Meet Dean Liapis

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dean Liapis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dean, so happy to have you with us today. You are such a creative person, but have you ever had any sort of creativity block along the way? If so, can you talk to us about how you overcame or beat it?

Hey, thanks for having me. So, I’ve been writing professionally since about 2012 and I realized pretty quickly that having a creative job can be kinda tough at times – on the one hand, you have deadlines to hit and on the other, you can’t just turn creativity off and on like a faucet. But I found a couple of tricks over the years that work for me when I’m stuck.

My go to, oddly, is just getting away from it. Walking away when you hit a wall can be a stalling/procrastination tactic (trust me, I know), but once you’ve given it an honest attempt, taking a walk, letting my mind wander and just letting my thoughts go where they want to really helps me get past blocks. Whether I’m stuck on a story idea or trying to capture the correct phrasing for a line of dialogue, getting up and going outside is often the answer.

Number two sounds simplistic, but it’s to just keep writing. Even if I know I’m not writing my best stuff at the moment, oftentimes, just the act of putting words on the page will catch fire and I’ll find inspiration, or going back during the editing process (usually after taking a walk, ha) the missing piece will be so obvious. You can’t find answers in the editing process if you have nothing to edit!

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

So, I started off writing and editing videogame plot and dialogue and have branched out from there, although game writing is still my main occupation. In the last 15 years, I have done a decent amount of voice over directing, public relations stuff, international press shows and about 6 years ago I started a wedding officiating business.

Officiating weddings is not something I ever thought I would do; I’d never even considered it as a profession (to be honest, I never even considered that it IS a profession). I’ve done some standup comedy and big press events so I’m not overly afraid of public speaking, but I’d never done anything like this.

But my best friend, who is a brilliant photographer, called me and told me that her couple had lost their wedding officiant at the last minute and were looking at flying home unmarried 3 days from then, so it was me or no one. After meeting them, learning about their relationship and really clicking with them, I figured I’d give it a shot, because, hey, at least they’d go home married. After writing their speech and performing their ceremony, I found it to be super rewarding and the risk of sounding kinda mushy, it was just a really beautiful experience. Discovering the throughlines of love that we universally share, then learning about my couples, about the idiosyncrasies and quirks that draw us to one individual over all others is always really interesting and touching.

On top of writing games and wedding ceremonies, last year a couple friends and I published a short story horror anthology (titled, “Under the Stairs”) with 24 authors, which was a lot of work and a lot of fun. It was a total labor of love – we wanted to contribute to a genre that the three of us had grown up on. We learned a lot from curating and publishing our first anthology and we just began work on our second book.

Writing horror and writing customized, bespoke wedding ceremonies probably seems a bit at odds with one another, but really, any piece of writing is an attempt to elicit emotion from the reader. Whether it’s one of my couples crying from a speech that captures their love story or someone sleeping with the lights on after reading one of my horror stories, both types of writing are designed to connect with the reader. Hopefully, that’s what I’m doing.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

This is kind of tough to answer. For game writing, you have to be interested in games, with a healthy knowledge of what has come before and what is being done now. Play games with amazing writing and ask yourself why and how. Why is this so good? How does one game or scene make you think about it for weeks or even years later and others do not? Is it just amazing turns of phrase? Realistic dialogue? Well realized characters? Why is this scene so good, whereas that one falls flat?

For editing, you need to realize that this is not your work. You are helping to shape it, not necessarily control it. In my opinion, editing can be about your people skills almost as much as your technical skill. You are elevating a piece, not creating one, despite it being such a collaborative experience. Often, writers can have, well, thin-skins about their stuff, which makes sense. They’ve lived and breathed these characters, created them from nothing, sat with them, understood them. To come in and say, “This character isn’t believable” or “None of this scene works for me” is not going to help the writer. You need to learn what to say and what not to say, how to lead a writer to what you think the best outcome is, not just tell them what to do. You also have to accept it when they disagree with your suggestions. It’s a careful balance. Sometimes, you also have to realize when the relationship just isn’t working out between you and the writer. The writer/editor relationship lives and dies with trust. If your writer feels attacked, or you cannot express yourself tactfully, it’s just not going to work.

For weddings… well, I can say that if you don’t have a love of people, of learning what makes them tick, you likely will not love officiating, haha. For me, writing a ceremony really does feel like putting a puzzle together. Balancing levity with tenderness, humor with seriousness, and finding ways to say what my couples can’t put into words themselves is very rewarding for me. Seeing the love two people have for one another, understanding it, then articulating it in a sentimental, (hopefully) beautiful way is a bit of a balancing act. Some people I can tell want me to try and crack them up. Others want a more solemn speech. You really have to get out of your own way and much like editing a novel, understand that you are serving them. Not to sound dramatic, but there is a sacrifice with editing and speech writing. It’s your work, but it’s not for you. You have to be curious.

Also, please don’t get up there and drone on and on, haha. It isn’t about all your amusing anecdotes or how many ways you can say “love” or describe what love is. They know what it is; they’re in it. Your job is to describe what it means to them and what they mean to each other. If the guests are glancing back at the bar, you know you’ve made a wrong turn.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I’m always looking for new opportunities and projects! I love hearing what other people are doing. I’ve been thinking a lot about getting involved in local theater, even on a small scale – that world has always been interesting to me, and with stand-up, speech writing, PR expos etc., I figure it may not be a huge stretch for me.

That said, I was the lead singer in a band for a few years and would love to get back on stage, I still love doing stand up comedy. I’ve edited and written screenplays and novels, directed voice over actors, done some voice acting, written comedy skits and more. If it’s creative and it could use another eye on the script, help punching up some jokes, or putting me in front of people to inform, educate or entertain, I want to hear about it.

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Image Credits

Heather K Purdy

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