Back Seat Percussion

Last night we went to the Lenten supper and service at my church. The children stay downstairs during the service and have a little lesson during the time the adults are in worship. Last night, they were talking about musical instruments during Biblical times. They made homemade maracas by the simple expedient of putting uncooked rice into sealed margerine tubs.

They forgot them in the back seat of the car when they came in last night, and so the marimbas were still in the car this morning. This proved very convenient, as it enabled the girls to provide some lively percussion on the drive in to the YMCA this morning (they are spending the day there during this Spring Break week). We listened to the KSJN Morning Show, and the girls enthusiastically shook their maracas as John McCutcheon sang "When I Grow Up." What a nice, cheerful sound on a dreary, cold, gray morning.

Cheers,
Peg

Here's Kij wearing something totally uncharacteristic

Here are some pictures of my best friend kijjohnson wearing one of radcliffe's costume creations.

The pictures are lovely but (*boggles*) I've never seen her in a bustle before.

Cheers,
Peg

Someone worth reading

msscribe sent me a message recently, asking me questions about "becoming a writer."

Judging from this, she doesn't have to worry.

She's a writer already. And a damn fine one.

P.

Getting the voice right

I've been thinking about the (short) scene I wrote this morning and e-mailed to kijjohnson. It was an acceptable scene, I suppose, but I realized after I sent it that I probably didn't have Solveig's voice right. I had her getting emotional, and if I want to make her thinking oriented rather than feeling oriented, I have to approach it differently.

'Course, I can change my mind if I want to. But I think I do want to stick with trying to make Solveig thinking oriented, because that ties more closely into the heart of stone theme I'm exploring. I must think about how to handle this technically. She doesn't cry. She doesn't get upset. So how do I signal that something is a big deal for her? All my usual writing tricks (tears, big angst-y heartfelt speeches, yelling, etc.) won't work with her, if you will.

I realize that I don't have either Solveig or Jack's "voice" quite right yet. By this I don't mean whether they are soprano or baritone, but a confidence I can snap off a line of dialogue as either of them without thinking about it, and know that what comes out will be truly what their character would say. Solveig's much closer than Jack. With Jack, it gets back to my uneasy feeling I can't write a smart ass. Does he have to be a smart ass? What if he isn't?

This technique I'm using, of writing a lot of little scenes without worrying (yet) whether they'll even be in the book is quite useful for this process. It's like focusing a camera. Or stalking the wild wildebeest, or something (not this direction. Okay, turn and go this direction. No? Hmm. Try this direction.)

What I tell beginning writers, over and over again, is that the mistake that so many of them make is to think that writing is liking sculpting marble: one slip of the chisel, and you've lopped off Venus de Milo's arm. No, what writing is really like is sculpting on the potters wheel. You slap a bunch of clay on the wheel, you pour water on, you shape it, squeeze it, take a chunk off, put a large chunk back on, and what you're working with is very pliable. You just have to be sure to put enough clay on the wheel to start with. This writing method I'm using is like playing. I'm still trying to find the "shape" of the piece I'm working with, playing with different possibilities for Jack and Solveig's voices. Rather like an actor might try out several possibilities before settling on the interpretation of a character. Hopefully, I'll get closer and closer to what I want as I go along.

Cheers,
Peg