Jen Lee Loy
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What Diversity Means to Her
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Hawaii native Jen Lee Loy ['05 MFA in screenwriting] is a recent graduate of the Fox Diversity Writing Program at 20th Century Fox. The program helps a handful of emerging writers to perfect their craft and, hopefully, land a job on a television show.
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Hawaii native Jen Lee Loy ['05 MFA in Screenwriting] is a recent graduate of the Fox Diversity Writing Program at 20th Century Fox. The program helps a handful of emerging writers to perfect their craft and, hopefully, land a job on a television show.
The writers in the program enter a five-week writing boot camp, where they construct a script for an existing television show. Lee Loy wrote a script for “Nip/Tuck.”
Lee Loy's anxiety throughout boot camp was always met with the comfort of knowing she would complete the challenge successfully. After earning her MFA in screenwriting, she understood her writing process. "LMU pushed the fast-forward button on this process through total immersion, script upon script, rewrite after rewrite. You can suddenly expect where your mind will go under pressure, under good critique, under heavy notes."
Likewise, many screenwriting courses at LMU incorporate a technique called table reading, in which scenes are read aloud and critiqued in the classroom. Boot camp, along with professional writing staffs, use the same technique. "I felt a lot more comfortable sitting at the boot camp table, in terms of this process."
For Lee Loy, the word "diversity" takes on a special meaning in the screenwriting realm and draws on the entirety of a person's character and background. "It's like a grand anthology of the experiences and back stories that we draw upon from our personal histories to create a unique view on the human experience."
LMU's diverse study body and large population of Hawaii residents encouraged Lee Loy's decision to attend the university. She jokes, "Seeing a few other people walking around with flip flops in the dead of winter makes you feel a little closer to home."
Lee Loy is currently pursuing representation and continues to pour her personal experiences into her writing. "I’d like to think that LMU was the kick start to future experiences to come that will help me, in the same way, to build character in writing and within myself."