7 Favorite Movies about Writers and Writing (and Reading)

Posted on by Erin Bartels

I love stories about writers, writing, and books. I love movies about the same. So here’s a list of some of my very favorite movies about writers, writing, and reading. Most are movies I watch over and over again. Some I’ve only just seen for the first time recently.

I’ve left off some with great concepts but poor execution (I’m betraying my fantasy-obsessed childhood self, but I have to put The Neverending Story in this category because it is SO very cheesy when you watch it again as an adult) and I’m sure I’ve left off some good ones because I haven’t seen them (so please add them in the comments if you are so moved so I can put them in my Netflix queue). Also, I very much doubt I’m covering any new ground here, but for what it’s worth, and in no particular order…

[WARNING: These trailers give away a lot of fun surprises in the movies (Why do they DO that?) so if you just want to experience these movies without the little spoilers, please refrain from clicking and just go find them on Amazon Prime or Netflix.]

Adaptation


I know that you either love Nicholas Cage or hate him, and that will color your decision to watch or not watch this movie, but who doesn’t love Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper? No one. What I love about this movie: I love when writers enter their own story; I love the commentary on genre, on being true to one’s own style and method of writing, and on the tired old cliches that we love nonetheless; I love Nicholas Cage. There. I said it.

Stranger Than Fiction


Proof positive that Will Ferrell can act (ergo, the question is raised, Why doesn’t he do this more often?) and that he can be believably romantic. Also Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman are fantastic. What I love about this movie: Again, I love the mixing of worlds between writers and their characters; I love slightly illogical and slightly surreal stories that couldn’t really happen but the creators offer absolutely no explanation as to why it’s happening because it doesn’t really matter in the long run; I love how morbid and off-kilter Emma Thompson’s character is.

Midnight in Paris


Dare I admit that this is the first Woody Allen film I’ve actually seen? I’ve heard so much poo-pooing of his movies over the years that I haven’t sought them out. But this is a wonderful, magical film about writers, artists, and other creative types; about the seductive power of nostalgia; and about taking the right chances. What I love about this movie: Owen Wilson; the huge supporting cast of fantastic little surprises; the costuming and lighting; the unique storyline (which doesn’t come through in the trailer, but I’m not going to spoil it for you).

The Hours


This film enchanted me even before I knew I loved Virginia Woolf’s writing. The same story told through three different women in three different cities in three different eras–one writing the story, one reading the story, one living the story. What I love about this movie: Fabulous performances (how could they not be with that cast?); the examination of the power of story; the feeling that the words we write have life and meaning far along down the road.

Julie & Julia


Another film starring Meryl Streep? Yes. It seems the woman loves literary films as much as I do. But isn’t this movie about cooking? Yes, but also writing–a cookbook, letters, a blog. Writing your passion onto the page in the form of recipes. Writing about your life to your closest friend. Writing about your crazy experiment to perfect strangers. But always writing (and eating). This movie will make you hungry and inspire you to get Julia’s cookbook (the chapter on eggs alone can change your culinary life–seriously) and buy some really good knives.

84 Charing Cross Road


Oh, how far we’ve come in the world of movie trailers. This little bit gives you almost nothing of the tender quality of this film. Anthony Hopkins is a London bookseller and Anne Bancroft is a New York City bibliophile who can’t get the rare books she wants in NYC. These two characters begin a correspondence after WWII and get to know each other over a couple decades through letters and books. I loved seeing the economic and social differences between post-war Britain (with its deprivation and rations and ruins) and America (with its prosperity and expansion and optimism). A great film about the power of books.

Under the Tuscan Sun


She’s a writer whose marriage is over. At the behest of her concerned friends she takes a trip that will change her life and her writing. Based on a memoir (which I haven’t read), this movie is wonderfully brought to life through Diane Lane’s acting and narrating. The thought of spontaneously starting over in life (especially in a foreign country) is the impetus for many a literary character’s actions and holds such a romantic fascination for us, doesn’t it? Plus, it’s a movie about a house, an old house, and bringing that house back to life. What’s not to love?

Oh, I know I’ve missed some great ones, along with ones I haven’t had a chance to watch yet. And I haven’t included TV shows, but if I did I would put Mad Men in there.

What are your go-to literary movies?

