7 Movies Every Fantasy Writer Should Watch When Writer’s Block Hits (Plus Bonus Movies for Character/Plot Development)

Hey-oh guys, I don’t know quite where this idea came from, but it came, so I thought I’d do it. As a writer, I get ideas from everything, but most of the ideas come from sitting down and watching a good action-packed movie. It helps a lot when I have writer’s block we all get it, right? (If you don’t get writer’s block, you’re awesome!)

  So, I thought, hey, why don’t I make a list of movies that I watch when I have zero ideas and have no idea what I’m doing. I’ve never done anything like this list before, so sorry if it is totally horribly done.

   Okay, here goes nothing. 

1 – BBC Robin Hood Series

Okay, so most people (or at least the people I talk to about this) haven’t heard of the BBC Robin Hood Series, which is really disappointing because I love it! I mean, LOVE it! We’ve watched like every Robin Hood ever (except the new one because our brothers said it was, eh), and this series is the best! I mean, the BEST Robin Hood ever made. Now you may say, ‘Okay, this sounds cool, but how is it going to help me any?’ Well, let me explain myself.

• It has great lovable characters, both boys and girls. I love them all because they make such a great team. I always reference them when making characters for my books, they’re just all perfect, well-built characters. Between them, you have the perfect mixture of humor and seriousness, a great plan for when you’re building your own characters.
• The villains are great! The Sheriff is just awesome. He is so evil yet funny. He is just a great villain. He’s like my favorite villain ever, and Sir Guy of Gisborne is so cool! He’s I don’t know, he’s just great. I lean on him a lot when making villains for my books. But you put the Sheriff and Sir Guy together, oh wow! They just hate each other, but they are also so clever. Plus, the way they argue is so good!
• The sword fighting and archery are on point! That has been so helpful in my writing (especially when I have no idea what I’m doing). The way the scenes are laid out you get a good view of the fight or shot, which makes it easy to understand what’s going on, it has helped improve my fight scenes a lot! The horse chases are also really epic.

2 – Ever After

   This is a great Cinderella retelling which I grew up watching with our mom. So well done, another fav!

• Danielle is just so fiery and spirited, she is so awesome! She is just a great girl character, which is kind of hard to find for me because I’m really picky when it comes to girl characters being totally awesome. People just don’t do girl characters so well, they’re either perfect at everything or way too dramatic, but Danielle is perfectly done. She’s fiery and can totally kick butt, but she is also gentle and kind such a great mix! It helps me a lot when writing about girl characters. Sometimes, I’ll just stop and think, “what would Danielle do?” And of course, Prince Henry is great too! He is so rebellious. He is such a great ‘prince don’t wanna be a prince character.’ I love them both, and they’re so helpful to reference.
• The stepmother and stepsisters are great. The stepmother is so evilly clever. I like her because, oftentimes, I’m really bad at girl villains, so she helps a lot with the bad girls in my own stuff. Of course, we can’t forget Pierre Le Pieu, a great creepy, cool character. He’s a really great reference for the ‘Everyone thinks I’m mean but what you don’t know is I’m really the bad guy.’
• The Action is so useful! The horse chases are especially well done and so useful because I’m terrible at horse chases, so this is very helpful for me. The part where Prince Henry and the thief are rolling down that cliff…lol…that’s great!

3 – How to Train Your Dragon

   I love these movies! It’s like my favorite animated movie! I love all the movies, especially the second one. The show Race to the Edge is really great as well. If you are writing something with or about dragons this is must watch! (which btw I do a LOT, I love dragons!)

