Movie Depictions of "Good" Writing
Writers are quirky, hermit-like creatures who talk weirdly and follow trains of thought off cliffs. I think we would all admit this. It's interesting, however, to see how writers are depicted in film. Some writer-characters are hilariously accurate, with constant drafting, throwing out those drafts, and being "almost" done forever. Also with the "this is totally for my writing" excuse for literally every bizarre thing they/we do. But I want to zero in on a specific characteristic I noticed that irks me: when we get examples of how amazing their writing is, it's ridiculous. This may step on the toes of the "literary is the only quality writing" debate, but sometimes I feel like these script-writers haven't heard the other side of that argument. Because every example of a character's "great" writing is... the most over-the-top, flowery, metaphorical purple prose you've ever seen. I'm sure I'm overgeneralizing; I do t