Meet Dyann Chiang

We were lucky to catch up with Dyann Chiang recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dyann, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

This might sound like a cliche, but I find my purpose in “sense of achievement”. This goes way beyond my career — it also includes personal relationships, self-care and more.

As a lead screenwriter, I gain sense of achievement from my work being recognized. Whenever the audience responds positively to the stories my writers and I create, whenever we bring new ideas and fresh plots to the market — it motivates me to keep moving forward. However, as a lead writer, I also learned that our purpose is more than just producing contents and counting the profit, it’s also about growing together as creators, providing each other with new angles as we strive to create more heart-felt stories for our audience.

Like I mentioned, sense of achievement also comes from places outside of work. As a wife, a friend, I also find my purpose in my marriage and my friendship. Since I’m an international personnel working in the US without my family around, having reliable people as my safety net — while being there for them — is more important than anything. When I know I’ve done my best to support the people I care about — be it my husband, my friends or my co-workers — I get this indescribable sense of achievement, and it always helps me sleep well at night.

Being needed, helping people around me to grow and support them when they need someone to fall into — that is my purpose.

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

I’m a head creative screenwriter at a short drama company, Reelshort, the first short drama company in the US and the pioneer in the field. My job is to come up with new stories that will appeal to our audience and the overall short dramatic series market, which is forever changing. Generated from reels on social medias, this market is fast-paced, unpredictable and incredibly exciting. Everyday, there is something new to learn regarding contents, audience and market strategy.

One thing that I feel is particularly exciting about the short drama business, is how fast and vast our audience communities have expanded. When the Reelshort app first took off, we focused heavily on traditional romance, targeting female audience. However, we’ve been exploring different audience groups and have seen great increase in demands for shows in other genres and styles. This shows that more audience is embracing this new media platform, and that they are craving a wider range of contents, which is indeed very exciting news for writers like me.

In addition, Reelshort as a brand has been building a tight community that gathers all sorts of talents — writers, editors, actors, producers, directors and fans across the US. Everyone is passionate about story-telling, and everyone respects one another’s expertise. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to work with all these talented souls, and as we work more and more closely (online and in-person), I have no doubt that this community in the short drama business is growing bigger and stronger than ever!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

1: Know what you like, and make sure you’re good at it

I’m very lucky that I get to combine what I like with what I’m good at — writing. I started writing since I was 12, and I never stopped. Novels, plays, screenplays, short films, marketing articles…anything related to writing, I’ve done it. Personally, I think it’s very important to train ourselves to be good at what we like, especially if you expect to make a career out of it. Take lessons, connect with professionals, expand your life experience — do whatever you can to make sure you have the skills and you can stand out.
In addition, I also think it’s crucial to acknowledge that if/when you make what you like your career, it stops being “just a hobby”. It becomes pressure, sometimes it becomes something you want to put down because it’s too heavy to keep carrying it over your shoulders. When it becomes a career, you can’t expect everything to be fun and easy. However, you can focus on the relationship you’ve built, the lessons you’ve learned and the work you’ve done which get recognized. That is what’s going to give you the sense of achievement, and that is what’s going to keep you going.

2. Learn a new language

I was born and raised in Taiwan, and my first language is Mandarin Chinese. My experience as an international personnel teaches me that being bilingual is a gift — both to my career and my personal life. Being a bilingual screenwriter allows me to easily research the international short drama business, and understand the market better.
In the meantime, living in the US as a bilingual person reminds me that the world is bigger than this comfortable nest I’ve settled in, and that there’s always more to learn. This results in me learning a third language — Italian. When you learn a new language, you also get in touch with a different culture. It keeps you curious, makes sure you don’t forget that you can always grow, always be ready to explore more in life.

3. Be brave and invest in yourself

A little similar to the last advice, I believe it’s very important to be willing to invest in yourself — in terms of money and time. It could be taking the time to learn a new language, it could be spending a Sunday afternoon baking a cake, it could be going to grad school, it could be going to a spa, it could be taking a trip somewhere you’ve never been.
Too often we think about investing in ourselves, and we consider it a waste of money and/or time because we’re not sure what the outcome will be. Is it worth it? To this question, my answer is: you’ll never know, that’s why we call it an investment. Nonetheless, if there’s one thing I’ve learned as a MFA graduate from Tisch, NYU (yes, I spent 2 years and took out a student loan to go to art school!) and an international screenwriter in the US, is that if you don’t take the initiative to invest in yourself, you will always stay in square one. So be brave and invest in ourselves — that’s the best thing we can do to start our journey, wherever it leads to.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

As a Taiwanese screenwriter who flew across the Pacific Ocean to study and work in the US, I must mention how important my parents roles are in my life. Taiwan is a very small island, and they’ve always encouraged me to leave and explore the world. Even though I love Taiwan and I’ll never call another place home, I’ve always known I needed to leave in order to experience more in life.

My parents sent me to study English intensively since I was 4. Their decision allowed me to learn this language in a natural way and allowed me to consider almost anywhere when I pursue my career. 14 years later, when I decided to major in foreign literatures at National Taiwan University, they agreed instead of forcing me into laws or business majors. Without their support, I wouldn’t have been able to make writing my career focus, and I might’ve never been able to leave Taiwan.

Home is always home, it’s safe and warm, it’s where your heart belongs to. However, you have to be brave and fly away to test your limits, to see what challenges you can overcome and what mountains you can conquer — this is the most impactful lesson my parents have ever taught me, and I’m eternally grateful for that.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: dyann0302
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dyann-chiang/