Best Writing Inspiration Movies - Finding Forrester

Summary: Because of scoring exceptionally high on a state wide standardized exam and being an exceptionally good basketball player Jamal Wallace is sent to a prestigious prep school in Manhattan. He soon befriends the reclusive writer, William Forrester. The friendship leads to William to overcome his reclusivness and for Jamal to overcome the racial prejudices and pursue his true dream - writing.

You can't watch this movie and not want to finish your book. So if you have writer's block  - and I don't think it exists in the sense you may believe it exist and that's another blog worth of information - watch this movie.

What movies inspire you to write?

Interesting Info:

1) Star Rob Brown got the role after initially auditioning as an extra. Brown had no aspirations of being an actor and was only hoping to make some money to pay his $300 cell phone bill. But Gus Van Sant invited him to audition for the role of Jamal and liked his natural ability.

2) The character of Robert Crawford is based on a real life Robert Crawford, who teaches history at Phillips Academy Andover, a private school outside of Boston. (Wow, I hope he liked the portrayal of himself.)

3) In addition to being based on J.D. Salinger, William Forrester is also heavily inspired by John Kennedy Toole. Toole wrote the book "A Confederacy of Dunces", a mysteriously autobiographical book, but when no one would publish it, he gassed himself to death in his car. Years later, the book was published and won the Pulitzer Prize.

4) During filming, it was discovered that Sean Connery could not type. When you see Forrester's hands on the keys, they are the hands of someone else.


Source: Wikipedia 
IMDB

Howard's End by E.M. Forster.

Summary: "Only Connect," Forster's key aphorism, informs this novel about an English country house, Howards End, and its influence on the lives of the wealthy and materialistic Wilcoxes; the cultured, idealistic Schlegel sisters; and the poor bank clerk Leonard Bast. Bringing together people from different classes and nations by way of sympathetic insight and understanding, Howards End eloquently addresses the question "Who shall inherit England?"

You may be saying to yourself: sounds more like a commentary than a novel. Well, I have to say, it reads more like one too. It was one of the most difficult books to get through... I considered scrapping the read many times.

I think the problem lies in that it's told (sometimes subtly, sometimes not), not from any character's POV but from the author's. And boy, did he have a message to get across.

Now, I'm not saying his message isn't important, but why not do what Mary Wollstonecraft did in her novel: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. She had a message but it was clear in the novel that it's purpose was to use the story as a case in point. I knew that up front when I started the book. (BTW, it's a good book. Also, it's short.)


I have to be fair... there were bits in the book I liked:

Margaret could not bear being bored. She grew inattentive, played with the photograph frame, dropped it, smashed Dolly's glass, apologized, was pardoned, cut her finger thereon, was pitied, and finally said she must be going -

I believe we shall come to care about people less and less, Helen. The more people one knows, the easier it becomes to replace them. It's one of the curses of London. I quite expect to end my life caring most for a place.

Now that is my honest take from this book. Perhaps you pick up this classic and grow to love it. Perhaps before I die, I may read it again with more knowledge. Perhaps I may someday write my own commentary novel. All I know is... I need another cup of coffee.

So what do I give this book?

Five out of five!? Why? Well, because it's a classic and I think everyone should try out the classics. Even if they're a hard read.  100 years from now, I may even pick up Twilight. It'll be classic literature then.

Writing: Distinctive Characters

I think nothing s more frustrating than creating fiction that your readers can find glaring errors with.

Where writers create problems for themselves is when they try to invent distinctive characters.

Although I don't agree that a writer should only write what they know, if you're going to create a character that's a geek, you, the writer, should at least know what HTML stands for or be willing to Google it. (If you do not know what 'Google' is, don't go down the geek path. In fact, the word 'geek' is probably going over your head right now...)

Why? Because you know there's a geek out there reading your book and saying, 'you can't do that.' Or what kind of coding is this?

What if you're really an experienced writer, what if you've never been out of the state or province you were born in? What if you want one of your characters to speak Punjabi? Does that mean you're stuck?

Yup.

Nah, just joking.

But, you need to be willing to research. And, if you truly know little about a certain subject, don't throw in details that you can't backup.

In my latest book, my detectives go to a house and meet a man who draws Anime. I don't know why I chose that hobby but I don't know much about it. What did I do? I went to the library and I search on Google and learned as much as I could about the subject. And then, I hardly mentioned it at all in the book other than he painted anime floor to ceiling in his living room and that the girl drawn had large eyes in proportion to her head.

Why do I go through all the effort?
1) I want an accurate book.
2) I am a lot smarter now than a fifth grader. Well, almost.

The point: If you don't know and don't research - don't write!

Oh, and please, if you haven't done so already, submit something funny to the contest. I would love to award someone $50 worth of books for their trouble.

Here's a joke my son told me... (this is an example of what I'm looking for)

Question: What's brown and sticky?
Answer: A stick.

That wasn't so hard.

