Movie Reviews for Writers: Secret Window

This movie begins with plagiarism. “You stole my story,” says John Shooter to published author Mortimer Rainey. And from there, Shooter does everything in his power to get revenge on Mort for that theft… maybe. 

Later, in the lonely warmth of his sofa in the cabin, Mort wonders, if he may have actually stolen it, but inadvertently or during a drunken stupor. 

But here’s the wild part of all this, just as Mort’s story, “Secret Window,” is about a man who kills his wife and buries her in a garden through her secret window, he himself is harboring anger and bordering on rage toward his unfaithful wife. 

Writing echoes life, and particularly writing echoes the life of writers. Pain, anger, loneliness, family issues, job losses, unrequited love, etc., they’re all real and they all end up in our stories. But because so many experiences are shared by so many, it’s only natural that bits and pieces from one end up in several stories — both simultaneously and/or across a number of years. The law of probability backs it up. 

Similar experiences and emotions can trigger similar stories. 

The trouble for Mort is that he has done it before and had to pay off another author for his trouble. The movie drives this home even with his “stealing” the words from a Talking Heads song when he looks at the home his estranged wife lives in: “This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife. Anymore.” 

But in most cases, the comparisons are merely random coincidences, different writers pulling from a fixed circle of possible stories, and sharing a few details in common. No matter how much you lock your manuscripts away or refuse to share details while simultaneously asking other writers for help will help avoid this eventuality. Sorry.

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