Writers Writing About Writers

I’m now planning on going to Readercon, so if you see me there say hi.

The prospect of seeing so many writers together in one place has gotten me thinking about some of my favorite movies about writers. Books on writing always tell you to “write what you know,” but then they also tell you not to write about writers, because writers writing about writers is bad. Personally, I don’t know what they’re talking about. I’m fascinated by everything having to do with writers and writing, and personally I love writers writing about writers. In fact, possibly the only thing that I would love more than writers writing about writers would be writers writing about writers writing about writers. Actually, my biggest complaint with stories about writers is that the stories always try to include romance and conflict and tragedy and boring stuff like that rather than focusing on much more interesting things such as writers dreaming up ideas, writers constructing plots, and writers rewriting sentences.

Anyway, without further ado, here are my Top 10 Movies That I Thought Up Off the Top of My Head Just Now About Writers:

1. Wonder Boys – A college professor struggling to finish his novel gets caught up in a madcap series of events involving his brilliant but troubled student.
2. Shakespeare in Love – Shakespeare is inspired to write Romeo and Juliet when he falls in love with a noblewoman masquerading as a boy actor.
3. Throw Momma From the Train – A writing teacher tries to teach one of his students how to write a mystery, then finds himself caught up in a situation right out of Hitchcock.
4. Adaptation – A writer struggles to adapt a bestselling book into a unique screenplay, while also humoring his brother, who wants to write a thriller.
5. Shadowlands – C.S. Lewis, author of Narnia, has his worldview challenged when he falls in love with an American poet and divorcee.
6. Finding Neverland – Playwright J.M. Barrie meets the family that will inspire him to create Peter Pan.
7. The Whole Wide World – A young woman befriends the awkward and troubled young writer Robert E. Howard, author of Conan the Barbarian.
8. Quills – The Marquis de Sade clashes with the church and society over his scandalously perverse writings.
9. Swimming Pool – A mystery writer staying at a French villa tries to get an idea for her next novel while dealing with the increasingly outrageous behavior of the owner’s daughter.
10. Finding Forrester – A young basketball star and writer befriends a recluse who turns out to be a famous novelist.