ANIMATED INSIGHTS BY SHANNON MUIR – now called SHANNON MUIR’S ANIMATED INSIGHTS – takes you inside Shannon’s latest reflections on her passion for animation as a medium, and other animated insights about life. To catch up on all posts, check out the Animated Insights portion of the website!
When I was young, I first learned to write poems and short stories. I liked them well enough. But then I fell in love with television, and everything changed. Well, sort of. I ended up getting a dual major in college of both Radio-Television and English = Creative Writing. I loved them both and refused to choose. I have no regrets about that.
Nearly thirty years ago, I moved down from my small town to Los Angeles, determined to make my mark. I learned everything I could about writing scripts for animation, and wanted to write for shows. Back then, the way most people made that happen meant moving to Los Angeles, which I did. Though I would end up writing scripts for one show (which, interesting enough, was actually produced by a Japanese company and then distributed around the world everywhere except the United States), I ended up working on the production staff of several shows. After trying to spend a couple years focusing on becoming a better writer now that I was actually in Los Angeles, I returned to animation production for a couple more shows. After that, I took some time off to get a Masters degree in Communications.
My road would then turn to information technology, and eventually to virtual worlds geared for youth, and working on the production pipeline of those in many ways felt like working on an animated series but more interactive. After that, life took a few twists and turns. I stayed in the entertainment web quality assurance space, working on a variety of projects. After a while, I began to see how the digital side of content and technology were becoming something more than beyond the idea of the physical library, and I decided to get a Masters degree in the area to expand on my existing knowledge. My focus has always been on the digital and emerging technology, with storing digital data and content as a library of information. Last December, I graduated from my program.
It has been an interesting six months for me since I graduated with my Masters of Library and Information Science degree from San Jose State University. I did do several internships – one at a public library, another at an entertainment focused archive – to better understand what it was like working in different types of environments. I really thrived in the entertainment focused archive because its niche was screenplays and television scripts, the very things that brought me to the Los Angeles area nearly thirty years ago.
My strong emphasis on virtual environments during my studies led to me being invited on to the Advisory Board for two different organizations that focus on areas I am passionate about. One is about libraries in the metaverse, focused on the idea of real libraries in virtual environments. These can be general, and some are more niche. I really feel my time spent in a real world script archive prepared me to understand what the needs of a niche library or archive can be and I finding this to be my passionate area of focus. The other non-profit I serve on the Advisory Board for focuses on the intersection of virtual worlds and the digital arts. Given my background over the years moving from animation to virtual worlds, to work with a non-profit that sees the potential of the intersection between the two seems a natural fit to me. I have always loved the arts and I do not see them as mutually exclusive from academics.
On the surface, progressing from poetry to short stories, then animation scriptwriting to virtual worlds, may not seem like a clear progression. Stepping back though, I can definitely see an evolution. The key stems in being resilient and being open to learning the specifics of storytelling in each form of media. What is key to each format, what works and what does not. The important thing at the end of the day is learning to tell the best story you possibly can within what you are working with. It may be the specific medium, or restrictions placed by writing something for hire. Even if certain elements are dictated to you, what makes it uniquely yours is how you take those pieces and are able to assemble them your way. That is the part of yourself you bring to the game each and every single time.
Since I was young, I have had a refusal to take no for an answer when it comes to my education or my storytelling. Even though I was told I wasn’t ready to be at certain reading levels, I challenged expectations. As young as second grade, I needed to be sent to the fifth grade for Language Arts because I could out-read my peers. My senior year in high school, I went to the local university half time before bridge programs were a thing (and I am so glad they are). I am not perfect and certainly have made my share of mistakes, but one of the key things about that is that I have always been willing and ready to learn.
Over the years, I find the first word that people seem to use for me is “resilient”. If you look at that word, it generally means able to bounce back from tragedy. I think it comes up because people see my journey rather compartmentalized, and that as one thing fades I am able to pick up and start something else. I am not sure that this is the right word for me, though I am still trying to discover what that word might be. As I said before, working in all of these ways amounts to different aspects of creativity process; I just pick up a new set of tools every time. That is the heart of the story, and the heart of my own story, really.
Speaking of which, I still write short stories and poetry. Some short stories even have been published over the last thirty years. All the different media can co-exist after all.