Back to School 1

Labor Day has come and gone. The last trip to the beach or the lake is behind you… the last big barbecue of the summer is now history. Was it a great summer or a lousy summer? Did you accomplish what you wanted—whether that was to attract the love of your life or whether it was to earn money for college or whether it was just to survive the kids being home all summer—you’re through it now and it’s time to move on. It’s time to go back to school.

Going back to school in September is always about new beginnings. Sure, you can think of it as drudgery—you’d rather be backpacking through Europe or something and you’re stuck in a classroom listening to other people talk about stuff you may not be super interested in—but you have to go through it, right? And a new year means new possibilities.

So think about that in terms of your writing. Whether you’re actually going back to physical school or whether your actual school days are long behind you, September is often associated with fresh starts.

I love that line from You’ve Got Mail [1998] where Joe Fox emails his unknown chat room friend Kathleen Kennedy that if he knew her name and address he’d send her a box of pencils—that smell so symbolized for him the process of going back to school. And she loves this—loves that this stranger she’s emailing thinks things like this because it means he’s like her, he’s someone who values the fresh start September brings.

So how about a fresh start for you, too? How about coming up with a back-to-school movie? What else have you got to do this fall?

Back to school. Something we’ve all done 12+ times in our life. Hmmm… fodder for a film here? If you were to write such a film, what would it be about?

In general, the best back-to-school movies are not set IN the classroom. Or if they are, the classroom scenes are just tangential to the action. There are a few exceptions to this that we’ll explore, so head into the classroom if you chose to with your story, but realize there are so many other back-to-school movies that don’t deal with the classroom very much at all.

So think about it. When you remember your favorite back-to-school films, what films come to mind? Were they about relationships? Infighting? Sports? Were they set in the present day? In the past? In another time? Were they romances? Dramas? Comedies? Hybrids? Were their main characters the popular kids? The losers? The nerds? The geeks? Was music involved? Was violence portrayed? Did the parents of the school kids play any part in the story? The teachers?

And if you loved a school movie from your own teen years, here’s your homework this week—go back and watch it. Does it hold up? Or does it seem out of date?

There have been such a wide variety of films that fall into this back-to-school category, that we’ll look at a few over the coming weeks with the ultimate goal being to help you decide what kind of back-to-school movie YOU might want to write.

So sharpen those pencils, and let’s go back to school!

Copyright © Diane Lake

09Sep18

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com