Groundhog Day – A Writer’s Perspective

Groundhog Day – that movie from 1993 is a classic. But as a writer, I find that movie even more endearing, charming, and enthralling. What will you do if you get to live the same day again and again? From the scientific perspective, the idea is not plausible. But here I will explore the movie from a writer’s perspective.

The movie has everything. If you analyze it, it covers the aspects of religions, philosophy, art, science. That makes the movie even more classic.

What have you learned from this movie? What a writer can learn from it? How a writer can improve his craft by watching this movie?

Groundhog Day – A Writer’s Perspective

The movie is about a weather reporter going through the same day again and again. That raises the simple question – what will you do if you have to live the same day again and again?

The idea sounds ridiculously simple. But life without a purpose would be so boring. Even in the movie, Billy Murray seems purposeless at the beginning. He goes through self-exploration when he realizes that he has been in a time loop and not able to change anything. There are no consequences for his actions. He becomes free, he starts doing negative things. Over time, he finds himself. He falls in love with Andy Mcdowell. The movie shows the purpose of life is to learn, to love, and to give away everything.

What a writer can learn from it?

First, it’s a simple idea. As a writer, if you are looking to write a short story or a novel, you don’t have to have extravagant ideas. Your ideas should be simple. Choose a word and then think about the past or future about that word. Fiction writing is nothing but the truth behind the doors.

The story is a struggle of the hero. It starts at a place A and goes to place B. In this case, Bill Murray’s character goes from being hopeless selfish to a selfless generous person. He finds himself. In the end, you learn something.

Characters – each character plays the role in moving the plot forward. Every character in the movie helps Phil (Bill Murray) to realize about himself. Phil is a protagonist as well antagonist in the movie.

The movie starts with the dullness of winter and ends with the liveliness of winter. The movie captures the ebbs and flows of winter.

Writers must work on fostering their imagination. The story is an imagination. What happens if this happened? What if? Those are necessary questions in a writer’s arsenal.

How to improve your craft?

It is always hard to come up with a simple idea. Quantity produces quality. Write a lot. Write on many ideas, try out them. Eventually, all the bad ideas will make the way for good ones.

Phil goes through self-exploration and learns many things in the movie – language, literature, piano. Same way, a writer has to learn a lot of things. Probably a lot. The learning journey only ends on the death bed. You must devote yourself to being a student. Writing is always a work in progress. It’s not a final destination.

So write on. Write and read.