted to announce that my short story 'Down to the Roots' was awarded second place in the Short Story category (English) of the CBC Literary Awards. The Awards are Canada's largest literary competition for unpublished work in French and English. There were over 6,000 entries this year, including 2,100 in the English Short Story category. There are full lists of the English and French winners posted on the CBC website.

Shelagh Rogers unveiled the results on Thursday morning and a cocktail reception was held in Toronto that evening, hosted by enRoute magazine, CBC, and the Canada Council. There were interviews and photos galore, and it was excellent to get a chance to meet with the other winners from all across Canada. It was a real mix of people, from published authors to newbies.

Here's the evidence up close.

First prize in each category receives $6,000, second prize receives $4000, and all of the stories are podcasted by CBC and published in enRoute magazine.

The judges for the short story category were Austin Clarke, Camilla Gibb and Michael Helm, and the readers included writers like Annabel Lyon, Erika de Vasconcelos, and Elizabeth Kelly.

This is what they had to say about my story:

Jury’s comments:
“Down to the Roots is a three-pronged examination of the cultural and social alienation of a small Ukrainian family (mother, father, and daughter) who are faced with the need to change their Ukrainian background into the larger, invisible and gargantuan Canadian way of doing things. The author provides us with a realistic smear of immigrant life. The attempt of assimilation is wrecked, washed in tears and in humiliation - the loss of love, the daughter's and the wife's, whose attempt to embrace the Canadian way of doing things, ends, for the older immigrants to this country, in these tears of humiliation. ”

National Post coverage
Georgia Straight
CBC (video)

roger ebert makes me cry

2010-03-02T10:07:00.000-08:00

Every time I read another article about Roger Ebert, I end up in tears.

It started with this Esquire article.

J made me read 'My Roger Ebert Story' by Will Leitch.

And of course, he's going to be on Oprah today (I refuse to watch - I'm getting dehydrated).

His blog and twitter feed.

Read it and weep.

advice to writers

2010-02-25T15:57:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, The Guardian published 10 rules for writers (part 1, part 2) featuring advice from the likes of Elmore Leonard, Jonathan Franzen, Margaret Atwood and Zadie Smith, among others. Some lovely bits and pieces.

Roddy Doyle:
Do keep a thesaurus, but in the shed at the back of the garden or behind the fridge, somewhere that demands travel or effort. Chances are the words that come into your head will do fine, eg 'horse', 'ran', 'said'.

Geoff Dyer:
Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something.

Richard Ford:
Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer's a good idea.

Neil Gaiman:
Remember: when people tell you something's wrong or doesn't work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.

and my favourite...

Will Self:
Regard yourself as a small corporation of one. Take yourself off on team-building exercises (long walks). Hold a Christmas party every year at which you stand in the corner of your writing room, shouting very loudly to yourself while drinking a bottle of white wine. Then masturbate under the desk. The following day you will feel a deep and cohering sense of embarrassment.

The Globe & Mail had a response that focused on the flourishing advice industry.

Also read and loved "That Crafty Feeling" by Zadie Smith in her latest collection of essays, Changing My Mind. Good stuff.

'Down to the Roots' shortlisted for CBC Award

2010-02-16T07:39:00.000-08:00

The official announcement went up on the CBC website this morning! My story 'Down to the Roots' is one of 28 short-listed in the English story category of the 2009 CBC Literary Awards.

Now I just have to wait for a month to find out who won.

Shelagh Rogers will announce the English-language winners on March 18th, 2010 at 11 a.m. EST on CBC Radio One’s (690 AM, 88.1 FM in Vancouver) Q with Jian Ghomeshi.

The CBC Literary Awards were founded by CBC Producer Robert Weaver to encourage and celebrate Canadian literary talent. During the past twenty-eight years, amazing writers like Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields, Gail Anderson-Dargatz, and Shauna Singh Baldwin have won awards.

and we're live...

2010-02-06T09:38:00.000-08:00

Welcome!

I'm a writer living and working in the Pacific Northwest. You can see more information about my awards and publications here. Thanks for stopping by!