If a person chooses to be a writer, I hope they aren’t doing so for an easy ride (I say this with humor, of course). Sometimes, some people think putting a story together is an easy task, like baking a cake (and I’m sure someone can attest to the fact that even one-two-three cakes have their difficulties). However, even if it is innate to do so, telling a story isn't simple. Personally, I don't think writing fiction or nonfiction makes a difference concerning the complications of delivery. If the story is fiction, well, writing a story from one's own imagination is not easy to even think about. Hey, a story can be based on a place the reader has visited or…Hogwarts (again, more humor). Are the characters realistic? Does the plot make me care? Is the story trivial or not? Again, this is a skeletal view of idea so I’m not going to go into too many particulars.
Nonfiction is a little different. See, in fiction there is more liberty to elaborate or draw back or even tweak the “facts.” After all, they’re the writer’s facts. They are the master of ceremonies; what they say, goes. To me, nonfiction is about validity, truth, facts. Writing stories about events that have really happened make the writer have to do more homework concerning facts, truths, and the like.
Regardless of the genre, it is the responsibility of the writer to tell stories, even the ones that no one wants to talk about.
"The Help" taught me that.
I thought about which perspective to talk about the film I saw today. Should I talk about the historical, well…walls and hiccups that the struggles of the 1960s bring to the American forefront every once and a while? How the women and men in the theater today laughed and cried and gave the occasional “Mmm-hmm” in unison because something in those projections resonated with something on the inside of each of them? How “The Help” is not a film for everyone, especially if the truths we try to forget about are as ironic as the film that brings them to the forefront?
No.
I want to talk about Skeeter, the protagonist of “The Help”, and how she felt the responsibility of writing about something she strongly believed in.
Skeeter is an unmarried a 23-year-old recent college graduate who is trying to find her voice in the world, knocking on doors so that people would hear it and hoping that someone will say yes.
So am I.
She’s not too keen on the things she sees from day-to-day and knows that she has a (rather outspoken) opinion about them. She has stories to tell, and wants them to be heard.
Without going too much into the plot, Skeeter begins to write about the things that make her think, make her hurt. That’s when it got me to thinking about my own responsibilities as a writer. There are stories all around us. Matter of fact, if you just sit down and ask someone about themselves, you will have enough information for at least a full handwritten page (come on, I’m keeping it real here).
It got me to thinking about the stories that I want to tell, the things that I want to do, and the fears that I sometimes have about the possible repercussions that may come because of my actions. Here’s the key, though: it’s about telling truths in stories without being obnoxious (at least, that’s what I’d like my style to be like). I can tell you the truth and even make you laugh a bit without trying to break your soul.
This film reminded me that my stories are worth telling because everyone doesn’t come from where I do, even the people who live in my neighborhood. I think it was in “Spider-Man 2” where Dr. Otto Octavius talks to Peter Parker about intelligence being a responsibility to be used to aid mankind; a privilege, if you will. I think the writer has that same calling: to writer what I think in a manner that bespeaks the passion with which I believe it (Thank you, Taylor Mali).
So, until I sit down and write the specifics of my experiences with “The Help” (including a few of my weeping moments (yes, a few)), this is what I want the world to know I learned from this help.
So thanks, film makers, actors, and all of those who made “The Help” worth the ticket I paid for. You really helped me a lot.
Keeping the Faith and Keeping it Real,
aM
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