By Amanda Bazil
Henry Miller once famously said, “writing is its own reward,” and if anyone is good enough to attest to that truth it would be Les Standiford, FIU’s Creative Writing Director, who helped remind moviegoers worldwide when the movie adaptation of his book hit theatres November 22.
I bet he’d also believe in the magic of Christmas and the joy stories surrounding the holidays can bring, which is why writing, “The Man Who Invented Christmas” was a creative pursuit he enjoyed sharing with the world.
Born in Cambridge, Ohio, Standiford was always writing little stories and poems as a child. To him, creative writing was just something everyone did. As he grew older, so did his passion for reading and writing, and eventually, Standiford found himself wanting to give back the same kind of pleasure to others as he got himself.
He’s been publishing books since 1991, and although his first book, “Spill” was also made into a movie, the film didn’t garner much success, and yet Standiford continued to write.
In writing, “The Man Who Invented Christmas” Standiford wasn’t expecting for another one of his books to become adapted again. “It’s so unlikely [that a book can turn into a movie], so it’s not realistic for one thing to be made into a movie. I think if I were really interested in having things turned into movies I would be a screenwriter, but that didn’t happen,” said a reflecting Standiford.
“The Man Who Invented Christmas” went from catching the interests of Books & Books store owner Mitchell Kaplan who had the book sitting on his bookshelves, to being considered for a movie adaptation for Canadian TV, then the UK TV, and eventually landed its rightful place on the big screen. The uncanny sequence of events proves Standiford’s point.
Yet that shouldn’t deter any passionate writer who one day hopes to see their work present in every theater around, in fact, Standiford pieces of advice to students to learn from the main character of his latest work.
“One of the things about this story which is important for students is to see how hard Charles Dickens worked on behalf of this material, because when you’re first starting off, if you don’t believe in yourself, then who in the heck is going too, and so I think that’s important for students to see how hard Dickens had to work,” said Standiford.
Many people would believe that Charles Dickens was the kind of writer who just had the knack for it and so, therefore, his journey was easy, but Standiford begs to differ.
“Like the woman who wrote Harry Potter books, she had to work herself into a frazzle and almost didn’t make it because of all the roadblocks, and so this is a pretty inspiring movie for young people as well as anybody who wants to be in any form of the entertainment industry,” said Standiford.
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