Movie Reviews for Writers: Finding Forrester (part 2)

Finding Forrester is one of those movies I could devote an entire book to analyzing. There is just so much rich content for a writer to glean advice and inspiration from. Since I covered the main themes in last week’s review, I’ll use this one to just skim a few of the other bits and bots that really jumped out at me via the dialog. 

“Why are the words we write for ourselves always so much better than the words we write for others?”

Ain’t it the truth? When we intentionally write for a market or to cash in on a trend, why do those tales always seemed so forced, like we’re having to literarlly excavate them from our brains rather than just turn on the faucet and let the words flow? Or maybe it’s not that way for you. For me, when I write the kind of story I myself want to read, it tends to almost sprint out of my brain, so much so that the biggest issues is typing or writing fast enough to keep up and not get behind. (For the most part. There are still bouts when I have to fight the words to pin them down on paper for a 3-count.)

“How did it feel having him tell you what you can’t do? … Then let’s show him what you can do.”

There is no greater motivator for me than to have someone tell me I can’t do something or write a certain story. That’s been my drive from day 1, I just didn’t realize it then. I quit a job with a religious organization when they told me I couldn’t write a story about a man turning into a woman. After that, I chose a comic book I was told I couldn’t do, a dominatrix turned CIA superhero. When the world said you could only write the Klan as the bad guys caught at the end of the story, I told a mystery where an ingenious murderer used them as scapegoats to cover his crime (still acknowledging them as bad guys, of course, just not the murderers). 

“I’m writing, like you’ll be when you start punching those keys.”

I have to disagree with Forrester here — but only just a bit. For me writing starts when my brain is pondering the story and the words, not just when the fingers touch the keys. But other than that, I have to agree. As I said in one of the previous reviews, the story in your head doesn’t count as a “real” one until it makes it onto the paper (or the digital file, nowadays). 

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https://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/2021/07/movie-reviews-for-writers-finding.html