• Hiccup is such a great character, you just gotta love the characters like him who think they can’t do anything, and then boom! They just saved the world, so great! I love those kinds of characters I make them a lot so Hiccup is a great reference. (also, I love his hair in the second movie, we all do! We’ll be making a boy character and one of us will ask, ‘what kind of hair should he…” and the others jump in, “Hiccup hair!’ Lol…) Astrid is so great! A really great girl character, we love her so much! If you’re looking for a feisty, totally just kicked bad guys butt girl, Astrid is it.
• The villains, well there isn’t much to say here except Drogo Bloodfist is pretty creepy and EVIL! If you’re looking for a totally unmerciful villain, Drogo is him. Race to the Edge has some pretty great villains too.
• The fighting and dragon-riding, on point! The dragon fights are so awesome! Especially the one with the dragon queen and Toothless, wow! I love that part! You really have to watch it it’s awesome and as a person who writes about dragons a lot, this is the best movie to watch before writing.

4 – Zorro (the series)

   Okay, I love this show! Grew up watching it with our dad and brothers, so good!

• Zorro/Diego is great! He’s funny and clever, I love him so much. He just makes the bad guys so mad it’s so funny! Victoria is so great too, she’s so nice, yet fiery when she wants to be. They are great characters.
• Uh, the villains are great, I love how angry they get at Zorro and each other…hahaha… I love that they’re like looking everywhere for Zorro but they talk to him and don’t even know, it’s great. Diego always just smiles and nods whenever anyone is talking about Zorro it is so funny.
• The fencing is great! So well done. I love it! The horse chases and gunfights are great, love them!

5 – Narnia

   Need I say more, it’s AWESOME!!!!! *drops tablet and hides under the bed, ‘I can’t write about Narnia there aren’t enough words that mean awesome!’*

• Okay, like I said it’s awesome! Um, all the characters are like the best! I can’t describe them. Uh, they’re awesome, especially Edmund, Caspian, Reepicheep, and Aslan!
• Okay, can I just say the White Witch is awful! We can all agree on that, right? Like a good kind of awful.
• The fighting, how do I describe the fighting? Uh, the fighting, the fighting is what my whole writing career hangs on, without Narnia my writing has no meaning.

Okay, yeah sorry about the drama but you can’t describe Narnia, you just have to watch it, it’s AWESOME!

6 – Star Wars

    Another one that can’t quite be described. Uh, AMAZING! Yeah, that’s a nice word for it, AMAZING!

• Characters…Uh, yikes! I can’t describe them! Han Solo, Luke, Obi-Wan, Padme, and Qui-Gon Jinn, oh and Yoda are the best! So great, I love them!
• Uh, okay the Sith Lord is the worst, creepiest guy ever! Darth Vader is awesome! Darth Maul is creepy but cool. Kylo Ren…meh.
• The fighting, awesome! Especially in Revenge of the Sith, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, the best fight scenes ever! Oh, and the fight at the end of The Phantom Menance is great too!

Wow! I totally didn’t do that justice. You can’t describe Star Wars you just have to watch it! The fight scenes are very helpful for writing though, like so helpful….at least in the old movies. Sorry ladies but Rey just doesn’t know how to use a lightsaber.

7- The Hobbit / Lord of the Rings

   Okay, so I haven’t actually watched these yet, but Kayti says they are very helpful! Lol…I really need to watch these…hahaha.

Bonus movies!!!

  These are some great movies that have helped me a lot with my writing. They all have such great characters and plots, you must watch them!

Lark Rise to Candleford

Aladdin (Live Action)

National Treasure

Pan (A Peter Pan retellingish thing)

Cinderella (2016 Live Action)

Jungle Book (2016 Live Action)

Beyond the Mask

Tah-dah! Hope this made sense, like I said never done anything like this before…lol…kind of felt a little ridiculous doing it…hahaha…anyway hope these movies will help you grow as a writer, or if you’re stumped on what to do maybe they’ll help you get unstuck. I know they helped me. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments and if you have any movies that you watch that help you with your writing or that you watch when you get writer’s block (cause let’s face it, it happens to everyone) feel free to share. Always looking for new movies (cause I get writer’s block a LOT…lol…).

Btw, I think I just broke a record for how many times the word ‘great’ could be used in the same post…lol….

God Bless! Have a great day!

Jaidie