We recently connected with Lauren Monroe and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I spent almost ten years doing regular jobs before pursuing writing as a career, so thankfully, I already knew that the 9-5 life wasn’t for me. I’m definitely happier as an artist. I think creative careers have high highs and low lows. There are times when you’re between gigs or struggling with a project and that can be scary or frustrating. But the flip side is that regular jobs felt monotonous and unfulfilling to me. The moments of chaos that come with creative careers are worth feeling like I’m directing my energies towards something I really care about.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a queer, neurodiverse kid growing up in the deep south, stories were vital to me for as long as I can remember. I especially loved fantasy and sci-fi stories where the characters were navigating big worlds they didn’t always fit into or understand like I was doing. I knew I wanted to write for a living as soon as I understood writing stories as a concept, but any time I voiced wanting to be a writer, every adult in a five-mile radius would warn me that I wouldn’t be able to make a living and that it was a bad idea. So I got an English degree instead, which didn’t exactly lead to gainful employment. I worked writing job ads for a recruitment company for years until I got laid off during COVID and decided that if I could fail at a regular job, I might as well try failing at one I wanted! I spent a year taking classes, writing scripts, and applied for the Nickelodeon Writing Program in 2021. I was lucky enough to get in and spent 2022 learning as much as I could from the program before staffing on the Wonder Pets reboot the year after.

Being a screenwriter is all about problem-solving for the show you’re writing for. It’s an incredibly collaborative process that requires you to come up with creative solutions quickly, whether it’s rewriting a joke or breaking a completely new story. I think one of my proudest moments was helping resolve an exec note that meant either re-working one of our stories or scrapping it entirely. I’ve always been obsessed with animals. One of my favorite books growing up was just an animal encyclopedia and I was so excited to be working on an animal-focused show. I was able to throw a random penguin fact out there that I thought was useless knowledge but ended up being what we needed to make the story work. The fact that my interests were useful in a writers room where they wouldn’t have been in a regular job felt very full-circle.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I think a lot of us think of writing as a solitary activity, and have this image in our heads of an Emily Dickinson-esque figure alone in her room just churning out masterpieces. But I really had to unlearn the idea that I was supposed to be able to do everything on my own. Every great writer (Dickinson included) has people to bounce their ideas off of. It’s scary and vulnerable at first to share your work with people, but once I got over that initial fear, I realized how much easier it is to write when you’re not alone! Now when I’m working on samples on my own, I’m wishing I had a room to break story with.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think we need a lot more support for smaller-scale, indie projects and to be intentional as consumers about seeking out lesser-known creatives. I think a lot of people are craving new, original stories in a media landscape that’s focused on sequels and remakes within larger franchises. But original content is out there! I think we’re starting to see some push towards supporting indie content, especially with crowdfunding as an option to get things produced. I’d love to see more of consumers and creatives alike taking the initiative to support the kinds of projects we want to see more of!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.laurenwmonroe.com/contact
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-monroe-a25867b7?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app