Making Meaning

I'm Deanna Carlyle, novelist and screenwriter. I work closely with producers and other writers to hone stories. My starting point in this creative journey was as a fine artist. At one time I was a Presidential Scholar in the Arts in the US and a recipient of the National Talent Search and Recognition Award in the areas of painting, printmaking and drawing. In addition, I won a purchase prize award for a hand-made book I created, which was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago for their collection.
 
But even then, as I explored the visual arts, I knew they weren't the whole story -- at least not for me. To my mind, a still image or a conceptual installation can only convey so much. The image must move through time, it must relate events that are complex and purposeful, and it must become a learning experience, just like life. After all, isn't life the great educator? The lessons it teaches can be replicated only in fiction, I believe, and the more of life that we experience, and truly understand, the wiser we grow as a species.

And so began my pursuit of the time-based art of acting, for at that point in my journey, I didn't know how to create a story from scratch by myself. I starred in university theater productions and graduate student films and worked in local schools in children's theater troops, creating short sketches and mime acts for kids. But eventually I realized that acting requires immense expenditures of outwardly directed energy, and that as an inwardly focused, reflective person, I preferred writing stories to acting them out.

And so here I am today, writing novels and screenplays, the perfect job for a creative contemplative who has made meaning into her metier!

What's your story? Is your life teaching you what you need to know?