September 19, 2018
5 Questions With…Writer Diana Wright
With the launch of the fourth Best Fiends animation, "Baby Slug's Big Day Out," we wanted to highlight a few of the very important people that helped bring our story to life! So without further ado, our series of "5 Questions With..." continues with the writer, Diana Wright.
1. Describe how you work with Seriously and tell us what you did before.
As Lead Writer, I managed a team of writers to create the fun animated shorts for the Best Fiends universe. With that, I got to pitch, write, and edit the shorts you’ve seen from Seriously! My favorite part was writing the dialogue for these characters – they have so much personality that it made writing jokes for them easy. When I’m not working with Seriously, I write for TV, film, and other digital companies.
2. What has been one of your favorite projects to work on and why?
I got to work on the Best Fiends art book and really help to build out the game’s universe. It’s such a great world to work within. The book really shows how much effort and love the creators of this game put into making it. This isn’t just a few characters and set pieces to them, it’s a world with living, breathing characters and a fully created universe. The passion of the game’s creators, and the rest of the Seriously team, makes working with these characters such a delight.
3. What are your tips for thinking of an innovative and interesting story line?
With animation, I’m all about the rules. Thanks to artists’ incredible imaginations, you can do literally anything with your characters, which is why it’s important to set up your rules early on – which characters can fly, which characters can speak, how do they speak, etc. Sticking to the rules of your world can make some creative problem solving and really bring your stories to life. It also gives you some guidelines for coming up with your storylines, which can help narrow down ideas.
4. Can you discuss the creative process behind a recent project?
It starts with sushi. The best ideas come over sushi. We usually meet as an entire team – the writers, the Seriously staff, and sushi. They give us a few guidelines for what they are looking for – maybe they want to focus on a certain character or do something special for a new level or update. Then the writers go off and brainstorm pitches. The Seriously staff pick their favorites, which leads to writing them. At each stage, a lot of ideas are left on the cutting room floor. When you see a fully produced short, there might be 10 ideas and scripts that were cut to get to that final product.
5. Who is your favorite character to write for and why?
I love writing Hank and Roger. They are the audience’s eyes into this crazy world. They are a really great duo and I love their friendship. Just thinking of them sliming along makes me smile.