Selections of Common Sense for the 4th

Posted on by Erin Bartels

“The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. ‘Tis not the affair of a city, a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent—of at least one eighth part of the habitable globe. ‘Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; The wound will enlarge with the tree, and posterity read it in full grown characters. . . .

“I am not induced by motives of pride, party, or resentment to espouse the doctrine of separation and independance; I am clearly, positively, and conscientiously persuaded that it is the true interest of this continent to be so; that every thing short of that is mere patchwork, that it can afford no lasting felicity,—that it is leaving the sword to our children, and shrinking back at a time, when, a little more, a little farther, would have rendered this continent the glory of the earth. . . .

“A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man seriously reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced, that it is infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to time and chance. . . .

“The present state of America is truly alarming to every man who is capable of reflexion. Without law, without government, without any other mode of power than what is founded on, and granted by courtesy. Held together by an unexampled concurrence of sentiment, which, is nevertheless subject to change, and which, every secret enemy is endeavouring to dissolve. Our present condition, is, Legislation without law; wisdom without a plan; constitution without a name; and, what is strangely astonishing, perfect Independance contending for dependance. The instance is without a precedent; the case never existed before; and who can tell what may be the event? The property of no man is secure in the present unbraced system of things. The mind of the multitude is left at random, and seeing no fixed object before them, they pursue such as fancy or opinion starts. Nothing is criminal; there is no such thing as treason; wherefore, every one thinks himself at liberty to act as he pleases. . . .

“We ought to reflect, that there are three different ways, by which an independancy may hereafter be effected; and that one of those three, will one day or other, be the fate of America, viz. By the legal voice of the people in Congress; by a military power; or by a mob: It may not always happen that our soldiers are citizens, and the multitude a body of reasonable men; virtue, as I have already remarked, is not hereditary, neither is it perpetual. Should an independancy be brought about by the first of those means, we have every opportunity and every encouragement before us, to form the noblest purest constitution on the face of the earth. We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the event of a few months. The Reflexion is awful—and in this point of view, How trifling, how ridiculous, do the little, paltry cavellings, of a few weak or interested men appear, when weighed against the business of a world. . . .

” In short, Independance is the only BOND that can tye and keep us together. . . .

“WHEREFORE, instead of gazing at each other with suspicious or doubtful curiosity, let each of us, hold out to his neighbour the hearty hand of friendship, and unite in drawing a line, which, like an act of oblivion, shall bury in forgetfulness every former dissention. Let the names of Whig and Tory be extinct; and let none other be heard among us, than those of a good citizen, an open and resolute friend, and a virtuous supporter of the RIGHTS of MANKIND and of the FREE AND INDEPENDANT STATES OF AMERICA.”

~Thomas Paine, Common Sense, January 10, 1776

Always a Metaphoric Battle to Wage

Posted on by Erin Bartels

In my house, I must daily keep vigilant against pernicious assailants bent on disruption and destruction. These assailants take different forms and attack from various angles, so even the slightest relaxation of awareness on my part will inevitably result in atrophy and, left unchecked long enough, catastrophe.

I’m talking, of course, about fur and ants.

Fur and ants are, respectively, zombies and alien robots. One attacks so slowly and dumbly you don’t even realize it is upon you until it’s too late; the moment you recognize one clump of fur is the moment you realize that you are surrounded. The other attacks suddenly, with disconcerting, otherworldly speed should you fail to get that one errant tomato seed into the trash or your idiot cat (one of two moronic creatures producing zombies in your house) insists on leaving food in her bowl so she can’t see the bottom of it.

An effective weapon against both fur zombies and alien ant robots is a powerful vacuum, and I wield mine with stone-cold heartlessness. Preventative measures like brushes and traps help, but you cannot rely on them to keep you safe from invasion. At best, they are like an overwrought and underequipped border patrol, attempting to do their job but ever aware of its ultimate futility.

When it comes down to it, all you can do is buckle down, man the guns, and wait it out until the enemy is spent–or you’re defeated.

Portrait by an Artist of a Young Man

Posted on by Erin Bartels

This is my son, done in acrylics by a wonderful artist, friend, and consummate storyteller named Tiffany McGillie.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

You can view and purchase her work at her Etsy store. I commissioned Tiffany to paint this as a Father’s Day gift for my dear husband, Zachary. This is the first painting I’ve commissioned and the first I’ve purchased directly from an artist. It will not be the last.

