skip to main |
skip to sidebar
“You enter the extraordinary by way of the ordinary.” ~Frederick Buechner
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“All real art comes from the deepest
self—painting, writing, music, and dance, all of it that in some way nourishes
the spirit and enriches the understanding.” Frederick Buechner
The reality of common day-to-day activities can also be
developed into shadows, as both passages from long ago or as foretelling to the
future. These symbols also have the potential to tap into echoes and allusions
and metaphors that build a bridge to both.
For example, in our early draft we just write everything
down as it comes to us through our senses. Usually we lean on ordinary words
for basic descriptions. Then we go back through to paint in feelings and
scenery and ambiance. But sometimes we’re still stuck with the ordinary because
it’s so familiar that other thoughts or phrases just won’t come to mind without
sounding artificial or planted.
Memories can be quite elusive when it comes to recognizing
their truths. We tend to look at them through filtered lenses, rose-colored for
positive and shaded for negative, automatically changing their initial reality
and impact.
But our sensory memories don’t cloud the recall. Whether we
appreciate them or not, just a brief taste, or fragrance, or sound can catapult
us in an instant. Or, at the least, we have an emotional reaction to the input
and don’t know quite why. And the senses sharpen the pleasure or the pain, even
when we try to forget.
In the historical romance “A Memory Between Us,” by Sarah Sundin, army nurse Lieutenant Ruth
Doherty remembers her past well. In fact, so well, that she has built a
protective emotional barrier around herself to keep it locked up. She stays
focused and stays professional. And if it should try to derail her, she turns
to well-honed defense mechanisms to lock it back.
But eventually she takes a step towards love, accepts a kiss
for a brief moment of yearning and then the sensory memory attacks, robbing her
of present happiness, and skidding her backwards when: “His breath stank of beer and sausage. He ground the broken watch glass
into her wrist, ground the truth into her head: ‘You’ll never get rid of me.
You’ll always see my face.’”
And so she runs from the present honorable man, convinced she
will never be freed from the pain.
Action Steps:
1. Make a sensory list for your
character. From each category choose her most favorite memory, and her most
horrible memory. Which one is the most dramatic, or the most humorous? Look for
a place in one of your scenes to use this memory to create friction with
another character.
2. Choose a turning point memory
in your own life, or for your character. Write it up with as many details as
possible. Don’t worry about overwriting it. Pour in sensory specifics.
3. Now color code the sensory
highlights as if you were filling in a stained glass window or a
paint-by-number. Which color is predominant?
4. Next re-write as a scene capturing
that particular focus or echo.
5. If you have written the scene
as fiction—now redo as non-fiction or vice versa.
Share: What differences did you see between the two? How did
your emphasis of focus change between the imaginary and the real?
If
it’s not too personal, please share one phrase of that scene.
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“I love doing
something like this because you’re dealing with some of the best poetry that
anyone’s ever written. And this poetry involves deep emotions: love and
gentleness and caring.” Actor Scott Glenn
It is important that the emotional resonance works. Regardless of genre, symbols and
metaphors as echoes can come from art or music, from sports or food, and many
other ordinary sources. What would the Siren’s song look like in a Dr. Who
episode? What nectar filters through a romance? Taking a familiar symbol and
redesigning its purpose enhances resonance.
The film Simply
Irresistible adds an echo of fairy dust to the heroine’s cooking. Although
I personally did not like the film Waitress,
I admired all the pie creations. The foundation began with a strong echo of
small town America by using a local diner, pies, and struggling waitresses.
In the sci-fi series Firefly,
episode two, incorporates a confrontation between the Captain and an old
adversary by echoing old westerns. They meet in a deserted area, with snipers
up on the hills instead of wooden buildings. The self-designated ‘mayor’ rides
up on horseback with her posse. The setting provides familiar emotional
territory in an unfamiliar future.
Metaphors help create “a holy curiosity” by capturing our
attention. They catch us up and we pause instead of racing past words. Like
Moses we turn to see why the burning bush is not consumed. We allow the
concepts to soak slowly into our emotions.
In the movie, The
Seventh Stream, grief-laden widower Quinn is a man of logic. He believes in
only what he can see and feel and “sometimes not even that.” When a mysterious
woman appears in their fishing village he cannot accept that she is walking off
the pages of a legend.
However, he recognizes her inner turmoil instantly and her
emotional pain strikes his heart. With her pure heart insight as a selkie, a
seal in human form, she discerns his loneliness and uses it to build a bridge
of communication, a bridge of possibility. Gradually both Quinn and the
audience begin to accept the truth of what she is and identify with the
emotional echo both share. Reality and imagination intersect.
