An Interview with London Writers' Salon
These are my people!
Sometime during The Hardest Year Ever, I had the good sense to realise that if I didn’t start writing again, I might lose my mind.
It wasn’t a rational decision - more of a survival instinct. A compulsion really. I wrote alone and ferociously. I wrote like my life depended upon it because it did.
When did writing alone become lonely?
I don’t know. I can’t remember how or when I found the London Writers’ Salon. I just remember one day, I looked up and saw four Zoom screens filled with people who were writing. It was like a support group of people - just like me, but totally different - writing their way through life.
As Matt and Parul say, we write alone, but together. We are a community of writers who support each other and learn together.
That’s why I’m beyond delighted to share with you this interview/profile edited by the lovely Peppur Chambers for the London Writers’ Salon community. It’s an honour to be profiled by the people who helped save me from myself!
Meet Laurie Mucha! With humour and a dose of reality, she invites us into her colourful world where vulnerability, creativity and art mingle like a lovely bag of Skittles.
Laurie Mucha
Based: Splits her time between London and Veyrier-du-Lac, France
Age: Proudly 50-something
Writes creative nonfiction and humour
Moderates: The London Writers’ Salon TV Writers’ Room
What are you working on right now?
I’m currently working on a memoir called Pathologically Grateful which is about finding my voice in perimenopause after a lifetime of people-pleasing and caregiving. I also write a weekly substack called I’ll Have What She’s Having.
Why do you host the TV Writers Room [at LWS]?
I have a background in film and television production. But more importantly, I love the collaborative nature of a TV Writers’ Room — group brainstorming, collective storytelling and lots of laughs!
Also, Londoners may know me as the co-Founder and Producer of the Feminista Film Festival which ran from 2018–2022. I’m currently a member of Women in Film and Television and London Comedy Writers (a sketch and sitcom writing group).
Tell us about the TV Writers’ Room
All London Writers’ Salon members are welcome! We brainstorm solutions to your script or manuscript problems. TV writing is our focus but you can bring us any of your writing problems and we will help you brainstorm a solution. Here’s how we roll:
1 — Quick intro of everyone in the room. Tell us your name and give us a 2-minute (max) overview of what you’re working on.
2 — The fun part: Offer up a question or problem for the group to solve. Some examples:
I think my book/short story/idea would make a great TV show, what do I do first?
I’ve got a pilot script, but need help brainstorming the series arc.
I have a script and I need a few people to read it and give me feedback.
I’m looking for a great new TV show to binge this weekend, any suggestions?
My TV project is merely a pipe dream. But could anyone tell me how to outline my braided memoir? [this might be a selfish example]
Someday I’d really like to host a proper table read. If you have a completed script and you’re interested in being our guinea pig, please get in touch!
Where and when do you write?
I’ve got a solid morning routine which includes strong coffee, my journal and giant noise-cancelling headphones. I travel a lot and this routine serves me well. Somewhere between the first and second coffee, I move from navel-gazing to outward-facing. I’m most productive before lunch. If I accomplish anything after 1pm, it’s a surprise gift from the universe, but I don’t count on that.
Why do you write?
I write to remind myself who I am. I write to figure out who I want to be. I write because left to my own devices I’d alternate between servitude and slothfulness.
What inspires your creativity?
Travel, books, podcasts, performances.
What’s your favourite book?
Delightful work from these authors:
Fiction: Ruth Ozeki, Barbara Kingsolver, Kristin Hannah
Nonfiction: Maggie Smith, Nora Ephron, Holly Whitaker, Lindsey Trout Hughes
Favourite TV shows?
Better Things, Schitt’s Creek, Veep, Shrinking, The Diplomat, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Gilmore Girls, Fleabag, SNL
What’s the best advice you’ve received about creativity?
What if writing was fun? What would that look like?
What’s the one thing you would tell other/aspiring writers?
Just do the work. I promise it’s less painful than avoiding it.
How can we discover more about you and your work?
Join me in the TV WRITERS’ ROOM at LWS!
Subscribe to my weekly newsletter: I’ll Have What She’s Having
I also have a cheeky little blog because I heard the internet needs more of those.