Life Lessons from an Injured Bat

Posted on by Erin Bartels

I realize that not everyone loves bats. In fact, the photo below may make some of you shudder involuntarily. Forget all the arguments for their usefulness and their harmlessness, they just give you the creeps. But bear with me a moment, because I think there is a lesson to be learned from this particular little bat.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI found this little brown bat on the ground when I was putting out some yard bags this past weekend. He was lying on his belly in a dirty bare patch on the still-dormant lawn beneath the lone ash tree on our street (perhaps in the entire city of Lansing) that has thus far miraculously survived the onslaught of the insidious emerald ash borer and getting run into by a car.

I could see this little bat was breathing and, knowing a little something about bats, I knew first of all that it could not fly from a ground position (bats must drop from a height to fly) and that I should by no means touch it, even begloved in thick leather, because if it bit me (which, being frightened and/or hurt, it surely would) I would have to get an expensive and painful series of shots to ward off rabies. So I went to the garage to get a long-handled flat shovel, not to bash the poor thing to death, but to pick it up safely.

I carefully scooped it up, eliciting a threatening display of tiny white teeth but little more in the way of resistance. Then I walked it to the large mostly-dead sugar maple by the garage, well away from the road and any possible contact with unsuspecting children or adults with no sense. I placed the blade of the shovel against the tree and let it slowly grip the bark and huddle against the rough bark. It crawled around a little to find a place sheltered from the wind and remained. A day later it was still there.

I wanted so desperately for it to fly away. I wanted it to leave the shelter of the tree and fly off back to the group of bats it must have wintered with. I suspected that that might be at the top of the very tree I put it on since it has hollow parts. But it hunkered down and did not move. Perhaps it was injured and could no longer fly. Whatever the reason, despite my efforts, it remained frozen in place.

Here’s why I bring this up here on a blog that is mostly about writing. Sometimes as a writer you get knocked down, whether you are a bestselling megastar or someone who has shared your work with only a few close friends or a bunch of strangers on the interwebs. You get a bad review (or maybe lots of them). You get a rejection letter (or maybe lots of them). You get silence (which is sometimes worse than negativity). You’re face down in the dirt wondering what hit you.

I hope that each of you have someone in your life who cares, who scoops you up, talks tenderly to you, and helps you get back on your feet. That person may not have the power to make you fly again, but maybe just knowing that there are those out there who care about you and your work will give you some sense of camaraderie, some feeling that you matter. Because you do. Whether or not you ever sell that screenplay or ever capture an agent or ever make a dime from your writing, you matter.

Then, once you’re back in the shelter of that tree, that place of safety, I hope you will take off and try again. Don’t hunker down and give up. Because your best days are waiting for you up ahead. Create your art. Share your stories. Take flight.

Choosing Your Mood, Creating Your Future

Posted on by Erin Bartels

We woke up this morning to delightful sunshine piercing through the cracks of the blinds. It put me in an excellent mood. Then I raised the blinds in my son’s light-filled east-facing room and saw it. Snow. Over everything. Mood instantly changed.

We’d been dusted while we were sleeping and as I write this all that snow has melted (and the clouds have rolled in). But that 10-second emotional rollercoaster this morning has colored the rest of my day.

I got a call from our trusted mechanic today and what we thought might be a small job that would cost a couple hundred dollars has turned out, upon closer inspection, to be something that will cost more. A lot more.

A productive morning has given way to a mentally sluggish afternoon.

A search for something pleasant and entertaining to read in the blogosphere over lunch became a descent into articles about models starving themselves (and eating tissues to feel full) and postpartum depression.

A morning of smart eating has given way to a craving to eat all the rest of the Easter candy in the house. (I haven’t given in. Yet. And at least I’m not eating tissues.)

Life can spin you around pretty quickly, in small ways and big ways. My problems, in the scheme of things, are very small. And then I see something like the video below and the sun comes out again in a big way.

Anything is possible. You can do it if you put your mind to it. So what are you going to do with the life you’ve been given?

