Greetings all, and welcome to another Film Fight. If you’re new to the Fight, then I’ll direct you here to read all about the rules of engagement. Rules might be a misleading word, though – honestly, Josh and I are sort of making this thing up as we go along, which is why our topics grow more amorphous and ungainly every month. Hence…

Writers in the Movies! (dunh-dunh-dunh)

What do we mean by this? It’s a good question. A couple of weeks ago, when we were scratching heads over what we were going to brawl over next, it occurred to us that the Austin Film Festival will be kicking off this week. AFF is unique in that it was one of the first (if not the first?) conference in the country dedicated to the art of screenwriting. And I suppose I should preemptively put it out there – because I suspect Josh will use it against me anyway and I’d rather cut him off at the pass – that I have a half-dozen scripts gathering dust in a drawer, which is why the topic is especially near and dear to me, and also why I will no doubt casually, annoyingly drop screenwriterly words willy-nilly in an attempt to intimidate Josh.

So back to the topic at hand – writers. We’re going to be talking about screenwriters and screenwriting a lot, but we thought we’d kick off the Fight by talking about fake writers instead, meaning, writers as depicted in the movies.

Now if you’re going to be talking about writers in the movies, you’re inevitably going to run up against one of two obstacles to said writer crafting the perfect script, novel, haiku, what have you – either writers’ block or substance abuse. One could argue that it’s a chicken and the egg thing, really – block begets drink, drink begets block – but it’s too early in the morning to be making concessions, so here’s how this thing will go down: I think writers’ block as creative stymie makes for a more engaging picture than addiction. Josh is pro-junkie.

And now, for my first contradiction, I’m going to break briefly to mainline some coffee. See you soon.

This article appears in October 10 • 2008.

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A graduate of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Kimberley has written about film, books, and pop culture for The Austin Chronicle since 2000. She was named Editor of the Chronicle in 2016; she previously served as the paper’s Managing Editor, Screens Editor, Books Editor, and proofreader. Her work has been awarded by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia for excellence in arts criticism, team reporting, and special section (Best of Austin). The Austin Alliance for Women...