“You have to write your first draft from the heart. Rewrite with your head. The first key to writing is… to write, not to think.” After seeing the movie Finding Forrester, I forced myself to write in reaction to William Forrester's advice to writers in the quote above. I saw the film because I had a test in class. However, after experiencing the lives of these characters for two hours and 16 minutes, I found the film inspiring, emotional, informative and moving. The film is about a 16-year-old black boy from the Bronx named Jamal. He is an exceptionally talented young adult, with major strengths in basketball, intelligence, and writing. In a series of events, Jamal's exceptional abilities are discovered by a prestigious school and William Forester (a world-famous writer). The film portrays the deep and emotional bond that Jamal and Forrester create. Their raw, undeniable bond grew with a shared passion for the written word. Each teaches the other valuable life necessities that help them overcome their current “routine” in life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay I couldn't help but notice that the film shared many similarities between the material we learned in class and the important points that King made in his book On Writing. Getting written to is a recurring point in everything we read and learned in class. A good writer will write about anything just to write. Even Jamal shows this passionate desire when he takes on the Forrester task of writing 5,000 words on "why he should stay out of the fucking house." Furthermore, this is also seen when Jamal was asked to type one of Forrester's old writings. Forrester asked Jamal to do this because it was more productive to rewrite his work, rather than wait for inspiration to strike. The act of writing stimulated Jamal's brain. This allowed him to move on to his own work, once he had an idea of what to write. I suppose my natural inclination, to write only when it's a class assignment, won't help me improve as a writer! I found it fascinating that a Scottish man and a poor boy from the Bronx could find something more than just friendship, all because of the written word. I had never thought of writing as something powerful or meaningful. It's always been something I learned in school and a useful skill to have in my daily life. However, Finding Forrester points out that even a single novel can impact an entire universe. In the film, Forrester's novel had been talked about for many years and was still a best seller, despite its age. This shows the power someone can have with just one book. On top of that, Jamal's writing, read by Forrester in the writing contest, resonated with a whole room of different people. From young to old, from black to white, from poor to rich, and from women to men, those little words written by Jamal had the power to influence each and every one of them. Additionally, two people who should have nothing in common (Forrester and Jamal), come together due to the powerful bond of words on a paper. Finding Forrester also helped me understand that a writer doesn't write for praise or recognition. . They write because they want to be heard and they need to express themselves through writing. Forrester hated the idea of reading in front of people. He believed that writers write and others read: "Writers write things to give readers something to read." Plus, when you're the writer, you dictate what you want to say. Not.
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