- about me and swl
Iâm Lisa Camilla La Colla â Italian writer, performer and Creative Writing Coach. After years studying stories, working in film and chasing the ârightâ creative career, I learned that great writing doesnât need more suffering. It needs craft, courage, deadlines â and a lot more love.
Years of live workshops
Creatives coached
Days to draft a finalist novel
Years studying storytelling
Iâve been living inside stories for as long as I can remember. Once I learned how to write, my brain apparently decided that ordinary thoughts were no longer enough: there had to be characters, dialogue, books, movies and entire imaginary lives running alongside them.
Iâm Italian, an unapologetic Isabel Allende fan, and Billy Wilder has a permanent seat at my imaginary âdead people dinner.â Iâm also the person who once argued with a teacher who said characters donât exist. They clearly had never met mine.
Because I loved stories so much, I did what ambitious creative people are told to do: I studied. A lot. Bologna, Paris, New York, UCLA, acting, cinema, screenwriting. After around seven years of training, I landed a writing job at a film company. On paper, it sounded like the dream.
Except there was one tiny problem: I wasnât writing my stories anymore.
- the turning point
That realization changed everything. I left the supposedly perfect path and began hosting writing workshops in screenwriting, playwriting and book coaching.
Working closely with writers made something very clear to me: most creative people donât need another intimidating authority telling them they are behind, undisciplined or ânot talented enough.â They need someone who can see the story, see the block, and help them move through both.
That is the work I do now. I can obsess over structure, character arcs, pacing and dialogue with you â and five minutes later we may be talking about perfectionism, fear, procrastination or the belief that you need to feel inspired before youâre allowed to begin.
I know those struggles because Iâm a writer too. In 2025 I drafted a novel in 22 days; it later became a finalist in the IoScrittore literary competition. For me, that experience reinforced something I now teach constantly: inspiration is wonderful, but a loving structure and a real deadline can take you much further.
- The story behind the coach
Not a rĂŠsumĂŠ for rĂŠsumĂŠâs sake â but the experiences that shaped the way I work with writers today.
chapter 1
Drama, cinema, media studies, screenwriting and acting took me from Bologna to Paris, New York, Los Angeles and Vienna â building a toolkit that moves between page, stage and screen.
chapter 2
Working as a writer in film looked like the destination. But the more I worked on other peopleâs stories, the less room I had for my own. That contradiction became impossible to ignore.
chapter 3
I left the safe script and started teaching. More than 50 creatives later, the thing I love most is still the moment someone goes from âI canât do thisâ to âI know exactly what comes next.â
chapter 4
Not softer standards. Not vague encouragement. A different way to pursue ambitious creative work: serious craft, practical momentum and a process that doesnât ask you to destroy yourself to prove you care.
- what your coach believes
You know the terrifying music teacher in Whiplash? I built my coaching philosophy to be almost the opposite. I donât believe pain is proof of artistic seriousness. Storytelling with Love exists to challenge the old mythology that the best art must come from suffering â and replace it with a process built on structure, emotional safety, truth and joy.
01
Understand what your story needs before demanding more output from yourself.
02
Deadlines can support creativity when theyâre designed around a sustainable practice.
03
Technique matters â and so does learning to trust the choices only you can make.
- working together
Part story craft, part accountability, part very honest creative conversation.
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We can go deep into what is blocking the work, without judging you for having a block in the first place.
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Give me the complicated version. Finding the spine of the story is one of my favorite things.
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Inspiration gets an invitation. Deadlines get a chair at the table.
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And yes, there is a very real chance Iâll get emotional when you complete your first draft.
- THE formal part
Because warmth and rigor can coexist â and my coaching is grounded in years of studying how stories work across page, stage and screen.
MA in Cinema, Television & Multimedia Productions
BA in Drama, Art & Music
Professional Screenwriting Program
Exchange in Cinema & Film Studies
Exchange in Media Studies
Acting studies in New York & Vienna
- ABOUT THE BRAND
The name is the mission. Storytelling with Love grew out of everything I had experienced as a student, writer, performer and coach: enormous respect for craft, paired with a refusal to believe that cruelty makes creatives better.
I wanted a space where ambitious writers could be challenged without being diminished â where finishing a story could feel like an act of care rather than a test of endurance.
My vision is simple: a creative world where artists, writers and dreamers can thrive from wholeness rather than suffering, and where storytelling becomes a way to bring more care, truth and love into the world.
Structure, character, pacing, dialogue and professional storytelling tools.
Creative confidence, consistency, self-trust and a healthier relationship with deadlines.
A coaching space where your story is challenged seriously and youâre treated humanely.
- HOW WE WORK
Love, here, doesnât mean lowering the bar. It means creating the conditions in which you can actually reach it: honest feedback, strong technique, practical accountability and enough self-trust to keep going.
VALUE 1
Your creative blocks are information, not evidence that youâre ânot a real writer.â Coaching starts by understanding what is actually happening.
VALUE 2
Love is not vagueness. Youâll work with concrete storytelling principles so your ideas become clear, structured and compelling on the page.
VALUE 3
A beautiful idea deserves a completed draft. The goal is progress you can see, decisions you can defend and a story that exists outside your head.
- a little less formal
Because the person behind the coaching matters too. Here are a few things that tend to find their way into my conversations, my writing â and probably our sessions.
Isabel Allende and magical realism have my heart. Billy Wilder gets a permanent invitation to my imaginary dinner table, and I will happily rewatch Sunset Boulevard, Some Like It Hot or La La Land at any given opportunity.
I once argued with a teacher who said fictional characters donât exist. I still disagree. When a character starts feeling real enough to surprise you, frustrate you or break your heart, thatâs usually when the story gets interesting.
I love inspiration, but I trust a deadline more. I believe creativity becomes easier when it has a place to land â a routine, a next step and permission to write something imperfect before making it good.
Iâm a Phantom of the Opera obsessed, Friends still works on me like the first watch, Atomic Habits is never very far away, and building Storytelling with Love also turned me into the kind of solo entrepreneur who somehow learned the tech too.
- your turn
If you have a novel, script or play living in your head â maybe for months, maybe for years â you donât need to become a different person before you can write it. Weâll find the story, build the structure and create a process you can actually return to until you reach âThe End.â