One of the reasons I love writing is that writing is one of the most accessible skills out there. Once you know how to read and write, you don’t need a lot of money to learn how to write better. You don’t need a lot of tools. If you’re aiming to improve your writing or learn new techniques, you don’t even need help from anyone else. You can teach yourself how to be a better writer just by paying attention to the things you consume everyday—movies, TV shows, articles, books, and even Tik Tok videos.
As an example, let’s start with the recently released movie, Pig.
When I saw the trailer for Pig, I didn’t know what to expect—I wasn’t even really sure what it was about. I went to see it last week with little expectation, which might be the best way to experience a new story. While I can’t say that I fully understood the movie, there were some really interesting character moments, and I felt like the film affirmed some things that I know about telling a good story.
So, let’s get into it. What can we learn about writing from Pig?
#1 How all other characters react to the protagonist impacts how we, the readers, will react to the protagonist. Use your characters. All of them.
Pig starts us off in the woods. Even if you haven’t seen the movie trailer, you get the sense right away that the main character, a burly, middle-aged man draped in a beaten, brown overcoat and a long, white beard is a man who is alone. He has a pig, who he calls to and cooks real meals for, but other than that, he is isolated in his cabin in the woods.
The very first character who interacts with him is his exact opposite. Young and flashy with his sports jacket, watch, and sunglasses, Amir rips through the woods in his yellow Camaro blaring classical music. We immediately feel the disruption and the contrast. When Amir gets out of his car to exchange groceries for the truffle our protagonist, Rob, and his pig found, we get the feeling that Amir looks down on Rob. And so, you start to think, it is really weird that Rob lives off on his own like this. That he doesn’t talk to people. That he lives with a pig.
Rob is so quiet, that for most of the beginning, I thought of Rob in the way that Amir thought of him—as someone to be pitied, as something of a joke. When his car wouldn’t start, I thought it was sad and funny. When he emerged from the woods, I smiled and laughed along with the other characters who, like Amir, looked at Rob like “who is this guy?”
That all changed in an instant. I'm not going to spoil much, but in the next part of the movie, Rob reveals who he was before he secluded himself in the woods. Not through his words. Barely even through his actions. We see it through the eyes of the people who used to know him once he starts coming into contact with people who recognize his name. These people don’t react with pity or humor. They are shocked to see him. Honored to be in his presence. Deferential to the little that he has to say. The more and more characters that were introduced, the more my view of Rob changed. I was fascinated by him, and by my own reaction.
As writers, we think a lot about how our main character's perspective impacts how the reader will see the other or background characters. Think of the classic story trope: unpopular girl in high school looks down on the snobby head cheerleader. It’s usually not until our unpopular girl main character changes her perspective on the head cheerleader that we also start to see the head cheerleader in another way. But Pig is an example of how that works in the other direction. It’s not until a bunch of other characters hold Rob in high esteem that I, as viewer, and Amir, the pretentious, new businessman, start to view Rob differently too.
Suddenly, I became really invested in figuring out why all these other characters thought so highly of this man I had initially wrote off. In a way, Amir is our on-screen mirror, since he's also going through that journey. I wanted to learn more, and so I looked forward to each new interaction Rob had. It was through background and side characters that I felt Rob’s character development coming in.
The gift of book writing is that you can bring the reader into the character’s head in a way that film and TV can’t. But being in their head isn’t the only way we can, and should, learn about our main character. If you’re trying to build up your character, think about how other people see them. Can you build tension and intrigue by using your other characters? Are you using all of your characters to their full potential?
#2 Any Idea You Start With Can Be A Good One
The movie synopsis of Pig reads: “A truffle hunter who lives alone in the Oregonian wilderness must return to his past in Portland in search of his beloved foraging pig after she is kidnapped.”
That’s a really beautiful synopsis that captures the tone of the movie well, but if my friends asked me what this movie was about, I’d say: It’s about a man who gets his pig stolen.
That premise makes me wonder: was that the original idea? The movie is written by Michael Sarnoski (who also directed) and Vanessa Block. When they started planning this movie, did they start with wanting to tell a story about a man trying to get his pig back? Did they start with wanting to tell a story about truffles? Did it start with having a story centered around food?
The premise in Pig is that an Oregonian loner has to go on a mission to retrieve his truffle pig after its stolen from him in the middle of the night. That’s the through line of the story, Rob’s main mission. With that, I might have expected the movie to be funny. It could have been an adventure/thriller. Instead, we got a poignant, poetic story about a man looking for his pig, which also acts as a vehicle that teaches us something about love, loss, and respect. We learn about Rob's past and wonder at his motivations for hiding himself. We learn about Amir and Amir’s past and complicated relationship with his father and mother. We learn about Portland as a food hub. About truffles, their rarity, and the whole industry that has sprung up around them.
My takeaway at the end of the movie was that you can write about anything you want. Whatever the initial idea is, whatever your story is first about, that idea can be used in so many ways. No matter what your idea sounds like, run with it. See how far you can take it. Can you make it sad? Can you make it funny? Can you make it a thriller?
Like I said, I didn’t really understand the movie, so there may be more nuanced writing tips in it. It didn't make me emotional like it did for others, but, I did find some really poignant points in this movie. Pig has 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and is being lauded by movie critics as one of the best movies of the year, so a lot of people love it. You should go see it to decide for yourself. Does anything about the storytelling resonate with you and your story?
A sad, quiet sort of story, Pig was released this July and was directed by Michael Sarnoski. It stars Nicholas Cage, Alex Wolff, and Adam Arkin.
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