What I learned most was how to tell a story in 15 seconds or 30 seconds or 60 seconds - to have some kind of goal of what to try to do and make it happen in that time.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
In a lot of ways, TV writing taught me how to be a good storyteller. I learned about dialogue, scenes, moving the plot forward.
When I was a little kid, before I learned how to write, I would tell stories.
When I was a child, we used to look forward to the end of the day when we would hear another ten minutes of a story.
The move to creating stories was a natural progression for me, but the most pivotal time was probably in 6th grade: That year, a friend introduced me to the stories of Ray Bradbury, and a student teacher introduced me to creative writing.
Sadly, I haven't been able to find my earliest stories, but the impact of being told by someone important to me that I could do something special is immeasurable.
It took me many years to figure out how to structure a compelling story.
I try to tell a story the way someone would tell you a story in a bar, with the same kind of timing and pacing.
I spent 12 years doing different things in film trying to figure out the story I wanted to tell.
Once I started writing novels, I understood how hard it was to write really good short stories.
To be able to make up stories has been a great gift to me from my ancestors and from the storytellers who were so numerous at Laguna Pueblo when I was growing up. I learned to read as soon as I could because I wanted stories without having to depend on adults to tell or read stories to me.