酷我-北美枫

[ericcoliu]

Finding Forrester: The Hunt for a Writer*

*Finding Forrester: The Hunt for a Writer was published early this morning (Oct 15th, 2007) by The Association of Young Journalists and Writers™. You could read the full-text version of my piece using the following link:

http://www.ayjw.org/articles.php?id=914052


What follows is the opening and the last three paragraphs of my piece:


Finding Forrester, directed by acclaimed American director Gus Van Sant, is a film about the inspirational relationship between a reclusive writer and a gifted, yet troubled teenager. It is a sort of life-affirming story, from rags to riches, from confusion to enlightenment, from shame to glory to fame. Moviegoers enjoy this kind of film. This is the second film, a ‘commercial’ follow-up to Good Will Hunting, where Van Sant has indulged in inspirational storytelling, a gradual breakaway from his early filmmaking style of social commentaries on the otherness of American youth culture. For viewers who are familiar with his previous works such as Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho, they will not find any one of his cinematic signatures in this film except the theme regarding troubled youth. With Finding Forrester, Van Sant appears to have put an exclamatory mark on his intention to move into the mainstream film industry, and to gradually increases his credits in Hollywood.

......

Based on the literary implication and significance of its title, Finding Forrester is intended to be a film about a writer and the craft of writing. The learning process for writing portrayed in this film is quite peculiar, to say the least, for some viewers who learned their writing lessons in their schooling alone, even for Jamal the first time. William orders Jamal to type out a copy of an early piece of his writing in order to get the sense of the simple rhythm of typing, which will help Jamal to feel and discover his own words. As well, William instructs Jamal to write each of his papers beginning with the opening paragraph of some articles William himself has written as a jumpstart, and then Jamal begins to write on a manual typewriter, and let his fingers freely type in a kind of automatic writing. The writing process William coaches is the most direct of the once-popular Surrealist techniques; the main focus is to put the writer in a “receptive” frame of mind, then to start writing, and to continues writing without thinking about what is on the paper. Automatic writing is the process of writing that does not flow from the conscious thoughts of the writer, but from his/her repressed subconscious. It is used as a tool in Freudian psychology and in related “self knowledge” studies, where it is seen as a means of getting a deeper look inside the inner working of the mind of the writer through his subconscious word choices. This kind of free writing once gained popularity with writers as a powerful means of “stirring up” creative ways of writing and as a technique for overcoming writer’s block. In the orthodoxy way of automatic writing, nothing is corrected, polished, or re-written.

However, William is not a fundamentalist writer of automatic writing. The writing lesson we get from Finding Forrester is: write the first draft with your heart, and re-write with your head; the key to writing is to write, not to think. William teaches Jamal what is important is the unpremeditated free association that creates the basic text used as the basis for further composition. I think this is a very effective way to help Jamal to get over his “constipated writing.” During the learning process, Jamal is not only a quick and diligent student who puts a lot of effort to absorb new ideas about writing and to practice them, but also a brave learner who dares to break firm rules and to create his new style of writing. His engaging argument with William over this issue regarding the usage of the conjunction “and” is highly intellectually edifying, and it reveals that he has taken something which was William’s and made it his own.

Besides the lessons William gives to Jamal during their captivating discussion about writing, there is another unspoken writing lesson revealed in the scenes where he is sitting on the bed and writing in his journal late at night with a pile of books next to him: the key to becoming a writer is to keep reading extensively and writing earnestly. Writing demands the hard work because the Muse visits during composition, not before. For anyone who has aspired to be a writer, he/she needs to give up to waiting for inspiration; just start to write. At the end of the film, William leaves Jamal the manuscript of Sunset with “the forward to be written by Jamal Wallace.” This implies that one day he will become a successful writer if he keeps writing.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Finding Forrester: The Hunt for a Writer*

*Finding Forrester: The Hunt for a Writer was published early this morning (Oct 15th, 2007) by The Association of Young Journalists and Writers™. You could read the full-text version of my piece using the following link:

http://www.ayjw.org/articles.php?id=914052


What follows is the opening and the last three paragraphs of my piece:


Finding Forrester, directed by acclaimed American director Gus Van Sant, is a film about the inspirational relationship between a reclusive writer and a gifted, yet troubled teenager. It is a sort of life-affirming story, from rags to riches, from confusion to enlightenment, from shame to glory to fame. Moviegoers enjoy this kind of film. This is the second film, a ‘commercial’ follow-up to Good Will Hunting, where Van Sant has indulged in inspirational storytelling, a gradual breakaway from his early filmmaking style of social commentaries on the otherness of American youth culture. For viewers who are familiar with his previous works such as Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho, they will not find any one of his cinematic signatures in this film except the theme regarding troubled youth. With Finding Forrester, Van Sant appears to have put an exclamatory mark on his intention to move into the mainstream film industry, and to gradually increases his credits in Hollywood.