Action Steps:
1. For yourself, or for one of
your characters, choose a painful emotion. Then write a short scene where
another person bridges that pain with healing by use of metaphoric symbol or
image.
2. How does that touch make the
pain better, or at least bearable?
Share: What echo did you choose?
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“Three women cackle
over a steaming pot? We know we’re in the presence of evil, thanks to William
Shakespeare, even though these three women may live in Winnipeg and ride
motorcycles.” Jack Hodgins
Symbols as
Allusions and Echoes
Often we can find our echoes of metaphor, symbols, and
allusions through our personal history, literature, scripture, folk-tales,
songs and culture. These characters, phrases, and patterns continue to add
depth and enrich resonance to our readers.
Jack Hodgins, A
Passion for Narrative, points out that we can add depth by making stories
connect to other stories by allusions, or implied comparisons, or with passages
that echo passages we recognize from somewhere else. Usually these are
characters, phrases or patterns that make us think of other stories that have
had an effect on us. Boy—raft. Dust bowl—Depression. Cowboys—West. These are
familiar touchstones in American literature. But we’ve also incorporated other
allusions into the cultural history: Holy Grail, Voyages, Hobbits, and Aliens.
We need to keep “listening” to our stories. Don’t force a
symbol, or theme, but watch and see through the brainstorming and drafts what
rises to the surface. However, once you see the comparisons, or know some
themes, look for ways to enhance them naturally.
If a particular metaphor keeps echoing through the work
examine it for the potential to either become a symbol you incorporate, or keep
as a symbol for yourself writing towards it without stating what it is.
According to Hodgins, although being aware of the reason
behind it can add more depth and richness and humor when done well. For your
reader though, it is better to be so subtle that it’s almost unnoticed.
Although it’s really not necessary that your reader get the echo reference,
however, if you choose to use it you must know what it means, and use it
properly so that you’re not misinterpreting the basis. The other possibility is
completely reversing it, as in a parody.
Action Steps:
1.
In the most recent movie you’ve seen what memory
echoes did you notice—either as positive or negative—that applied to you
personally?
2.
Consider your most favorite movie and identify
the echoes you respond to in it.
3.
If you have a favorite genre in movies, what key
metaphors or connections do you expect to see?
Share: Did you discover any surprises in the characters, the
phrases, or patterns?
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“Every poetic image,
therefore, is to some degree metaphorical. It looks out from a mirror in which
life perceives not so much its face as some truth about its face.” C. Day
Lewis
A tree is often used as a symbol or metaphor of growth and
life. However, in reverse, it can also impact story by exposing lies and
shadows. Fairy tales and folk tales are rich with living images in all forms,
literally and figuratively. Scriptures too remind us that choices spread beyond immediate
actions.
“For the creation was
subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who
subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its
bondage to decay.” Romans 8: 20-21 NRSV
In the opening of the movie Penelope, a curse is laid upon the family for their refusal to take
responsibility for their actions. The tree is the courtyard falls into
immediate decay as well. Yet it doesn’t die. Instead it remains as a visual
image reminding the family and others of the curse. Even if they try to pretend
it doesn’t exist, the tree stands in judgment as a silent metaphor.
And it raises story questions such as why are women willing
to marry into this family? Do they not believe in the curse or do they not
care? Or because it was a tree did they believe that growth would come again to
restore life?
What metaphor warning could your character not see or
acknowledge? Or what warning does she represent to others? Silent metaphors
woven into your setting can speak into volumes of interpretation.
Action Steps:
1.
Brainstorm a list of growing vegetation, or
other geographic elements, that could be a metaphor for loss to your
protagonist and then be restored at the end of his ordeal.
2.
How do you hope your reader will interpret it?
Share: What did you choose and why?
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“Art washes away from
the soul the dust of everyday life.” Pablo Picasso
Reading for
Interpretation
This creates opportunities for both perspective and voice.
What part of a scene or image do you want the reader to understand the most or
identify with? Two well-known
poets have used the same source with startling differences while at the same
time remaining true to the story they explore.
The Fall of Icarus by
Breughel
1. Read over the following interpretations of the myth of
Icarus. What do they have in common?
2. What do they each choose as the special focus point
either in theme or detail?
3. Both poems were written in response to the same painting yet
they both reflect the actual myth itself as if they hadn’t seen the painting.
How?
4. See number three exercise in movie prompt at the very
end.
