Writing Lessons From Groundhog Day - Writers’ HQ (2024)
Well hey there.
Who’s ready for some tough talk about how setting yourself up for failure can be one of the most helpful approaches to writing?
Yes! Failure! One of the most useful experiences an artist can ever have.
We talk about fear of failurea lot at WHQ, and why you have to feel the fear and write anyway. But today is all about learning from failure. Whether it’sgetting a story rejectedorwanting to give up on a project, or procrastinating so hard you never actually get anything done, or simply feeling totally burnt out by the whole writing thang.
Dudes. We feel you. But that repetition: try, fail, try again, fail again, tryharder, fail harder, and on and on until the end of time – that’s what eventually gets you to where you wanna be. The ones who give up never make it, do they?
So here’s today’s lesson:
WatchGroundhog Day.
“Er, whhhhy?”you may ask.
Well,here’s why– an excellent observation on the usefulness of failure by Austin Kleon:
“InGroundhog Day, for those of you who don’t know or have forgotten, Phil Connors, played by Bill Murray, is a weatherman who wakes up every morning on Groundhog Day — February 2nd — in Punxsutwaney, Pennsylvania. […] Phil Connors hates Punxsutwaney, and no matter what he does, he can’t make it out of Punxsutwaney, and he can’t seem to get to February 3rd. Every morning he wakes up in the same bed at 6AM to face the same day.”
Sound familiar? Like, every time you sit down to do some writing? Sometimes it really does feel like you’re rehashing the same thing over and over again. Sometimes you feel like you’re getting absolutely nowhere. This is normal. Let us learn fromGroundhog Dayand see what we can do about it.
Over the course of what some deep-internet nerds have determined was 33 years and 350 days, Phil learns some important lessons.
He learns he cannot cheat his way out.
He learns he cannot trick someone into falling in love with him.
He learns he can’t change things that are destined to happen.
The same is true with writing:
There’s no cheating when it comes to writing. You have to actually, y’know, do the work. Sorryyyyyy.
There’s no point pretending to be someone you’re not in order to capitalise on ‘trends’ in the literary world. Write what you love, writing what you’re good at, and the readers who matter will love it too.
There’s no rushing things. We’re not so hot on the concept of destiny, but we do believe that there’s a time and place for every piece of writing. Maybe now is not your time. Maybe you just need a little more patience…
Okay, back to Punxatawney:
“Finally, Phil accepts his fate. He accepts that he’s stuck in Punxatawney forever. And then things get really interesting.
He gets to know everybody in the town. He sees what problems there are in the town to solve, and how he can use his powers to help: he catches a kid falling out of a tree, he helps an engaged couple through their misgivings about getting married, he replaces a flat tire for some old ladies.
He also throws himself into his work: he crafts a super eloquent speech. […]He learns French. He learns how to play the piano. He learns how to sculpt ice.
And it’s when he finally masters these things, when he’s turned himself into a person worth loving, it’s then that Rita notices him, and they live happily ever after.
Phil learns, as Hugh Macleod says in his bookIgnore Everybody, ‘The best way to get approval is to not need it.’“
Gahhhhhh such a good film. And look at all these damn life/writing lessons!
Get to know your writing, your strengths and your weaknesses – only then will you see what problems need fixing.
Help other writers – critiquing is such a good way to improve your own writing (our community writing forum is the perfect place for this).
Throw yourself into your work – commit to it and write to the best of your abilities.
Let go of the need for approval or recognition – if you’re writing for someone else then your writing will never be true to youuuuu.
And, possibly most importantly, we learn best by failing, over and over again…
Y’see what we’re getting at here?
Embrace the failure. Invite it in for a hot chocolate. WatchGroundhog Day together. Then start afresh tomorrow.
There are times to be single-mindedly goal-oriented and times to be more accepting and receptive; cultivate the wisdom to tell how much of each is needed. If something is just not meant to be, as when Phil tried over and over to save the homeless man's life, all your efforts will not lead to the end you want.
Aside from plenty of laughs, “Groundhog Day” delivers powerful messages about change, love and being a good person. Phil is unable to break the time loop until he totally changes who he is.
The Philosophy of 'Groundhog Day': You Can't Escape Until You Know How to Live. Harold Ramis' 1993 film, Groundhog Day, is a charming and heartwarming comedy about an arrogant egotistical weatherman named Phil Connors (Bill Murray) who has a change of heart over the course of a day that lasts a decade.
According to Simon Gallagher from WhatCulture, Phil relives the same day approximately 12,400 times in Groundhog Day. To get to this number, Gallagher began counting each separate day shown onscreen in Groundhog Day, which adds up to 38 days total.
It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and sees its shadow, it will retreat to its den and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow, spring will arrive early. In 2024, an early spring was predicted.
In his efforts to conquer Rita, Phil learns French and studies poetry. This makes him realise he might as well use his time more wisely, and he learns new skills. He learns how to play the piano and masters ice sculpting, among other things. Phil finally starts his journey of self-actualisation and self-improvement.
But now you know that Groundhog Day (at least the roots of Groundhog Day) once celebrated an important event in the early life of Jesus. The day commemorates the first New Testament promise that Christ would also be the Savior of the Gentiles. And here's hoping the groundhogs see shadows a mile long today.
The movie's idea of the cycle of growth that the TV personality goes through is regarded by some religious scholars as a corollary to Buddhism, as the film depicts the endless loop of death alongside consequent rebirth. The cycle Phil is in is known as "Samsara" by Buddhists; we may also know it as karma.
There, they wait for groundhog Punxsutawney Phil to come out of hibernation. Upon his emergence, everyone waits with bated breath to see if his shadow appears. If it does, legend has it there will be six more weeks of winter. But, if Phil is shadow-free, spring will come early.
Phil shows us that living in the moment and working for a better future is not only the best way to escape a rodent-centric time loop, but also the best way to feel satisfied with your finances.
'Groundhog Day' syndrome made a man feel like he was reliving the same events. A man was convinced that the same events kept happening. The delusion was likely a complication of Alzheimer's. A man in his 80s gradually started feeling that he was witnessing the same events again and again.
His time loop is his chance to redeem himself and learn the value of caring for others, devoting his time to helping the residents of Punxsutawney, and ultimately learning to love. In this way Groundhog Day presents the idea of recurrence as a challenge to change.
Bill Murray can't read music but learned piano by ear to play some of Rachmaninov's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini", in the scene with his piano teacher. Like many of these films, a double was used for close-ups, but Bill was playing in the wider shots.
The tradition spawned the 1993 comedy classic that saw Bill Murray's sardonic TV weatherman Phil Connors stuck in the same day over and over again. But for just how long was the character trapped in the time loop? Well, a film blog has worked it out for you: 33 years and 350 days.
The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club calls Phil “the only true weather forecasting groundhog” and asserts that he's 100% accurate in his predictions. But the National Centers for Environmental Information crunched the numbers from the previous 10 years, and it turns out, Phil only got it right on average 30% of the time.
When Groundhog takes a vacation, the townspeople recognize how special Groundhog is and learn to ask questions that show they care. The themes of this book focus on appreciation and asking questions.
We might not get to relive each day in the literal sense of the word, but every day is a new opportunity to use yesterday's mistakes and shortcomings—as well as victories—to create a new today. So no matter how implausible the concept of a 24-hour loop is, the power we possess to become someone great is not.
He discovers he is the creator of his own experience and that he has all the resources to be happy today, right now in the present moment. The resources he uses to create the worst day of his life are the same ones he uses to create the best day of his life.
Introduction: My name is Dr. Pierre Goyette, I am a enchanting, powerful, jolly, rich, graceful, colorful, zany person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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