Meet Sven | Novelist, screenwriter, musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sven and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sven, what habits do you feel play an important role in your life?
Finishing projects! 😆 I know so many musicians, writers, painters et cetera with a million great ideas and just as many half done projects. You can’t fix it if it ain’t done! The most rewarding (and addictive) feeling as an artist is a completed project; it makes you want to immediately start on the next one!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
As as screenwriter, I tend to focus on complicated figures from the past, I strive to immerse the reader in the character’s era and world and show why they made the difficult (or disturbing) life choices they made. My goal is to humanize them and to start a conversation about what can be given a pass or what is beyond the pale. My first success was placing at the Academy Nicholl with a script about a Noir detective from the segregated 1940s dropped into modern day multicultural San Francisco, and my most recent were the six finalist placements with a screenplay about Edgar Allan Poe on trial in Hell, debating his marriage to his teenaged cousin versus his contributions to literature. I have definitely made the most waves coloring outside the lines.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Going on the idea they’ve never been here before, absolute first place I’d take them to is Venice Beach so they’d be happy the rest of their visit would be on the East Side! Early afternoon we’d catch a double feature at the New Beverly, sausage and Jäger dinner at the Red Lion, then a nightcap at the Airliner; a 100-year-old art deco bar in Lincoln Heights. And since we’re over there, a midnight trip to Radio Hill to get a singular, stunning view of DTLA.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I really have a lot of respect for the award-winning screenwriter and Director Douglas Spaltro; he was an initial and enthusiastic advocate of my work and my first “kindred spirit” as a writer. Screenwriter and filmmaker Chris Pittas has a “no B.S.” attitude to screenwriting notes that definitely makes him singular and has helped me a lot. Heidi Hornbacher is a Writer-Director-Producer with a keen insight and an uncanny laser focus on how to fix problems in a script; her friendship, guidance and notes took a controversial, very low ranked script of mine to an award (and cash-winning!) contest placement. There will never be enough praise available for the immensely talented Scottish screenwriter Shauna Joy. No other human on the planet has done more to help hone my outlandish ideas into almost breathing entities; her secret? Her focus not only on the architecture of a story, but her nose for heightening THE MAGIC! Forever grateful to her and her purple burglar alarm.

Website: https://www.svenanarki.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/svenanarki

Image Credits
Sven Anarki