Regan Talley
I need regimentation, and listening to music to keep focused and on schedule.
1. Tell us about yourself and your most current project/s?
Shepard/Till: The American Verses, Tulsa 21 (the book and lyrics for a musical about the race riots in Greenwood, Tulsa in 1921.
2. Where did the inspiration/idea come for this project?
For Shepard/Till, finding a bridge when it came to homophobic people of color and the intersection of race, with homosexuality. The two most sensational hate crimes, the nation watched and took interest in.
When historically, it didn’t.
3. What does the writing process look like for you?
I need regimentation, and listening to music to keep focused and on schedule.
4. How do you handle writer’s block?
I didn’t well at all at first. It was a new condition I called “cranial constipation”. SO frustrating! I have developed better ways of breaking through and coping. Such as, listening to music to help inspire the moods and setting the scene in my mind.
5. How do you feed your creativity when feeling drained?
Reading a LOT. And again, music. I like all genres of music. Except polkas, and most rap. Otherwise, I can always find something appropriate to set the tone and get me going.
6. What advice would you give writers who feel stuck or uninspired?
Have a support network of trusted, and committed friends. Creatives need that kind of community, and faith in your work.
7. Have you ever thought about giving up writing? If so, what pulled you back?
No. But it grieved me terribly to try to figure out how to keep going. It’s literally like losing a part of your soul, and what to replace it with, when you get to such a place.
8. How do you keep your voice or ideas fresh over time?
Listening, and listening and listening...to people. Especially young people. Who can be amazingly ridiculous, or special at the same time.
9. What do you wish more people understood about the creative process?
To not right away make suggestions, weigh you down with their own ideas about what you SHOULD do.
But leave you to your own devices, and understand sometimes that process is delicate, and needs nurturing and care, more than unsolicited advice.
10. What is the most honest thing you’ve ever written - and did it scare you?
Writing a screenplay (everyone and their dog has one in them in Los Angeles), about the many years I spent with the LAPD Crime Scene Photo Unit. And creating a noir environment, and anachronistic character, very different from myself.
That was the most intensive period knowing what Los Angeles could really be like, and the depth of horrible things that happened with few people knowing about it.
Or wanting to know. I think I lived another lifetime in that comparatively short period.
Where can my audience find you and your work?
I’m mostly still not as social media accessible to all the platforms. But Facebook, and Medium, are still posting what I do have out there.