My Life as a writer
When did you first realise you wanted to write for a living?
When I was a kid I’d make little stop-motion films out of Plasticine and action figures; that was the first time I realised I wanted to tell stories, however I could.
Which writer, past or present, do you most admire?
There are a number of writers I admire: Haruki Murakami, Roald Dahl, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Bill Lawrence, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Lisa Hanawalt, Hannah Gadsby, John Mulaney, Franz Kafka, Leonard Cohen, William Blake, Mike Birbiglia…
How am I supposed to pick just a handful?!
What was your first published (or performed) credit as a writer?
When I was 15 I started writing some songs, and performed them at an open mic night. Soon after, I would start recording and releasing songs as part of The Room Upstairs. As far as narrative writing goes, my first performed piece would be an animated short I created last year called Nigel’s Ark, which was exhibited at the Montreal International Indie Short Film Festival and the Toronto Short Film Channel
Which piece of writing work are you most proud of?
Shooting Star, completed in late 2020, and the album Bedhead Music released in the summer of 2019.
Who or what inspires you to write?
A good story, or an idea I believe in!
How do you switch off when you’re not writing?
I read, watch movies/TV, draw and animate, play music… truth be told, I’m not sure I switch off, I think I just give myself another little project?
Which one piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Don’t try and be the next anyone else, work at being the first you; make whatever you write yours.
Why are you a member of WGGB?
I want to find more opportunities and contacts so I can work further in this community, and I want to feel supported as I try harder and harder to push the work I am producing.
Ewan Shepherd is a graduate of film from Liverpool John Moores University. Interested in creating things no one cares about since childhood, his earliest project was a clay-mation zombie film; the set pieces were made out of cardboard, it was photographed on his dad’s flip phone, and the protagonist had bright red hands. Like all great pieces of lost culture, a failure to archive the footage has left it to fond (?) memories.
Since that debut, Ewan has begun writing and recording music with his friend (?) Joe Conway under the name The Room Upstairs. He has also worked on a number of music videos and short films, such as Dog Walkers (2020), which was a semi-finalist at the Sunday Shorts Film Festival and the winner of Best Original Short at the Thundr Short Film Showcase (October 2020).
Ewan’s other creative interests and hobbies include illustration and animation. He is currently attending an MA in scriptwriting at the University of Central Lancashire.
He has recently developed a habit in which he talks about himself in the third person.
I’m sorry.
Find out more about Ewan on his website Brain Spills.