......

Based on the literary implication and significance of its title, Finding Forrester is intended to be a film about a writer and the craft of writing. The learning process for writing portrayed in this film is quite peculiar, to say the least, for some viewers who learned their writing lessons in their schooling alone, even for Jamal the first time. William orders Jamal to type out a copy of an early piece of his writing in order to get the sense of the simple rhythm of typing, which will help Jamal to feel and discover his own words. As well, William instructs Jamal to write each of his papers beginning with the opening paragraph of some articles William himself has written as a jumpstart, and then Jamal begins to write on a manual typewriter, and let his fingers freely type in a kind of automatic writing. The writing process William coaches is the most direct of the once-popular Surrealist techniques; the main focus is to put the writer in a “receptive” frame of mind, then to start writing, and to continues writing without thinking about what is on the paper. Automatic writing is the process of writing that does not flow from the conscious thoughts of the writer, but from his/her repressed subconscious. It is used as a tool in Freudian psychology and in related “self knowledge” studies, where it is seen as a means of getting a deeper look inside the inner working of the mind of the writer through his subconscious word choices. This kind of free writing once gained popularity with writers as a powerful means of “stirring up” creative ways of writing and as a technique for overcoming writer’s block. In the orthodoxy way of automatic writing, nothing is corrected, polished, or re-written.

However, William is not a fundamentalist writer of automatic writing. The writing lesson we get from Finding Forrester is: write the first draft with your heart, and re-write with your head; the key to writing is to write, not to think. William teaches Jamal what is important is the unpremeditated free association that creates the basic text used as the basis for further composition. I think this is a very effective way to help Jamal to get over his “constipated writing.” During the learning process, Jamal is not only a quick and diligent student who puts a lot of effort to absorb new ideas about writing and to practice them, but also a brave learner who dares to break firm rules and to create his new style of writing. His engaging argument with William over this issue regarding the usage of the conjunction “and” is highly intellectually edifying, and it reveals that he has taken something which was William’s and made it his own.

Besides the lessons William gives to Jamal during their captivating discussion about writing, there is another unspoken writing lesson revealed in the scenes where he is sitting on the bed and writing in his journal late at night with a pile of books next to him: the key to becoming a writer is to keep reading extensively and writing earnestly. Writing demands the hard work because the Muse visits during composition, not before. For anyone who has aspired to be a writer, he/she needs to give up to waiting for inspiration; just start to write. At the end of the film, William leaves Jamal the manuscript of Sunset with “the forward to be written by Jamal Wallace.” This implies that one day he will become a successful writer if he keeps writing.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

Yes, I have
Always tried
Always failed
Never mind
Try again
Maybe fail again
But fail better next time
That's all about writing.


The first writing lesson I learned from Jamal is the key to becoming a writer is to keep reading extensively and writing earnestly.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Yes, I have
Always tried
Always failed
Never mind
Try again
Maybe fail again
But fail better next time
That's all about writing.


The first writing lesson I learned from Jamal is the key to becoming a writer is to keep reading extensively and writing earnestly.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

The second writing lesson I learned from Jamal is: write the first draft with your heart, and re-write with your head; the key to writing is to write, not to think.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

The second writing lesson I learned from Jamal is: write the first draft with your heart, and re-write with your head; the key to writing is to write, not to think.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[ericcoliu]

This movie review was published on October 15th, 2007 by The Association of Young Journalists and Writers.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

This movie review was published on October 15th, 2007 by The Association of Young Journalists and Writers.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[Lake]

Up!

Very inspirational. Can I steal the writing methods and use them in my class?

Congrats Eric,

Lake

[[Lake]]

Up!

Very inspirational. Can I steal the writing methods and use them in my class?

Congrats Eric,

Lake

[ericcoliu]

Hi! Lake:

No problem.

Thank you for supporting me and reading my writing.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul

[[ericcoliu]]

Hi! Lake:

No problem.

Thank you for supporting me and reading my writing.
_________________
Time is nothing but a disquiet of the soul