Inspiration to become a writer usually comes from within, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come from the world around us as well. Maybe you were a library kid, or you always wanted to be a playwright. Perhaps it’s a romantic occupation for you, or you want to unearth the grittiness of the real world. It’s easy to see the glory and the glamour of being a writer in the world of film, which often romanticizes the profession. Here are ten films that will at least peak your interest.

Courtesy of United Artists and Sony Pictures Classics

Capote

While this may not be the most romantic entry to start this list, it is the most introspective into the process of writing, especially something beyond what you’re used to. Capote started his career in the whimsical world of socialites and stars, writing the enigmatic “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” in 1958. He became most famous for writing the chilling true crime novel “In Cold Blood,” which followed two murderers through their home invasion, murder spree, of a small town family. This film follows Capote’s investigation and relationship with these killers. It’s chilling to see Capote go through some intense and life-changing moments onscreen, as well as seeing the process of his writing.

American Splendor

This is a very strange film, adapted from Harvey Pekar’s autobiographical comics of the same name. Pekar isn’t all that interesting as a character, since most of his life relies on the mundane. The film entertains most as it follows Pekar when he meets his wife, or when he goes onto the Letterman show as a guest. The film makes you want to write your own comic, even if it relies on the everyday. There are interviews from his friends, and family, and even appearances by the real Harvey Pekar and wife Joyce Brabner. This is a must watch for any comic aficionados as well as lovers of comics in general.

Courtesy of Miramax Films and Univeral Pictures

Shakespeare in Love

This is the most romantic of the entries on this list. There’s nothing more romantic than the work of Shakespeare, so it makes sense to follow a love story between him and a woman; that inspired the rest of his work. While the film takes severe liberties with the real history of the bard, it’s still enjoyable. It makes you want to be a writer because it’s a film that links passion with words full of wit. Watch this film and then tell me you don’t want to write the greatest love story of all time.

Courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures

Barton Fink

While this film does nothing to glorify writing, it does show the implications of the 30s Hollywood system. This film has been classified as everything from a film noir, a horror film, to a Künstlerroman, which is a narrative German film that follows an artist through their journey into maturity. The film follows a playwright turned screenwriter who tries to stay connected to the common man with his artistry. Fink finds it’s difficult to do so, and the world of screenwriting lacks the artistry of the stage. It’s about much more than that, including serial killers, desperation, dispassion, and surrealism, which makes it a very dark film.

Midnight in Paris

This is the most recent film to deal with the nostalgia of the twenties, and especially American expats in Paris. If you were an English major in college, who loved musing about the headspace of writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, you will go ga ga for this film. Besides being about the glamour and intellectual banter of the past, it’s also about living in the moment, gaining passion from your writing as much as everything else in your life, and being honest in your work. Beautiful all the way through, it’s both a love letter to the past and a hopeful plea to the present.

The World According to Garp

Based on the 1978 novel by John Irving, this was one of Robin Williams’ first acclaimed roles. He plays Garp, a man who wants nothing more than to write for writing sake’s. Though he isn’t successful, and his life goes through a roller-coaster of craziness, he makes the best of it throughout. He deals with being in his mother’s shadow, fanatic feminists, infidelity, and transgendered friends. It’s a mysteriously engrossing film that makes you want to write, just for writing’s sake.

Before Sunset

This is another film that relies on romance to pitch the idea of passion in writing. Apparently the only thing that you can take from life is addictive love stories, because like “Shakespeare in Love,” our main male character takes from real life to write a bestselling novel about the woman. The second in the Linklater “Before” trilogy, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy shine as a thrown together couple getting their bearings after so long apart. The nostalgia of his writing adds to their long dormant passion being reignited.

Adaptation

It’s unclear whether you will be in inspired to write based on this film, since the fates of the twin Nicolas Cages is suspect. Playing Charlie Kaufman, and his fake twin, Donald Kaufman; Nicolas Cage tries to adapt Susan Orlean’s “The Orchid Thief” for the big screen. The film both makes you want to write an intense novel like Orlean, and adapt a great work, like Kaufman. This is an ironic, surrealist, otherworldly kind of film that I can only highly recommend as well as keep in the back of my mind for inspiration.

Sunset Boulevard

While there isn’t much actual writing onscreen, this film definitely makes us want to become writers. That, or live with a crazed, vain former screen icon. Either way, this iconic Hollywood film is a must-see, as it analyzes the film industry, creates an iconoclastic main villain/protagonist in Norma Desmond, and is one of the best film noirs of the last sixty years. Joe Gillis made us want to find the crazy in our own lives, and write about every single minute of it.

Courtesy of Miramax Films and Paramount Pictures

The Hours

Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Michael Cunningham, this film is actually much broader and more impressive than the way too subtle novel. The film more easily ties together the three storylines of our female protagonists, and showed the links between literature and life in a deep and meaningful way. Virginia Woolf’s characterization was best, showing that a writer isn’t a writer without their craft, and that sometimes words can be as life giving as medicine. This film will make any long dormant writer awaken and pound the keys.