Thursday, August 17, 2006

Make 'Em Cry!

For you writers out there: have you ever written a scene that made you cry? I have, but this time it was worse than ever. I couldn’t stop. Hell, I couldn’t see the damn screen! But I had to keep going because the sociopath/writer in me hissed, "this is good … this will make it better!"

You see, this scene involved a mother having to leave her child. Now that I have my Little Dude – who is a year old! – books, movies, TV shows and even commercials that portray children are now filled with emotional landmines. My husband is just as bad. There’s a Duracell commercial about a battery small enough for deaf child’s hearing aid. And then they show his face light up when he hears rain for the first time. (See? I’m already choking up just thinking about it.) Last night when that commercial came on, my husband was choking back his tears.

However, when my editor told me she teared up while reading one of my scenes, I puffed with pride. Making a reader cry - especially an editor who's probably read it all - is even better than making her laugh.

Sick! And yet, satisfying to my ego.

So I have to ask, what scenes in books and/or movies have made you cry?

6 comments:

Louise said...

I had one of those moments in my book, too! But I was writing in a coffee shop and I know people were staring at me like I was crazy. I couldn't stop, though. I knew I was on a roll if I was that emotional just writing it.

Anyway... I always cry at the scene in "Steel Magnolias" when Sally Fields goes to pick up her grandson after they turn off Julia Roberts' life support. And the scene in "Hope Floats" (Sandra Bullock) when her eight-year-old daughter goes chasing after her father, who is leaving them. She screams and sobs, "Daddy! Daddy!" Damn, I'm getting chills and teary-eyed right now.

Weez

Dana Diamond said...

You know I cry at everything so I'm not *even* going to go there.

But I was stoked when I made ol' Iron Eyes...um...I mean, Mom, cry at the end of BAN.

And speaking of Iron Eyes. The older YA cries at nothing. (You know how bitter I am that this gene skipped me!) Anyway, the only thing that made her cry was the scene in that Disney cartoon Home On The Range. It was the scene when all hope was lost and the cows were stuck in the rain under a rock in the middle of nowhere.

Even she doesn't know why this made her cry.

:) d

PS Strangely, I don't recall crying at anything I've written yet, but I'm *always* cracking up when I'm writing.

Dana Diamond said...

PPS That is so cute about you two and the Duracel ad.

Mr. P wants a word. Beware of the phone call.

;) d

Desiree said...

Oh gosh, Nicholas Sparks ALWAYS makes me cry. He makes me SOB!!! I read "At First Sight" last.

Even telling my boyfriend about the book made me want to cry.

As far as movies, recently Shop Girl makes me cry, and A Walk To Remember. Sense and Sensibility makes me cry too. Actually everything makes me cry. Kidding.

Unknown said...

Louise - I know that scene from Hope Floats! Oh, it's just awful.

Dana - you made your mom cry? Ohhh. :)

Desiree - I cried when Hugh Grant tells Emma Thompson that he loves her at the end of Sense & Sensibility. I shudder with embarassment at the memory because we watched it with my MIL and she's a very stoic, no nonsense kind of lady!

Unknown said...

I always cry when Thelma and Louise choose to drive the T-bird into the Grand Canyon and when Queen Latifah's character in "Set It Off" is killed. Uh-oh, I see a pattern here. Anyway, who says hardcore feminist don't cry. {8`^<

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