• The Fiction Writing Blog: Articles, Writing Exercises, Prompts and More....: Thursday, November 18, 2004

    Thursday, November 18, 2004

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    on the journey,
    Emily


    What makes a writer's movie??

    At long last, I watched the film, Monster, and was utterly overwhelmed by it.
    The acting and the story line. Director and actors alike delve fearlessly into the light and dark of the human psyche and are not afraid of the places that human passion takes them. Althought a largely dark film, it is so interesting that it is a love story, too.

    If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.
    Another powerful, dark movie, a great writer's movie that doesn't pull punches when it comes to human passions and the places it takes us, is Breaking the Waves with Emily Watson.

    As as writer, it is so important, I think, to watch your own emotions during and after watching movies like these. What do they open up for you? What do they close down? How can you use the emotions to open up your own writing.

    A wonderful exercise is to take a scene or incident from movies such as these ... scenes that clearly open to other scenes that are not actually in the movie. And use what the movie didn't show as a jumping off for a story or scene of your own.

    Jumpstarting your writing from movies such as these can be very powerful.

    What do you think?

    The blog is now set up for you to add comments of your own.

    Who is the writer in you?

    Who is writing your stories? How intimately do you know that part of you?
    Do you trust yourself to write in total freedom or are you afraid of exposing
    yourself? To whom? Mother? Father? Child? God? Self?

    Have you met any new parts of yourself on your writing journey?
    Do you delight in these parts? Take them on a walk? Out for coffee, tea, wine or a beer? You might be surprised...

    Sound nutty?
    Ask yourself how far you will go in letting your imagination guide you.
    The imagination is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets!

    "We are all guilty of crime the great crime of not living life to the full. But we are all potentially free. We can stop thinking of what we have failed to do and do whatever lies within our power. What those powers that are in us may be no one has truly dared to imagine. That they are infinite we will realize the day we admit to ourselves that imagination is everything. Imagination is the voice of daring."

    --Henry Miller