By KAREN WILSON Palisadian-Post Intern Emeritus What’s love got to do with it? That’s what Palisades High School sophomore Taylor Gray wondered when she first sat down with her mentor, Elizabeth Gill Brauer, a local scribe who was about to educate her on the value of channeling emotion into one’s writing. Recovering from a breakup, Gray, 15, felt she was too angry to write about love. Brauer, she says, ‘inspired me to do it,’ and using her favorite medium, poetry, Gray was able to churn out verse after verse. ”It was the literary breakthrough Brauer, 57, envisioned when, two years ago, she signed on to participate in Writegirl, a Los Angeles mentoring program which pairs professional writers with promising teen wordsmiths in need of guidance. ‘After being a television writer for 25 years, I was jaded and cynical, and my wings were clipped creatively,’ says Brauer, whose credits include the seminal teen angst series ‘My So-Called Life.’ Now teaching screenwriting courses at USC’s renowned School of Film and Television, Brauer finds that ‘being a mentor has helped me get back in touch with who I originally was as a writer. I have a true love of words’language clarifies, edifies, and inspires.’ ”As Brauer discovered the joy of fostering young writers, Gray was across town in Inglewood, realizing that her daily journal writing was turning into a full-blown passion for the written word. ‘When you write from your heart, it can help release problems,’ she says. ‘I love it.’ A family friend caught wind of the Writegirl program and knew it would be up Gray’s alley. ”This past January, she and Brauer had their first after-school meeting at Starbucks Coffee in the Palisades, a tradition they have carried on, meeting for an hour of java and prose every Thursday. The two also attend monthly four-hour workshops at Hollywood’s Yucca Community Center, where they explore new styles of writing with other Writegirls from the L.A. area. ‘Before I met Elizabeth, I’d only written poetry,’ Gray says. But at a recent workshop, she branched out and created her own five-page screenplay, the saga of a girl abused by her boyfriend. Through her exposure to fellow members of the program, ‘she now knows that there are other people simpatico with what she loves,’ Brauer adds. ”The weekly Starbucks sessions have been helpful, Gray says, in furthering her development as a writer. ‘I don’t need to edit my work much anymore, because she’s taught me how to avoid being too wordy.’ Agrees Brauer, ‘She’ll write something prosaic, and I’ll show her how a couple of words can make it less so… the trick is not to impose’I have to respect the fact that Taylor wants her language to sound a certain way.’ ”No question Brauer has an easy time making Gray feel at ease; a former Palisadian-Post ‘Mother of the Year’ award recipient, the Hancock Park native majored in English at UCLA before moving to the Alphabet Streets in 1979 and raising two daughters with husband Jon, who works for Merrill Lynch. An active parent during her daughters’ tenure at both Palisades Elementary and Crossroads School, she found it difficult adjusting to an empty nest once her girls left for college. By chance, she stumbled across the fateful Writegirl ad in her monthly Writers’ Guild newsletter. ‘Ours is different from a mother-daughter relationship,’ Brauer says, referring to herself and Taylor. ‘I feel like I’m a confidant for her, someone to learn from’and how better to do so than through an art form?’ Attests Gray, ‘Elizabeth has given me inspiration and confidence in my writing.’ A voracious reader, the loquacious, bubbly Gray estimates that she owns ‘oh man, at least a hundred books,’ and, like a typical teen, favorites include the young adult series ‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.’ It’s no surprise that her favorite school subject is English, and she takes pride in her ability to complete in-class writing assignments at top speed. ‘My teacher will tell us to write a poem, and in five minutes, I’ll have a whole page,’ she says. ‘My friends come to me for homework help.’ Published in last year’s Writegirl anthology, Gray is currently awaiting word from Seventeen magazine, which is considering publishing ‘Smile on a Stick,’ her tongue-in-cheek essay about the ills of being the only girl in junior high school without braces, for publication in an upcoming issue. Supporting their daughter through the early phases of her writing career are mom Dana, who owns a small flower shop and works as a receptionist at a venture capital firm, and stepfather Damien, an L.A. County fireman. ”Sharing the same playful sense of humor, Brauer and Gray both delight in writing together. A recent Thursday afternoon exercise called for Gray to write an entire story from the perspective of a cellular telephone. During another, Brauer handed the teen a coffee mug, sunglasses and breath mints, and Gray had 60 seconds to churn out a mini-story about each object. ‘Eventually,’ Brauer smirks, ‘I’ll try and get her to create a sonnet.’ Not that Gray will be running for the hills. ‘I just love to write,’ she says. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without a pen and paper, without my fingers and hands. If I didn’t have any hands, I’d die. Take my feet’but not my hands.’
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