Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“Thresholds are
necessary in the creative process in giving an idea somewhere to go.” Tim
Wynne-Jones
Themes
Earlier in Deepen Vocabulary we looked at some ways we can influence
our words with ambiguity like crossing a threshold. Here we’re looking at
thresholds as an example of conveying image symbols with almost silent
connections that undergird themes like the web threads without being as direct.
Themes can often become a silent and powerful tool for typology impact through
questions and choices and possibilities. Whether the purpose is for one scene
only or an ongoing thread it invites personal participation.
Do we open the locked
door at the end of the spider-coated hallway? Are we ready to hear the words
written in the old manuscripts found buried under the house?
When Eve saw that the tree God had forbidden, “was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and
she gave it also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
Pandora
couldn’t contain her curiosity and opened the box. “Out flew every kind of disease and sickness, hate and envy, and all the
bad things that people had never experienced before. Pandora slammed the lid
closed, but it was too late.”
Both these
women were well warned before they succumbed to temptation, but what about the
times there are no clear directions. We have good reason to hesitate before the
unknown. When do we need courage
to resist a threshold, because the consequences are beyond our control and
could bring great suffering, or risk stepping into the unknown to bring light
into darkness?
If Lucy had
not opened the door at the back of the wardrobe and discovered Narnia, she and
her siblings would not have been instrumental in breaking the White Witch’s
spell. By willingly entering the Beast’s palace, Belle breaks the curse.
Hercule Poirot follows every lead possible until he can bring a culprit to
justice.
Change, no matter how small, can create mental and emotional chaos as
you turn into a different direction, physically or emotionally. To cross a
threshold though requires a choice, even if it has been forced upon you like a
refugee fleeing his war torn land. All sensory memory is heightened and
sharpened. It is not just the moment that is at stake, but the journey that
follows it. Thresholds become part of our soul shadows as much as our physical
bodies cast their shadow. And the question can linger. “Did I choose the right
fork in the road?”
Action Steps:
1. Look at the literal thresholds in
your character’s daily world and choose one to explore as a figurative
threshold.
2. Think of ways they could become a
life-changing threshold for your character: doors, windows, cupboards, gardens,
railroads, or books.
3. And/or put your character into a moment of choice. Overwrite all
the sensory details in the initial draft. Then write up the brief scene twice,
once for each possible decision: to flee or fight, or to submit the accepted
dogma either socially or personally.
Share: What main theme connection did you choose? Why?
Read deep, marcy
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