When the Painful Thing Is Less of a Pain than Avoiding the Painful Thing

Posted on by Erin Bartels

It was bound to happen. Fate or Providence had written it into the very fabric of the universe from eons past. We knew in November 2011 that it was inevitable. The only question was when. And 8:09am on Tuesday, March 26th, 2013, was the answer.

I locked my only car key in the running car.

Yes, folks, these things will happen. When we don’t prepare and make provision for our own idiocy, it will catch up with us in the end.

Here’s what makes this extra frustrating.

1. I had been planning for over a year and a half to get a copy of the key made (but put it off because it’s one of those special keys that only a dealership can duplicate and I didn’t want to spend the time/money stuck at a Ford dealership when I could be working, doing fun things with my family, etc.)

2. I have a remote to unlock the car which recently broke off my key chain and had even more recently just been in my coat pocket where I could have easily accessed it to unlock the running car Tuesday morning. Just the day before I had unceremoniously dumped it into my purse which, you guessed it, was sitting idle in the passenger seat in the running car.

3. There is a keyless entry pad on the driver’s door but since we got this vehicle used from a non-Ford lot, we don’t know what the code was. I was told I could get it changed at a dealership (see point number one for why I didn’t).

Yes, my laziness caught up to me on a cold, snow-sprinkled morning in late March and so I sat in my office awaiting the locksmith, typing out this post. And here’s the kicker. When I called the Ford dealership and set up a service appointment to get a second key made, get a new keyless entry code, and a new remote they told me it would take “about an hour.”

An hour. Just an hour of my time, tens of thousands of which I have undoubtedly squandered in my lifetime thus far. And in reality, it took a half hour. (Oh, and $150.)

Sometimes the tasks that seem odious to us are really not that big of a deal. Perhaps it’s time to stop putting them off until some unknown future time. Because they will catch up with you. They will lock you out and then smirk as you rush around trying all the doors, looking for a way in, cursing yourself for waiting.

What have you left undone? Think maybe it’s time to just get it over with?

Dogs, Quilts, Graphic Design, and the Beauty of a Barter Economy

Posted on by Erin Bartels

Each March my sister and her family go to Florida. Each March we watch her now geriatric dog, Max, while they are away.

Princess Max

Each July, my family goes to camp in Northern Michigan. Each July my sister watches our dog, Sasha, dig a giant hole in her backyard and sit in it.

Sasha Digs

You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

Exchanging services is a very old way to get something you need without having to fork over money. All it takes is your time and sometimes your talent.

Earlier this winter a colleague in the art department needed someone to turn a bunch of biking and running t-shirts into a quilt. I happen to sew a lot and I’ve made a t-shirt quilt for someone else before, so I volunteered. But any time I’ve sewn for someone else, there is the awkward question of “how much is this going to cost?”

Rather than send my coworker an invoice for something I knew would be fairly simple and for which I would probably only spend $5-10 on materials (since she was giving me a bag full of all the fabric I would need) I asked if perhaps she would use one of her talents for me in exchange.

So Heather will at some point be designing a book cover for me. My initial thought was that it would be the cover for my novel, which I intend to self publish later this year. But I’m also considering whether I might rather have her do the cover for the collection of short stories I will have in 2014. But we’ll work it out.

What talent do you have to offer? What needs do you have to be filled? Find a few people you can help out who can help you out in return. Develop a pool of talented people who can all mutually benefit from each other’s skills and passions.

Are you a good editor? See if you can offer your services free to an influential website in exchange for free advertising space on their page.

Do you know an editor who doesn’t have time to clean her house? Offer your services in exchange for proofing the work you want to publish.

Do you have a friend with connections? How can you help that friend in exchange for some introductions?

Need a better website design? Can you offer your techie friend free fresh baked goods for a year?

Want some professional looking headshots? That friend of yours with the amazing camera and Photoshop skills probably needs something too. Could you supply that need?

Writing and publishing take a lot of time and effort. But amazingly, in this day and age, they may not take as much money as you think.

FIRST WARNING: In this barter economy, you must have something to give. I have known a person or two who only calls or emails me when he needs something and has never offered anything in return. Don’t be that guy. Even if you’re just asking for advice about an aspect of publishing or website design or whatever, you should at least offer something in return, or just show up with a gift that says you appreciate the time your friend has taken to help you.

