Saturday, June 26th, 2010
My Favourite Scene about Writing
Nope. Not from Barton Fink, not from The Singing Detective and not even from Adaptation (although I must admit I find Brian Cox’s brief and brilliant turn as Robert McKee far more useful and inspiring than any of his books).
My favourite scene about writing comes from wuxia movie Hero starring Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi and Tony Leung. The scene where a caligraphy school is attacked by the Army of Qin and Nameless (Li) and Falling Snow (Maggie Cheung) defend the students and Broken Sword (Leung) while they continue writing.
To get all artily metaphorical for a moment, think of all of the arrows as distractions while you’re trying to write. You need to consciously send out your inner Jet Li out to protect you from them. Even the bit where Broken Sword’s drawing cane is splintered by an arrow… so he grabs an arrow out of the air and draws with that - that’s just using influences from the outside world to fuel your writing 
But mostly, this is just a self-indulgent blog post to say I love this scene and this film in general.
I’m knuckling down with my entry for the Red Planet Prize over the next few weeks so I might be a bit quiet. The story I’m submitting is one that I’ve had in various incarnations over the last few years that everyone has liked the idea of but I haven’t had the script to do that idea justice.
I don’t have the best of luck when it comes to script contests. But even if I don’t get anywhere with this one, it’s not going to be for lack of trying.
Onwards 
June 27th, 2010 at 6:31 am
Chuck Spear said:
Great film and incredible scene.
Best of luck to you, John! I’m sure you’ll be in touch if you’re looking to put out a Vertigo adaptation of your soon-to-be produced script. Seeing as I’ll be running that place inside of 18 months…
Can’t wait to hear how it all goes for you!
June 28th, 2010 at 10:20 am
Neil Baker said:
Agree with Chuck - a great scene and movie. Never thought of that moment in that light though, so very interesting.
Best of luck with the RPP
July 6th, 2010 at 9:02 am
john said:
Cheers guys! I’ll try and do you proud…then inevitably come running for help
July 11th, 2010 at 7:17 pm
Stacy said:
Huh. I had a different reaction to McKee’s STORY. I’m halfway through it and so far it has solidified a lot of my previously unsaid philosophies about writing. Before reading it, I wasn’t even aware that I HAD a philosophy on writing. It’s pretty cool to learn that I do.
I haven’t seen Hero yet, but that’s an interesting take on that scene.
July 16th, 2010 at 8:20 pm
john said:
Heh. Granted, I was being pretty glib about McKee - I think everyone finds a different font of knowledge that speaks to them more than any of the others. Mine wasn’t McKee but I certainly don’t disagree with what he says.
But, of course, the moral of the story here is ‘Watch HERO’ ‘cos it’s lovely