Why We Write: Short Cuts

Today’s Why We Write piece includes three short essays from writers who have participated in a Black List Feature Lab. Keep scrolling to read more from these tremendously talented writers…

“We need stories to understand ourselves.”

I came across that line somewhere, and it stayed with me. Over the past few years, between the pandemic, the strikes, and relocating for personal reasons, I found myself sitting down to write more than I ever imagined I would. What began as a response to uncertainty slowly became something deeper: a way of understanding who I am.

In that sense, writing has changed me. A former teacher once told me, “Shame is not for writers.” Once I started applying that idea, I began opening up on the page in a way I hadn’t before, writing toward what scares me, giving my flaws to characters, giving them the virtues I aspire to, and letting them wrestle with the contradictions I recognize in myself.

That is when writing became more than craft. It became an act of self-discovery, of revelation. It requires you to share what is most intimate, your fears, your longings, your memories, your questions, and to shape them into something that might reach someone else. In doing so, you hope not only to reveal yourself more honestly, but also to provoke reflection, and perhaps even inspire change.

And isn’t that what all of us are searching for in some form: change within ourselves, and in the world around us? That is why film means so much to me. It is one of the most powerful mediums for change because it reaches us on another level. It does not simply tell us something; it allows us to feel it. And the truths it carries can be more deeply affecting than much of the news or the endless stream of social media we consume every day, because film begins in something profoundly real: a writer’s inner life, their feelings, thoughts, fears, desires, and questions. The fact that actors recreate those moments does not make motion pictures less true. If anything, it gives those truths shape, voice, and shared meaning. A film can make a stranger’s pain feel familiar. It can make someone else’s joy, grief, fear, or hope feel recognizably our own.

That is why storytelling matters to me. Not simply as entertainment, but as a way of making sense of ourselves and each other. In doing so, stories can bridge political, cultural, social, and emotional divides because they speak first to our shared humanity. They remind us that beneath ideology, nationality, religion, class, or background, we are all driven by love, fear, loss, hope, and the need to be seen. And when people begin to see one another more clearly, not as abstractions, enemies, or strangers, but as human beings, it becomes harder to dehumanize, dismiss, or hate. That, to me, is where storytelling holds real power: in creating the conditions for greater compassion, deeper understanding, and, perhaps, a more peaceful world.

“Terrible things are happening outside.” My day to day has changed slightly. I carry my passport every time I leave my apartment, even when I go to the grocery store. I check the news. I call my representatives. I write, even though writing seems pointless. Some days, I don’t leave my apartment because I’m afraid. I write still. I write even after I come up with “what if” plans and I get kidnapped by ICE. I tell my friend my plans. I’m naturalized. I decide I should eat. I look at the news. I write. I write even though I am angry, and I feel helpless. I write when I tell my friend that if something happens to me, please find someone to get my cat. I write when I’ve come to the decision that should someone be kidnapped in front of me, that I will document everything even if it means that I lose my life. I’ve come to terms with it. I couldn’t live with myself if I just stood by and let it all happen. I check the news. I write even though the industry still seems like it’s shut down and the world is on fire. I write because I get small glimpses of hope when I’m on social media. The things that give people hope are other good people, but also art, as they’re quoting movies, books and TV shows. Art gives people hope. Artists, the people willing to tell the truth, gives people comfort and hope. I write and I keep writing, even though I want to cry all the time, even though I’m always on alert when I leave my apartment, because right now, during this moment in time, art, writing is rebellion. I write.

I was once asked by a fellow screenwriter how ideas come to me. Strangely, I realized I had a very vivid image to describe the process. I said that it’s like there is a long tube connecting my heart to my brain. When I witness something that moves me deeply, it enters through the bottom of the tube, into my heart. Then, like a butterfly, it flutters up to my brain where it will proceed to fly around until I put it down on paper. If I don’t let it escape in this way, my mind gets overcrowded with others like it. One by one they’ll fly back down to my heart to wreak all sorts of emotional havoc.

These “butterflies” can be as small as a fleeting interaction, or as big as a relationship that has changed me over time. Sometimes they’re the thorns in life, things that utterly bewilder me. Often, as a comedy writer, they’re situations or people that I find so funny and heartening that they must be replicated and put into a movie, even if very imperfectly.

So I guess you could say that I write because I’m compelled. Because life makes me feel so damn much that I just have to share it. But the truth is, I write because of those pesky butterflies. I fear what they’ll become if I let them fester — moths that eat away at me. And I yearn for what they might become if I just keep putting pen to paper: Movies that make people laugh. What could be better than that?

Thanks to Jimmy, Wallaine and Melanie!

If you’re not already a member of the Black List website, here you go:

Writers: Create a free Writer Profile and whenever you’re ready (and only then) upload your project, order professional feedback, and explore the various opportunities we have from time to time.

I'm a writer. Sign me up.

Industry Professionals Register for an Industry Membership to discover new material before everyone else.

I'm an industry pro. Sign me up.

See you in the comments.