We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”
Anais Nin, essayist, novelist, short-story writer
I’m going to start with a disclaimer: my head is infused with mucus, and I don’t know what I’m saying.
Well, that’s not entirely true at this point. It is true that a few weeks ago, COVID-19 ingested itself, uninvited, into my body and thrust me into someone I’m usually not: a sick person. My immune system is strong, I’m constantly moving, and a few drops of immune-building herbal vitamins knock out whatever might even think about invading me.
But not this time.
No amount of bone broth, hot tea, or herbal supplements helped. COVID caught me off guard with its tricky symptoms of overblown head cold, to sinus infection, to pink elephants on parade visions. No flu symptoms or the usual routine I go through with each vaccine, just sore throat, lots of coughing, and misery. My doctor (who was quite surprised to see me because I never get sick) tested me, and there you have it. My husband, fortunately, did not get as sick as me, but it wasn’t a competition.
So, what do I do when I cannot move, think, or breathe? I catch up on the six-hour saga of “Pride and Prejudice” (with Colin Firth). Or other movies and shows I don’t have time to watch. I can’t read or write because it hurts. At least with television, I can close my eyes and listen.
And in this setting of viewing too much mindless television, I learned something: pick apart any movie and you can find all manner of mistakes. There were a couple movies I watched that at the end I asked, “what just happened?” The stories were rushed, the characters were shallow and underdeveloped, the dialogue was cheesy, and the plots relied on special effects and scenery. In my stuffed-up head, I began rewriting the scripts. I edited many scenes to either fix the dialogue or remove scenes altogether. I thought about what helped move the story along and what held it back. I asked questions about the characters and what I felt was needed to make them more human, likeable, and relatable.
I realized this turned out to be good use of my time (despite the hours of my life I will never redeem viewing terrible movies) to help improve my writing for when I could hold a pen again or sit in front of the computer. Scrutinizing other stories, whether from movies or books, is helpful as a writer to understand character and plot development. I often ask myself what I liked about a story, or a character, and why. Could I relate and what helped me to do so? What did I not like and how would I improve it?
Periodically, it’s good to watch even a mindless, shallow movie, simply to work on our own skills as writers. And so, I guess even my illness helped me become a better editor and writer. Although, I’ve watched enough television to take me into half of next year.
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