Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
As Angie works on cover letters for her film and Elizabeth has a huge revelation on the next steps on her novel, they take a moment to chat with Irving Ruan about humour and his unique journey. Irving is a person of many talents—a playwright, a stand up comedian, and an engineer. Reasonably new to writing, his body of work is nonetheless impressive. Irving discusses the hardest part about writing: continuing even in the face of rejection and how trusting yourself will get you through. While he does not use his engineering degree in his writing, it has given him a strong sense of structure. In comedy writing there is the need to identify clear patterns and to combine two previously different universes. Perhaps stand up comedy and engineering? Just a thought. In short, steal relentlessly. Read other people’s humor pieces, make notes of what stuck out. And most of all, write.
There There by Tommy Orange
I Miss You – Colin Nissan
I Work From Home – Colin Nissan
Irving Ruan Website
Irving Ruan
Irving Ruan is a writer, comedian, actor, playwright, and engineer. As a child of Chinese parents, Irving and his family first immigrated from China to Montana and settled down in San Diego during the second half of his childhood. He later went on to study computer engineering at UCSD and eventually landed in Silicon Valley, where he has worked as a software engineer, startup founder, consultant, and now as a writer and comedian. His work has been published in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Funny Or Die, CollegeHumor, and elsewhere. He has also studied improv and sketch writing at The Second City in Chicago and is currently a member of the San Francisco Writers Grotto.
Story Makers is a podcast that features in-depth conversations with accomplished writers, filmmakers and industry experts about story craft, technique, habit and survival–everything you need to know to stay inspired, connect to your creativity, find others’ wonderful stories and your own success.
The hosts:
Elizabeth Stark is a published, agented novelist and distributed filmmaker who teaches and mentors writers at BookWritingWorld.com.
Angie Powers is a distributed filmmaker and published short story writer with an MFA in creative writing and a certificate in screenwriting from UCLA who teaches story structure at BookWritingWorld.com.