We spend our days plotting murders, planting clues, and torturing characters, and yet the hardest scene to stage is the one where a writer just sits there writing. Nothing blows up. Nobody gets shot. It all happens inside our heads. That’s why so few movies are really about writing, even though plenty of them have a writer in the lead. Here are my favorites, the ones that capture what it feels like to drag a story out of your head and onto the page. (Mystery fans, there’s even a gangster and an Agatha Christie whodunit in the mix.)

Bullets Over Broadway (1994), comedy written by Woody Allen. A young playwright (John Cusack) wants to make deep Art and doesn’t care whether audiences are entertained. His play’s backer is a gangster who insists his mistress gets a part, so the playwright has to compromise to get the show made. Meanwhile the gangster’s henchman (Chazz Palminteri) turns out to have a real flair for story. He starts making suggestions, proves to be the true talent, and is willing to kill a bad actress to save “his” play. Two creative truths here: writers can be pretentious and untalented, and good ideas can come from anyone.

See How They Run (2022), comedic mystery written by Mark Chappell. A fictional murder mystery set around Agatha Christie’s real play The Mousetrap, full of the drama of turning a hit play into a movie, including the writer battling the director over the script. Better still, the mystery is packed with Christie tropes that echo the play. Fun fact: The Mousetrap has run continuously in London’s West End since 1953, apart from the lockdowns.

Wonder Boys (2000), comedy written by Steve Kloves from Michael Chabon’s novel. Once-promising novelist Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas) doesn’t do much writing on screen, but he nails the mania of trying to live up to your own book, and the fear of being eclipsed by a younger, more talented writer.

Shakespeare in Love (1998), comedy written by Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard. Shakespeare falls for Viola, who is disguised as a man so she can act. The romance inspires him to rework his latest play into Romeo & Juliet. It’s a delight to watch this made-up origin story for one of his most famous works.

Sweet Liberty (1986), comedy written by Alan Alda. An author (Alda) watches his nonfiction book get turned into a movie, and the Hollywood folks change it left and right. He fights to protect his book while trying to make the screenplay good. An overlooked gem, with great turns from Michael Caine and Michelle Pfeiffer as temperamental movie stars.

Adaptation (2002), black comedy written by Charlie Kaufman. Kaufman struggled so much to turn The Orchid Thief into a movie that he wrote the screenplay about his struggle. It perfectly captures the agony of not being able to crack a story while everyone around you seems to be sailing along.

The Muse (1999), comedy written by Albert Brooks & Monica Johnson. A blocked screenwriter (Brooks) hires a kooky professional muse (Sharon Stone). She may be crazy, but there’s method in her madness. She helps him find a new idea and gives his wife the confidence to start a business. If only we could all have a muse on call.

Sunset Boulevard (1950), film noir written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett & D.M. Marshman Jr. A desperate, broke screenwriter meets a desperate, unhinged movie star, while a sweet assistant writes her first screenplay. Sometimes being a writer is deadly.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006), comedy written by Zach Helm. IRS agent Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) suddenly hears narration and realizes he’s a character in someone’s novel. What happens when he tries to break out of the plot and falls in love?

Authors Anonymous (2014), comedy written by David Congalton. A group of dysfunctional, unpublished writers welcomes inexperienced Hannah (Kaley Cuoco) into their writers’ group, and they never see her overnight success coming. A comedy about competition and creativity.

Something’s Gotta Give (2003), romantic comedy written by Nancy Meyers. Diane Keaton plays a playwright who turns the heartbreak of falling for her daughter’s boyfriend, a man her own age, into her next hit play. The scenes of her sobbing as she types are hysterical and relatable.

Paris When It Sizzles (1964), comedy written by George Axelrod. Honestly, it’s a mediocre movie. The fun is watching secretary Audrey Hepburn act out each of screenwriter William Holden’s scenarios as he tries to figure out what kind of movie to write.

Bonus: The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), romance written by Woody Allen. It isn’t about writing but about the fantasy of living inside your favorite movie. Downtrodden Depression-era waitress Mia Farrow’s life is turned upside down when the romantic lead of her favorite film steps off the screen.

So, TKZers: what does it say about the writing life that nearly all of these are comedies? And where are the great thrillers about writers? Tell me in the comments which writing movie I left off the list.

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