Rebecca (1940)

 

Summary: A shy ladies' companion, staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter. She and Max fall in love, marry and return to Manderlay, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderlay. 

This film is one of my favorites of all time and watched as part of my 2010 All About The Brontes Challenge.

Now, I could give you my views (which I just did above) but I thought I'd rather give some interesting tidbits and facts. It's directed by Alfred Hitchcock and won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Actress. (That alone should make you want to watch it.)

Here are some other tidbits taken from IMDB.com...

• Director Cameo: [Alfred Hitchcock] walking past a phone booth just after Jack Favell (George Sanders) makes a call in the final part of the movie. (Hitchcock always makes a cameo appearance in all his films...)
  
• The first film Alfred Hitchcock made in Hollywood and the only one that won a Best Picture Oscar.
  
• Mrs. Danvers is hardly ever seen walking; she seems to glide. Alfred Hitchcock wanted her to be seen solely from Joan Fontaine's character's anxious point of view, and this effect tied in with her fear about Mrs. Danvers appearing anytime unexpectedly.
  
• Just as in the original novel, Mrs. de Winter has no first name. (Rebecca isn't her first name...)
  
• Over 20 actors were tested for the role of Mrs. de Winter, which eventually went to newcomer Joan Fontaine. One of them was Vivien Leigh, who Laurence Olivier was pressing for, as they were a couple at the time.
  
• Despite scouring most of America, and New England in particular, David O. Selznick was unable to find a suitable location to represent Manderley, so he had to resort to a miniature instead, albeit a highly convincing one.
  
• Because Laurence Olivier wanted his then-girlfriend Vivien Leigh to play the lead role, he treated Joan Fontaine horribly. This shook Fontaine up quite a bit, so Alfred Hitchcock decided to capitalize on this by telling her EVERYONE on the set hated her, thus making her shy and uneasy - just what he wanted from her performance.
  
• Due to the success of this film in Spain, the specific jackets that Joan Fontaine wears during the film began to be known as "rebecas". The word "rebeca" is still used nowadays to refer to this item of clothing. Personally, the fashion in the movie is stunning but I'm partial to that era.
  
• In order to maintain the dark atmosphere of the book, Alfred Hitchcock insisted that the film be shot in black and white.
  
• In the scripting process, Alfred Hitchcock made lots of changes with the character "Mrs. Danvers." Unlike the character in the novel, Hitchcock made Mrs. Danvers much younger and Hitchcock decided not to reveal her past.

If you haven't seen it yet, watch it here: youtube

First Fifty Pages - The Indispensable E's

First, let me start off by saying, I love Mondays and the beginning of a new month. It's like time starts over. Weekly and monthly 'fresh starts'. When they coincide, even better. I have 100 pages left to edit on my code mystery novel before I put it away for a couple of months and then I be starting the next round of edits.

---

Second, in an effort to be more aware of my surroundings, I notice two background shots on the latest episode of Chuck. Pic 1: Underpants. etc? I've always wished there were more of these stores. What's the etc? Pic 2: On a shirt. Taken from Battlestar Galactica it's an expletive...sorry 'bout that.

---

My next WIP will be a comedy/business novel entitled: Blondie Brilliance vs. The Titans. I've already got a few chapters complete but I want to finish the novel.

The premise? Blondie Brilliance - a brown-haired, not too bright young woman  - receives from her evil in-laws for a wedding gift, a failing furniture company named Titan Furniture. But, to the in-law's chagrin, she goes about trying to make the company work... with some funny situations along the way.

---

Okay, now to some writing advice. What to make sure you accomplish with the first fifty pages of your story. Here is a checklist:

1. Establish your heroic character
2. Endear your heroic character 
3. Entrap that heroic character inextricably in central conflict

---

Now a command: Enjoy your day!

Funny Writing Contest!

Contest Rules

1) All participants in the "Followers Contest" must be followers of the "All Write With Coffee" blog.

2) One referral point will be awarded per follower referred from February 1st, 2010 up to 12:00am March 1st, 2010.

3) In order to validate a referral, each follower referred by a contest participant must post a comment to the "Followers Contest" article, clearly stating the 'username' of the referring blog follower.

4) No attempt will be made to clarify comments whose referrer cannot be ascertained.

5) A follower cannot be referred by more than one participant.

6) Any attempt to "game the system" by methods such as, but not limited to creating fictitious users or followers will result in immediate disqualification and removal.

7) In the event of a tie between two or more participants, all leading participants will be entered into a random draw for the one prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card.

8) The $50 Amazon Gift Card will be awarded for Amazon.ca or Amazon.com only.

9) The results of the "Followers Contest" will be tabulated March 1st, 2010 and the winner will be posted on the blog March 2nd, 2010, after which the prize will be awarded.

10) By participating in this contest you agree to abide by the decision of the contest organizer (All Write With Coffee administrators) as to the administration of these rules and the awarding of the prize.

Here's a funny example: