Coming-of-Age Writing

I watched 'A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints' today. I like the way Dito Montiel wrote and directed it. I mostly like the way he wrote the screenplay and the transitions between the past and present. So, I was talking to Ames about how I lked the movie and she directly asked me, "Did the main character guy go home?" I was so dumbfounded by the answer: "yes". I can't help it. I'm a complete sucker for coming-of-age movies, especially the ones where the troubled, young man goes home, reconnects with old friends, falls in love with a quirky girl (who redeems his tormented soul) and he becomes a whole person. Well, Dito Montiel's movie is definitely not that. Well I suppose certain parts... I suppose 'Garden State' is the perfect example. I even watched 'Elizabethtown', which was horrible, simply because of the plot. I know. I'm gross. I had some hope though because it was Cameron Crowe. But, I couldn't get myself to watch the Adam Brody version because that one looked worse than 'Elizabethtown'.

As I thought about other coming-of-age stories that I enjoyed, I couldn't help but notice that all of them were male-dominated : 'The Catcher in the Rye', 'Stand by Me', 'The Sandlot', 'Igby Goes Down', etc. Wait, there is 'The Bell Jar' by Sylvia Plath, which is definitely in my top 3 favorite books list. If I ever do actually write, like really write, not just on napkins and scratch pieces of paper, I would like to devote at least one story to a coming-of-age story with a female protagonist. I'm sure they exist, but I'm just unaware. The thing is, I think there's more of an appeal for the broken guy with issues story than the messed up girl with issues. Guys feel that they can relate to the guy with issues and they think it's cool to be this dark intense character; girls want to fall in love with the broken guy because they think he's emotionally intense and deep and feel that they can be the one to understand him. How often do you hear of guys who want to date an emotionally messed up girl and desire to be that 'one' who reaches out to her? Plus, if there's a female protagonist, it's most likely perceived as chick-lit or a chick flick. I would hope that guys would read my stuff too. Hmmm, I'm going to have to think on this some more and work on a solution. Why can't they both have issues and be equally complex? Why do they always have to end up together even? Okay, that's a separate venting post for another day.

Going back to 'A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints'... I thought it was so brave of Dito Montiel to write the memoir and direct the film because it's about his life, family and friends. He reveals them exactly as how he perceived them. There's a sense of vulnerability there. He's allowing everyone to experience everything through his perspective. His family and friends will see how he viewed them. I think it's so honest and brave. I wonder if I could ever do that. When I think of characters in my head, they're combinations of the people in my life. I've never thought of actually trying to capture the entire person into a character. I steal little aspects. So why not actually write about the people in my life? It would solve the whole name issue. I find it hard to think of names for characters. Embarrassingly, this is often the cause for writer's block for me. I digress. My first reason for not doing this would be that I'm not an interesting enough person to be the main character. I'm really not a complicated person. Secondly, I'm not sure that the people in my life would appreciate being written about. But, I do believe that the people around me are interesting enough to be captivating characters. Maybe I should ask them.