Write On: 'A Family Affair' Writer Carrie Solomon

“I came up doing improv where failure is the golden standard. And
in improv, if you're not failing, you're doing something wrong. I
feel really lucky that that was one of my bridges into
entertainment and creativity, to have such a loving relationship
with failure because, boy! As a writer, your days are filled with
it and rejection and killing your darlings. I think comedy and
improv have taught me how wonderful failure can be and how much
we can get out of it for sure,” says Carrie Solomon, writer of
the new Netflix romantic comedy, A Family Affair starring Nicole
Kidman and Zac Ephron. 


In this episode, Carrie talks about working as an assistant when
she first came to Hollywood, calling it a job that can be,
“Thankless at times, certainly, but really rewarding in the
amount of information that you can absorb.” 


She also talks about bringing her own life experience – like
being an assistant – to her storytelling. 


“Thematically, I think a lot of lot of the arcs in this movie are
certainly my own. It’s my own therapy coming to the screen, going
to the page. I should probably send my therapist a Netflix., QR
code to go check out the movie,” Carrie says. 


Carrie also shares a lot of advice, including how to get your
writing noticed. “For anyone who wants to make a splash or write
something crazy or noticeable, write something that's crazy to
you. Don't worry about what. If you yourself were entertained or
wowed by an idea or you think, oh my god, that's absolutely like
ass backwards crazy. Try it. I have a lot of friends that the
minute they stop worrying about audiences or development execs or
what people want to read, that's when they really found their
voice and it clicked. I think being personal is one of the one of
the quickest ways to find success.”


To hear more about Carrie’s writing journey, listen to the
podcast.