About
Great that you are looking at the words at mind website! When you have arrived here, you already know that this is the site of Diana van Wijngaarden. If you don’t know her that well, you can find a short autobiography here.
As they say here in the province, I was pulled from Zeelands’ clay. That means that I was born in the southern province of Zeeland of the Netherlands. Despite a difficult childhood and a correspondingly bumpy start in life, I have always managed to get by. My salvation was my words. After all there is no better therapy than writing. I was always preoccupied with the question, “How can I translate my feelings and thoughts into words?” Above all, storytelling was and is the highest goal for me. First with pen on paper, still my favorite writing tools, and later tapping away on the laptop, because you know, you must keep up with the time.
To say that I was supported and motivated in my decision to become a writer…. no. Unfortunately, the opposite is true, because you can’t earn a living as a writer, can you? So, my dream remained in the background as a hobby. I learned numerous professions and tried to make ends meet and earn my bread and butter as interesting as possible. I didn’t succeed, and my two-page curriculum vitae will testify to that. Until an aunt put me back on the right path of writing. “We need a breath of fresh air like you. You’ve got talent, girl. You really have to do something with that!”, were her words and she got me a job at Naratio publishers, where I wrote for about eight years, mostly children’s stories for various age categories.
In the meantime, I also started working at the regional newspaper and from there came assignments for editorial work, creative writing, and screenwriting. I came into contact with Ben , a wonderful man, who I am proud to call my friend through working for the newspaper. First Ben worked in the advertising world, he had his own business, where I did editorial work for him. After his retirement he focused on writing books and films. He sparked my love for screenwriting and arranged for us to adapt his scripts, with which we achieved good results. Everyone has of course heard of high-budget and low-budget films, but we went on to make no-budget films, me looking over Bens’ shoulder. Everything made possible through the services of friends and the tireless efforts of a permanent crew, whom I can now call friends.
In addition to being a writer, I also became an actress because of the films we made together. All of this sparked my love for screenwriting, producing and filmmaking. I am now well settled in my writing chair again and the imprint of my buttocks already stands as a silent witness in the seat. And I can also count on the unwavering support of my family, who believe in me unconditionally and support me through out.