"Alan Wake is about a writer, writing about a writer, who is writing about himself and another fucking writer. It's like if M.C. Escher was a writer, and also a douchebag."
— Gabe, Penny Arcade strip Your Definition Headquarters
“Write what you know”
This is probably the worst piece of advice ever given. This is why we have to suffer through countless variations of plays, TV shows and movies about the trials and tribulations of making plays, TV shows and movies.
— Sci-ence
One of my greatest fears is the day I wake up and discover that I am, in fact, writing two dimensional characters who are little more than a fantasy of what I wish I could be. Writing men has always been something of a defence mechanism against this development – and I have a pact with several of my friends that the day I even think about writing a writer as my main character, they’ll come and smash my keyboard.
Abed: I want to tell the story of Jesus from the perspective of a filmmaker exploring the life of Jesus.
Shirley: That sounds... very appealing to filmmakers.
Shirley: That sounds... very appealing to filmmakers.
“Winsome hookers aside, rom-com leads are often working in writing-driven professions. Sally Albright was an eager journalist, though her career immediately became irrelevant. Meg Ryan surfaced as a journalist again in Sleepless in Seattle, though this time her job was a necessary plot point. In the pre-Internet days, that occupation gave her the tools to do the stalking that Facebook affords us today. Julia Roberts in My Best Friend's Wedding, Jennifer Aniston in Picture Perfect, Drew Barrymore in Never Been Kissed, Kate Hudson in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Diane Keaton in Something's Gotta Give are all involved in writing pursuits. Sandra Bullock in The Proposal, Ryan in You've Got Mail, and Hugh Grant in Notting Hill all work with books. In a few of these examples, there’s a reporting assignment that propels the plot forward. But largely, these jobs are all arbitrary. Bullock could be an executive at any company in any industry, and The Proposal would be exactly the same. So, is there a secret white paper designating these professions to be pre-approved for rom-com leads? Is there focus group evidence suggesting that a female writer will appeal to the target female audience while remaining non-threatening to the men who may watch? It is hard to tell what these jobs are meant to indicate about the ladies in rom-coms (other than, perhaps, that they’re the creations of vainglorious writers), but the prevalence of a single field has become short hand for the archetype.”
— Juliet Litman, “Know Your Rom-Coms: 6 Tropes of the Genre’s Golden Age", Grantland
", Grantland"The increasing popularity of independently developed video games where the plot is a thinly veiled metaphor for the agony of being a disaffected thirtysomething indie game developer is how you know video games have truly come into their own as an art form."
