Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lydia Nightingale. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Lydia, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learned to write mostly through trial and error and observation. What achieves my objective and what doesn’t? What feels true and what feels artificial? Usually, the pieces I feel the most emotionally connected to are the ones that others also resonate with. I did take a few playwriting and creative writing classes in college, but I remember very few “rules or regulations” from those classes. In terms of observation, I discovered how to write compelling narratives by reading them in books or articles or watching them enacted onscreen or onstage. I do wish I had read a few more actual craft books just to make structuring my stories easier, but there’s always time for that. If any obstacles stood in the way of learning more, they were self-made, my own construct of, “I know enough, I don’t need to learn anything else”. Getting stuck in that mindset is death to growth and further creativity.

Lydia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I began writing plays and stories in earnest back in 2011 with the writing of my first full-length play TINTED RED. From there, I continued to write short plays, which have been produced all over New York State, from Albany to Geneva. I eventually wrote a sequel to TINTED RED titled ADELE IN BERLIN, which has played in both NYC in 2015 and in the 2023 Rochester Fringe Festival. My current written work focuses on queer narratives, the female experience, and mental health awareness. I have been working on a historical queer romance novel titled DRAWN for four years, which is presently in revisions with an independent women-run publisher. I am also in the beginning stages of outlining a memoir exploring my dealings with bipolar type 1 in my twenties.

On the more utilitarian side, I am excellent at taking information and forming it into an engaging, cohesive whole, as I did when I wrote a docent training manual from a handful of reports about the Martin Van Buren National Historical Site in Kinderhook, NY in 2020. I have also written biographies for fellow artists and professionals, assisted colleagues with recommendation and cover letters, and recently proofread a National Association of Schools of Art and Design Self-Study for the Art and Design Department at Nazareth University in Rochester.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding thing about being a creative is seeing someone affected deeply by my work. An example: when I produced a reading of my first full-length play TINTED RED in college, my father came to see it. The play was based on the experiences of his biological mother, a German Army nurse captured by the Russian Army in 1945 who escaped and made her way back to Germany. After the show during the talkback, he stood up and declared that he had made contact with his mother (whom he had never known) for the first time ever that night. Moments later, our director gathered me and the cast backstage and said, “That’s why we do theatre,” and I wholeheartedly agreed with him. I still do!

One more example: after I told the story of my 10-year journey with bipolar disorder type 1 on a podcast run by the National Women’s Health Network, a woman I had gone to high school with contacted me on Facebook. She told me that she had found the episode while searching for resources to help her cope with the diagnosis of her young son with pediatric bipolar disorder. She listened to it, enjoyed how engaging I was, and derived a great amount of hope from the episode that her son could still thrive and have a fulfilling life. That meant the world to me – my story and the way I told it had helped someone.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

No one project will be the end-all-be-all! I used to think that I would write a big important work and that would be “THE ONE”, but now several “THE ONES” have gone by and I’m still writing and discovering new things. All you have to do is look at the career of someone like Taylor Swift to see that type of trajectory, although I won’t even dare to think I’ll ever be as prolific as her! Life is a weird and wonderful journey, and you never know what kinds of ideas will pop up along the way.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: ljnightingale
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lydiajnightingale/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lydia-nightingale-820b311b/
• Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/@lydianightingale6779

Image Credits

Aimee Kuiper
Shelly Kuzniarek
Hannah Zel Photography
Carmen Nightingale