I don't see humor as some sort of shrunken or deficient cousin of "real" writing.
Great songwriting is not a poor man's poetry, or a distant cousin to "real" writing.
All three prefer Stein's "real" writing to the "audience" writing, and when I confessed — as I am often obliged to — that the "real" writing is not congenial to me, they looked at me pityingly.
But I couldn't figure out how to make the transition from diligent generator of little items and the occasional mini-essay to what I thought of as "real" writing.
That doesn't mean "real" writing is harder or worthier than screenwriting (and I have found writing with another person, as screenwriters often must, to be much more difficult than doing it alone).
"Staying on Alone" shows her to be an excellent letter writer — which could never be said for Stein, who simply didn't bother, saving herself for her half hour of "real" writing.
Some of their annoyance with such women threads its way through the film, as Eliza tries, in fits and starts, to move back into the world of what she considers "real" writing.
Far too many of them contain the kind of verbal filler ("I would argue that," "I have tried to show," "It is worth pointing out," "I want to make clear," "An argument could be made," "It is worth restating") that strangles real writing.
And to the real writing staff of this show- take in our jealousy, you deserve it.
In a real writing class, everyone is exquisitely sensitive to the need to be polite when commenting on someone else's work.
Michelle Malkin posted an entry on her conservative blog titled "Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real," writing, "[T]he piece of crap report issued on April 7 is a sweeping indictment of conservatives".
