Ep270 - Emma Needell, Screenwriter 'The Water Man' and 'Songs of the Damned'

Emma Needell grew up on a solar-powered cattle ranch in Colorado. While they didn’t have television, they did have movies. “They had everything from Tora! Tora! Tora! to Do the Right Thing,” said Needell about her parents’ movie collection.  “Rural Colorado is cowboy country and I’m a nerdy Jewish girl who is allergic to horses,” she joked. “I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up, but movies were proof that there was an outside world full of different people and different ideas.” Needell eventually used this imaginative nature to create her own worlds. Most recently, she’s created The Water Man, about a boy who goes on a quest to save his ill mother by searching for a mythic figure said to have healing powers. In this interview, the screenwriter talks about The Water Man and Songs of the Damned, why she loves collaboration, how to write grounded fantasy, how to avoid “shinecrafters,” and why sometimes the obstacles provide the best answers. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Join the email list here: www.brockswinson.com Follow us on Instagram for updates: @brockswinson If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!