SECOND WARNING: Don’t let this exchange of services make you start thinking of the people in your life purely in terms of what they can do for you. People can smell this kind of thought process a mile away and you’ll find yourself losing friends instead of gaining help.

Share and share alike and we all benefit.

Overcriticizing Your Own Work (or How NOT to Take a Compliment)

Posted on by Erin Bartels

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOn Sunday I wore this dress for the first time. I made it back in early September (if you found this blog through the Sew Weekly, you may have seen it before).

Normally I’m someone who dives in, wings it, fixes along the way if necessary, and comes out of the creation process with something I like. Something that fits. Something that works.

Not so with this dress. I thought I’d be smart and really measure and really fit the pattern to my body, and so I ended up thinking I needed to lengthen the bodice (that’s the top part of the dress, for you non-seamstresses out there). But it turns out I must have done that all wrong. And I neglected to check the neckline while doing my alterations. So I ended up with something way too low-cut for comfort and bunchy around the torso to boot.

It went straight into the closet and I decided I would take the time to fix it later. Yeah, right.

Then Sunday morning I decided to finally wear it. I’ll wear it, I reasoned, so I can really get a feel for what needs to change. I put a light turquoise tank underneath to deal with the neckline problem and wore it to church.

I got a lot of compliments on it. No one noticed the flaws (except perhaps my close fellow seamstress friend who may have been wondering about the bizarre bodice issues). People loved the fabric (which I also adore and which is one of the reasons the fit issues were such a huge disappointment to me). They loved the pleats. They loved the whole package.

But as I received their kind comments I quickly told them about all the flaws I needed to address. Not being seamstresses, they all adopted a somewhat glazed over look in their eyes and were probably thinking, “Geez, Erin, I was just trying to give you a compliment.”

Not surprisingly, this whole experience got me to thinking about writing, editing, and sharing our work with others…

Lesson 1: We’re all our own worst critics. Well, unless we’re deluded. We see the flaws in our work that others do not. What we need to ask ourselves is whether we can be satisfied that others see beauty when we ourselves see something that’s almost-there-but-not-quite-yet.

Lesson 2: If you’re not happy with it, go ahead and work to make it exactly what you wanted. If it will continue to eat at you and keep you from confidently showing your work to the world, keep making it better. Go ahead. Indulge yourself in all those little edits. However, you may, like me, discover that you constructed your creation so well and so precisely that to fix it you have to do a lot of work and everything you alter will mean some other part needs to be altered as well. (This is why I like making clothes but not altering them.)

Lesson 3: At some point, you really just need to let go and let the thing be what it is. Sometimes the more we work on something the worse it really gets. I’ve worked a piece of clothing to death. I’ve probably worked over my first as-yet-unpublished novel almost to death. Sometimes you just have to call it quits and move on to something new.

Lesson 4: Don’t point out the flaws that have already gone unnoticed. It’s not humility. It’s false humility. It’s fishing for the other person’s comfort and reassurance (and more compliments). It’s giving you a chance to talk about yourself more. Just gracefully say thank you and move on to another subject, perhaps returning the compliment to them somehow.

Now then, where’s my seam ripper?

Anticipation, Distraction, and Writing It All Out

Posted on by Erin Bartels

Waiting for DaffodilsMy distracted mind has not been on writing lately. It’s been on spring cleaning. It’s been on my son’s impending move from preschool to elementary school. It’s been on things I want very much to see clearly (and soon)–on the snow melting, on the sight of green leaves and yellow daffodils, on what the future may bring. It’s been on very physical things. No room in my brain right now for the mental work of writing.

Planning. Expectation. Preparation. Yearning. Possibilities. A desire I didn’t realize until it was spoken aloud. But that’s how writing works, too. Sometimes you don’t realize what you want to write about until you start writing about something else. If you’re not careful, you can write yourself into things you would never have expected.

Are you stumped about what to write about next? Don’t know which way to turn on the road of your life? Can’t see as far into the future as you would like?

Just write. Write yourself into a compelling story. Write yourself into a plan for dealing with what’s bugging you. Write out your dreams. Write the future you want. You just might get to know yourself better. You just might discover you have much more to say than you realized. You just might be able to re-distract your mind until the thing you anticipate has finally happened.