Dispatch From The Quest: Meet Jordan Earls
Over the course of the 24 weeks I will be working with the writers in “The Quest,” I will be posting ‘dispatches’ from them to the GITS community. There are several reasons for this, the main one being educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding of the craft from the experiences of the Questers.
I should also add they are a great group of people, so I expect you will enjoy getting to know them.
Today I would like to introduce Jordan Earls.
Jordan Earls is a Portland native, born and raised. She left the nest in 2009 to attend the University of Washington in Seattle. While there she meandered through majors until she happened upon a cinema studies class focusing on the western and melodrama. It was a life changing class as it pushed her to realize her passion for writing film. By early 2012 Jordan realized she loathed Seattle and left UW to pursue her dream. Within a year and a half of screenwriting, she has written three scripts and read plenty more. The Quest is her first among what will hopefully amount to a plethora of accomplishments in film. In her free time, you can catch her working as a retail associate at the local mall or drinking cheap wine with friends. It’s a glamorous life being an amateur screenwriter.
Here is Jordan’s first dispatch from her Quest experience:
Early this spring, I was living in a house with a hundred women. Yes, for about six months I was a sorority girl. It took me a little less than ten minutes of singing and clapping to realize I’m not. I embarked on a long existential journey, during which I learned I have never been (and will never be) a woman who reserves a section of her closet for lettered t-shirts or goes tanning twice a day or follows that up with an obligatory mani-pedi. No, I’m a woman who prefers storytelling over gossiping and substitutes tanning for slaving away in a dark room only to look like a character from a 16th century gothic romance (but I’m from the northwest, so the look’s natural). The journey landed me back in Portland, wondering several things but the key question, “Who do I want to be?”
My entire life I’ve had big aspirations, maybe some are more akin to delusions, but, other than writing on my own, I’ve never done much to pursue those dreams. I realized I want to be someone who has the courage to pursue her dreams. Someone who puts passion before practicality. This led me to the Quest. I ended up submitting close to fifteen loglines and the very first one I sent in was selected.
As an amateur writer, I know what an opportunity like this means. It’s the kind of opportunity we amateur writers dream about and pray for. I’m incredibly thankful to be working with the great Scott Myers and the five other writers who continue proving to be fantastically creative and insightful. It’s funny to think just months ago I was in Seattle, hiding in my room from a hundred housemates and dreaming of my future. The Quest is the Herald’s call, beckoning me, the other writers and all the readers following at home to the future.
If you have any questions or comments for Jordan, feel free to post them in comments.
Tomorrow: Another Dispatch From The Quest.
For background on “Go Into The Story: The Quest,” go here and here.
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