Watch & Read: She Said

As a fiction writer, I’m regularly asked what novels I’m reading. While I have my favorite authors ( Anne Tyler , Max Barry ) and books that I not only recommend, but have reread several times ( The Good Men by Charmaine Craig and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova), what I mainly read for fun is non-fiction and long form journalism, and both are what I exclusively read when I’m working on a manuscript.

There are a few reasons why I don’t read fiction while writing. For one, I need to stay connected to the real world, especially when I’m spending so much time in my own head and giving myself over to my imagination. I also don’t want my writing to be influenced by someone else’s narrative style, which means not immersing myself in the lives of fictional characters that aren’t of my own making.

Another writing quirk of mine (besides engaging in what I call therapeutic vacuuming when I need to step away from a manuscript for a few minutes), is ducking out for a midweek movie matinee. Now that theaters are open again, I’ve been giving myself a welcome break from staring at my computer monitor by taking myself to the movies to stare at a much bigger screen.

I’d read several movie reviews for She Said, staring Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as New York Times investigative reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who chased down an incredibly complex story (while balancing their own lives) to expose movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s many crimes against women. Not to mention, the system that for decades helped him get away with his criminal behavior. When a She Said showing lined up perfectly with my designated procrastination block of time, I put off running random errands (and, ahem, that outline) for a trip to the movies instead.

Kantor and Twohey’s Pulitzer Prize winning reporting was also detailed in the book, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement , which the movie is based on, and has been on my to-read list for a while. I’m still going to read it especially after seeing the movie, which reminded me how all-consuming, stressful and, yes, exciting, chasing a story can be. While I never covered anything nearly as consequential as that, watching She Said renewed my appreciation for the people who do this vital work. Twohey and Kantor, along with the brave women who came forward, helped shape the #MeToo movement, and their experiences remind us of the importance of supporting the telling of these types of stories in any way we can.

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