Andrea Mann

Andrea Mann is a British screenwriter

On Imposter Syndrome, And Getting Out Of Our Own Way

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I put myself forward for a writing gig this month that I almost didn’t put myself forward for.

I’d seen the call out – asking for CV submissons – and immediately dismissed it as not something I would be good or experienced enough for. It required a writing muscle that I’ve not exercised in years and I feared would now be too out of shape.

But then my agent asked me if I was going to put myself forward for it. I said no, and gave my excuses reasons. And then – being both a good person and a good agent – she told me that I should.

Old me would have continued to resist. New me a) realised I was resisting, b) knew my agent was right, and c) submitted my CV.

And while I knew that it was an extremely long shot, I also knew that the point, really, wasn’t whether I would get the gig or not. The point was that I had just got out of my own way.

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Those Three Little Words That Mean So Much

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Learning to ‘trust the process’ can change your life. Trust me. (And the process).

Trust the Post-it

I’m in the first draft of a feature script at the moment, with all the ups and downs that entails.

The ups include thoughts like: I’m writing a film script! I used to manage a cinema and now I’m writing a film script!! – inwardly screaming and running around the house like Olive when she’s told she’s through to the finals of the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.

The downs include rather different thoughts, like: What the f— am I doing? Should I really put that there? Is this rubbish? Oh god, it’s rubbish. Is this script going to be any good? At any point? I bet Mike White’s scripts are great off the bat! …and so on.

I often talk to other writers and creatives about how a) the voice of your Inner Critic never goes away but b) you can help it to become quieter, and less frequent, by doing such things as nurturing the voice of your Inner Best Friend instead.

When I’m in the thick of a first draft, my Inner Best Friend reminds me that they’re known as Shitty First Drafts for a reason. That nobody will see this draft but me. That it doesn’t need to be good, it just needs to be written. That it doesn’t matter if it’s rubbish for now, as long as I push on through. That I should just keep swimming. At which point I realise that my Inner Best Friend is, in fact, a fish. Called Dory.  

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A Permission Slip From Me (And David Lynch)

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Even the young Mr Lynch felt he needed permission to be an artist. This is yours.

David Lynch had so much wisdom and empathy to share about creativity and life that it’s no surprise his recent passing led to an outpouring of admiration and love not just for his body of work but also for him as an artist and as a human being.

Whether he was talking about creative ideas being like fish (“We don’t really create an idea. We just catch them, like fish. No chef ever takes credit for making the fish”) or debunking the myth of the tortured artist (“You don’t have to suffer to show suffering”), the filmmaker and artist constantly exuded wonder and joy at both the world around him and the thrill of living “the art life”.

Of all the inspiring and fascinating video clips, stories and anecdotes that were being shared about Lynch following his death, one clip in particular, from a 2019 interview he did with Artforum, hit me. Because in it, Lynch describes the exact moment, aged around 14-15, that he realised he was allowed to be an artist:

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