How Writing is Like The Godfather

I love the Godfather movies.  I really do.  Well, I like the first one the best, of course.  Who doesn't? But all three are great.  I can't tell you how many times I've watched them, but it's a lot.

I still get a lump in my throat when Appolonia dies, and I want to slap Kay myself when she tells Michael that she aborted his child.  When Sonny charges out of the house in anger, I want to scream, "Don't go, Santino!  You'll die!" And watching the calm, cool, and collected Michael sit in that hotel room in Vegas confronting Moe Green about how he treated Fredo....he was the perfect image of power and control. I could go on, but we'd be here all day, and it has already been established that folks don't like to read very much.

I've had the opportunity to watch the films again in the last couple of weeks because it is the 40th anniversary of the release of the original, The Godfather, so several channels have had Godfather marathons and I just can't resist a Godfather marathon.  That is truly an offer I can't refuse.

As I watched Sonny die for the third time in one day recently, it occurred to me that writing has a lot in common with The Godfather. Bear with me while I connect some of the dots.

Santino is the archetype of the hot headed, "act now, think later" person.  He's the sloppy writer. He's the writer who doesn't think through his work and just writes as it comes into his head.  Sure, there's a time when this is ok (brainstorming for the writer; getting revenge for the shooting of his father for Santino), but it's usually not.

Sometimes, the piece that you're writing is more difficult than you expected.  I experience this a lot with grant writing when I am given incomplete information or the client changes their mind (again and again and again) about the program design. In these cases, I have to use all my powers and all my skills to get to a good product.  It reminds me of when Don Corleone brought his dead son to the funeral director and said, "I want you to use all your powers and all your skills" in reference to cleaning up Santino so his mother wouldn't have to see him like that.

The editing process can be brutal.  I've had pieces come back from editing so butchered that I wanted to yell, just like Don Corleone did in that same scene at the mortuary, "Look how they massacred my boy!"

Just as some writers are like Sonny, others are like Fredo - timid, not very skilled, holding on to someone else's coattails and then becoming resentful later because they thought they were responsible for all the success.  They just can't accept that they don't have the talent they want to have, and that eats them up on the inside. Some people just aren't made for the "family business."

The evolution of Michael is one of the most interesting comparisons to grant writing there is. As a young man, he was naive and he wanted to save the world.  He honestly believed that the family business would go legit.  New grant writers are naive and starry-eyed, too.  They think they can change the world with their writing and, to be fair, they really can change a lot, but soon they become the Godfather Michael - slick, skilled, knowledgeable, and a bit jaded. Finally, if they stick with it long enough, they become the Michael in Godfather III - back to believing in the power of good again, using his skill and power for good, but weary of the evil in the world.  In spite of that weariness, experienced grant writers keep going, still believing that they can make a real difference in the world.

And they do.