Melissa L. White

Melissa’s essay titled, "Thank You, George Lucas," published in 2023, is about the urgent need to remove VIOLENCE from our storytelling, due to the “killing culture” now found in America. With the exponential increase in mass shootings, political violence, hate crimes, and discriminatory hate-speak and/or bullying—especially in social media—it’s clear that our storytelling needs to evolve. This essay refers to letters she wrote to filmmaking legend George Lucas, thanking him for his contributions as an innovator. She also invited Lucas to join her in creating a new genre which she proposed calling Life Force Storytelling, inspired by "THE FORCE,” from his Star Wars films, which would focus on character-driven storytelling, without relying on violence-driven action. The essay appeared online in Ariel Chart International Literary Journal which is a signatory of Poet & Writers Literary Journal.

She published another essay titled "Life Force Storytelling" which also appears in Ariel Chart.