Bringing Your Stories to Life

Creating stories is the frame I put on life to tease out its meaning, and what I love supporting others do for themselves. Honoring our own stories and giving them shape can nourish and empower not just ourselves but those around us--and those we may never see or know. 

From listening as a child to my father’s stories of growing up in Italy, to comparing Muslim and Christian narratives of the Crusades as a History major at Yale, to distilling hours of video into a 30-second commercial or one-hour documentary for my clients, to teaching screenwriting to students of all ages, to writing films and personal essays—stories and storytelling delight me. 

I believe finding the soul of a story and bringing it to life can do nothing less than help heal people’s souls. 

Services

  • I’ll work with you to come up with the questions and the format for a video memoir of your life or your loved one’s life. I’ll then film it and edit it -- with your feedback. The result will be a precious video record for you and your family’s younger generations. This can be a video with chapters reflecting the stages of a loved one’s life, or it can be a video celebrating a loved one’s birthday with filmed contributions from friends and family around the world, or whatever form best fits your purposes.

  • I can edit memoirs you’ve drafted, write them alongside you either in-person or remotely, or transcribe your memories as you speak them. The end goal is for you and your family members — including those not yet born — to have a record of your life story.

  • I love working with people of all ages as they write their life stories. This can be done in a weekend workshop, or in a course spanning weeks or longer, whether in-person or online -- whichever is desired.

  • Having written, co-written, and/or consulted on numerous screenplays and taught screenwriting for years -- and won grants and awards for doing so -- I am confident I can contribute value to your screenwriting journey.

  • Whether it be a large-scale overhaul requiring the shifting or deletion of paragraphs, or subtle grammatical and syntactical tweaks, I am well-versed in working with individuals to make their writing as effective as possible.

Portfolio

 Below are a few of the video portraits I have been commissioned to create or have produced out of my own interest in the subjects’ lives and the life lessons they share.

Peter Bullough Foundation Video

Peter Bullough Foundation Video
Alice Walker on Muriel Rukeyser

Alice Walker on Muriel Rukeyser
This Life So Far

This Life So Far
When You Are Old and Grey

When You Are Old and Grey
Mary's Birthday

Mary's Birthday

  • Myra is amazing; always open to dialogue, gives in-depth feedback, and helps you grow as a writer. She is so positive, passionate, inspiring, and pushes you to succeed not only academically but as an artist.

    SFSU student

  • What a lot of treasures you inspired us to dig out of our hearts and memories!

    LifeStories student

  • Myra Paci is a fantastic professor. She instilled in me a belief in myself against insurmountable odds when my self-esteem was at its absolute lowest...she convinced me…that my ideas were worth sharing. I’m glad I listened to her and stuck with it.

    SFSU student

  • Myra was the developmental editor on my memoir, Modest Expectations: Coming of Age Before the Women’s Revolution. She gently but firmly encouraged me to probe deepr into the emotional arc of my life, mobilizing me to write additional reflective passages where I explored feelings, not just events. She helped me shape my tale so that it hewed to a narrative spine –”1950s woman finds career”--while embracing my need to paint a fuller picture of my life so that my family and friends could find themselves in the story.

  • Nancy Kates, filmmaker

    Myra has a deep, intuitive and professional understanding of storytelling and screenwriting. She has taught and practiced the craft for years, and is a really helpful collaborator and consultant, able to focus intently on what the project/client needs. There are endless ways to tell a story; Myra has unique abilities to work with people to extract and reveal those stories and the best paths through them.