“There’s a million different reasons to write. It took cancer to help me find the best reason in the world.”
David Michael Wharton
Creative Screeenwriting
There’s nothing glamorous about cancer. Whatever motive Farrah Fawcett had of having herself videotaped as she went through various stages of cancer it made for compelling T.V. last Friday. And it was a sobering change to most of what pop culture has to offer and a new twist on reality programming. And also and a reminder of our fleeting lives.
As I sat at a coffee house in Rochester, MN last Friday morning I couldn’t help but overhear several discussions about people’s various stages of illness. The Mayo Clinic attracts millions of people every year who are dealing with cancer or know someone who is.
I have had friends and family die of cancer and chances are so have you. Recently, I had a friend have one of his legs amputated as part on his ongoing battle with cancer that has involved more pain and suffering than anyone should have to go through.
It probably wasn’t the first time I ever cried, but when I was 10-years old and watched the original TV movie Brian’s Song, when the Gale Sayers character says, “Brian Piccolo has cancer…” — I lost it.
Farrah Fawcett shaving her hair is not the worse thing that cancer has ever done to someone. But since her hair style at one time represented the most famous style of an era (of all time?) then it was as symbolic an act you can find on TV of the effects of cancer. Remember that great screenwriting is made up in part of strong, visceral images.
Hollywood has not been untouched by cancer. Across the board cancer has claimed the lives of cast, crew and executives. And there have mean meaningful movies on cancer and maudlin ones as well. Don’t shy away from writing about cancer, just work toward avoiding the curse of the disease-of-week mentality which trivializes death and suffering by making things overly sentimental.
“All stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true story teller who would keep that from you.”
Ernest Hemingway
Death in the Afternoon
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