William Carlos Williams, “Landscape
with the Fall of Icarus”
According
to Brueghel
when
Icarus fell
it
was spring
a
farmer was ploughing
his field
the whole
pageantry
of the year was
awake tingling
near
sweating in the sun
that melted
the wing’s wax
unsignificantly
off the coast
there was
a splash quite
unnoticed
this was
Icarus drowning.
Musee des Beaux
Arts by W.H.
Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
Which version affected you the most? Why?
Action Steps: Movie
Prompt
1. Take one particular scene from
a recent movie you’ve already watched and put it on pause. Whether you like to
write poetry or not pick out words and phrases from the visual sight that you
would incorporate in a poem, with the idea that a reader may, or may not, see
this ‘painting’ for themselves.
2. Write a poem based on your
selections just for the fun of it.
3. Do the same exercise for a
visual scene in your own novel.
Share: Did you notice anything in this scene that you missed
the first time around?
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“Creativity is itself an act of optimism.” Edward Albee
Literal to Figurative
Language
Not every sentence needs the depth of imagery or else the
whole becomes diluted. However using figurative language can enhance a key
quality, or theme, or conflict. The best ones are the subtle images that speak
softly into our hearts.
For example, information boards and kiosks, from local
hiking trails to prestigious museums, have one common note. “You are here.” The
X marks the spot. These literal markers add a sense of safety and security
emotionally. Disorientation in physical surroundings often can result in immediate
stress. Adventurers may react with an adrenaline rush of excitement, but for
others it can raise fearful memories of no measure of control.
In the movie Moonacre,
orphan Maria Merryweather is introduced to her new country home as her new
uncle takes her around the land, marking out boundaries, and giving clear
warnings as to where she should not go. He refuses any explanations for dictated
external dangers and her confusion. He tells her what she may and may not do,
and then dismisses her with curt exits.
Left with only a partial map of her new surroundings, she
attempts to find some solid ground emotionally and figuratively as she tumbles
into even more bewildering situations.
Action Steps:
1.Take your character to the home
of a relative that she never knew existed. Literally or figuratively, close the
door behind her. How does she get her bearings in this place?
Share: What emotional roller coaster does it unleash?
Bonus Exercise: This
next suggestion comes from the Nature Writing
Handbook. “In this exercise we will
attempt to change literal language into figurative language. In each sentence,
the underlined word is used literally. Write a sentence in which the word is
used figuratively.”
Given Example. “The
aspen leaves trembled in the wind. (response¾The
Northern lights trembled in the Alaskan night sky like the thoughts of a mother
sleepless with concern for her baby)”
Some additional sentence examples for practice included
different aspects of nature.
“1.The porpoises swam beside the boat.
2.The flowers drooped under the hailstorm.
3.The volcano exploded quite suddenly.”
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“A novel is never anything but a philosophy put into
images.” Albert Camus
Metaphor Connections
in Sentences
Using the right choice of metaphors and similes to partner
with verbs can give sentences an extra kick without being obvious. It can
sometimes be a silent way to enhance emotions, danger, mystery, and curiosity.
They give the readers of sense of satisfaction when the connections fit the
circumstances but also can create confusion when the link is even slightly off
the intended mark.
Author Ron Koertge offered this example in a writing workshop.
Take a sentence and list five or more possible images. Then choose the most
effective.
Sentence example: “In his rage my father would bang on the wall like a
---------.”
“Hammer,
or wrecking ball, or baboon, or caged gorilla.”
Rage—bang is the main concept, so it will make the metaphor
more accurate to use hammer. It visually gives the reader the sense of
repetition in the anger.
The key here is to follow through the possible thought and
“see” it as an image. Watch the sentence unfold as a silent screen. What do you
need to come next?
If for instance the wrecking ball is chosen, then there is
no next sentence or scene. Everything has been demolished. And the original
beginning indicates this is a repetitive behavior.
A caged gorilla doesn’t make sense either, as they would
most likely shake their bars but not pound repeatedly. And general images of a
baboon are often of pounding his own chest.
When some of our sentences seem too passive we can play with
other verbs or word associations to strengthen the image we want to linger.
However, like purple prose, it is not for overuse either. But when we want a
hint to the story atmosphere, or characterization, these connections can help
build a stronger sentence and image.
Action Steps:
1. When you next read a book in
your favorite genre pay attention to the images and emotions that the author
quietly indicates through individual sentences.
2. Note which ones make sense to
you and which make you stop to reread the sentence.
3. Look through your own draft and
look for your own connecting images to see if they still fit the atmosphere.
Share: Where you surprised by any you found—either
positively or negatively?
Read deep, marcy
|
