During a recent first-time viewing of Romancing the Stone, I found myself transfixed by the opening scene: the protagonist is alone in her work space, deep in the throes of her writing process. As I watched, I wondered—how many similar scenes of women writers at work had filmmakers captured, and what themes could I make out across them? Would I spot my own writing habits at play in their fictionalized ones? I set out to find more of these depictions in movies and TV shows, pressing pause whenever I spotted a lady-identified writer mid-scribe. Behold these ten examples of women writers at work, presented chronologically, spanning 30 years of TV and film.
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1.
Adventure novelist sobs while completing her manuscript in Romancing the Stone [1984]. Visible writerly equipment: oversized plaid nightshirt with sound-canceling headphones, overturned Chinese takeout box, lit tapered candle, typewriter, can of Tab, an empty box of tissues, the silhouette of Texas on a cork board. Not pictured: a cat named Romeo, tiny airplane-style liquor bottles, a post-it note reminding her to buy more tissues. Continue reading
