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“You enter the extraordinary by way of the ordinary.” ~Frederick Buechner
Workshop:
Discover Words That Sing
“All this
time the Guard was looking at her, first through a telescope, then through a
microscope, and then through an opera glass.”
Lewis Carroll
One
year my grandson’s class did an art project studying Chagall. It was
fascinating to see the images these six year-olds chose to reflect in their
emerging sense of self-portrait and what they remembered as being important to
them. And satisfying to see that almost every child chose some depiction of
home or school as being a safe place. This is the age to be able to dream big
dreams, to become someone new every day and learn to stretch their imagination
into possibilities.
For
some, this season can become a root of direction. Perhaps not the actual future
vocation, but the essence of value begins to come to light. For others, it’s a
long journey. For all of us at any age it’s a struggle to know when to pursue a
dream, and when it needs to be altered.
One
little girl splashed dance all over her portrait, basically ignoring all the
other categories suggested as possibilities. Motion and movement poured out of
her. Will she become a dancer—only time will tell if that dream is a concrete
reality—but somewhere music will likely be a large part of her life.
Most
childhood dreams fade with laughter, however some fade leaving behind a dark
shadow when a piece of us become cut away along with the dream. Or dismissed as
being irrelevant—impossible—irresponsible.
Maybe
for ourselves, and our characters, we need to stop, reflect, remember our own dream
of our self-portrait and see if we’ve forgotten something important that needs
to be refreshed. Langston Hughes captures that essence in his poem, which I
have shared in an earlier blog.
Dreams by Langston Hughes
“Hold fast to dreams
For
if dreams die
Life
is a broken-winged bird
That
cannot fly
Hold
fast to dreams
For
when dreams go
Life
is a barren field
Frozen
with snow”
Action Steps:
1. Two prominent images here are the
broken-winged bird and the barren field. What are some feelings you associate
with these images?
2. What two or three words would your
character use to remember a broken dream?
3. Which of Langston’s words connect with
Carroll’s lens in the opening quote?
Share: One image
you chose and your reason why.
Read deep, marcy
Workshop:
Discover Words That Sing
“One is
poised on the Threshold of life waiting to be born. It’s an ongoing process.
Some of us are not happy unless we are born over and over again, still trying
to get it right.” Tim Wynne-Jones
And
sometimes we need a sense of ambiguity to discover new possibilities.
Memory
gives us the process of choice and decision-making and thresholds. Our
understanding grows and our perspectives shift. A right choice made once before
has now become a wrong choice. An ordinary day shifts suddenly into the
unexpected—sometimes by events—sometimes morally.
Scripture
stories, fairy-tales and folk-tales speak this language into our hearts. We’re
not left without access to wisdom or experience. Others have taken this journey
and we find hints how to find our way through.
The
day began on an ordinary walk through the woods with their father searching for
food, but this time Hansel and Gretel are abandoned. They step into the
unknown. Many of their choices are made without mature knowledge but they rely
on instinct. Red Riding Hood travels a familiar path to her
grandmother’s house, but comes back from one visit completely different, or is
she?
The
added beauty from a journey perspective is that the reality of common
day-to-day activities can be developed into shadows, as passages from long ago
or as foretelling to the future. All also have the potential to tap into echoes
and allusions and metaphors. It opens up creativity and new beginnings. “Which way is in and which way is out.”
Action
Steps:
Although nothing illegal has happened to your
protagonist, she begins to notice some discrepancies in the paperwork she is
responsible for tracking. When she asks her boss he dismisses it as
unimportant. However she realizes that only her signature is on the documents.
And she really needs this job.
1. What are her options?
2. What course of action does she choose and
why?
3. What effect could each of these
possibilities create?
Share:
What word best captures her dilemma?
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
In
her book, I Could tell You Stories,
Hampl explores the realm of memory in auto-biographical writing connected by
the impulse to remember. She pointed out that both Kafka and Rilke saw memory, “not experience”, as holding the
sovereign position in imagination.
For
herself Hampl discovered: “The
recognition of one’s genuine material seems to involve a fall from the phony
grace of good intentions and elevated expectations.”
Although
she shares via the route of memoir, this door of recognition applies to all
forms of writing. If we are unable to infuse our memories, or perhaps our
search for our memories into our work then we rob it of honest quest and
discovery and an imagination that connects. Each person’s voice is unique and
bears witness to life. But in order to share, we first need to identify what
really matters to us.
When
we enter into our vocations we need the community of artisans and colleagues to
teach and sharpen and encourage growth and skills. We learn from the collective
memory, some living and some dead, classroom by personal experience, or
classrooms through reading or other forms of art. In some ways it’s a modern
day version of guilds where skills can be passed down from generation to
generation. And everyone benefits.
However
when we are fortunate enough to find a mentor, that experience deepens into our
hearts and becomes a spiritual inheritance as well. They give us the tools that
help us identify our particular bent or purpose or skill within the body. And
when we stumble or lose our direction they give us their gift of memory by
asking questions that remind us why we started, and where our vision is, and
how to find our starting point again. They are a rare gift. They share from
generous hearts.
Stories
that will help us construct. Words passed along with commitment and humor, with
love and challenge, with hope and integrity. Words to be valued. Poured out
words.
Action
Steps:
1. Go down the list below and write next to
each category the words or ideas that sustain you when the road gets blurry or
helps you remember your goals.
Insight
Wisdom
Moral Foundation
Compass
Point
Quality of
Craft
“Calling”
Responsibility
Affirmation
2. Which concept or words can you give to
your characters?
Share: What is a
lifelong insight that you received from a mentor?
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“’You!’ said
the Caterpillar contemptuously. ‘Who are you?’” Lewis
Carroll
Sometimes
we need precise definitions to avoid confusion.
What
is the difference between a hero, a celebrity, and a role model?
When
I would ask my college students this question, as an introduction to a research
essay, at least half the students responded with a puzzled expression. Usually
one would have the courage to reply, “Aren’t they all the same?”
So
we would break out into small groups to write definitions and give examples and
talk out experiences. This was one set of essays I always looked forward to
reading to see how they discovered personal concrete definitions of their own
that related to their lives.
Two
quotes from our readings that drew the most discussion included the “hero evolves as the culture evolves”
according to Joseph Campbell discussing the hero’s adventure, and one article
re Rosa Parks that said, “Perhaps the
most interesting thing about her was how ordinary she was.”
In
some ways Rosa Parks did fit all three definitions but as the class continued
to research and discuss it became more obvious that it was outside perceptions
that created all the labels—and were not necessarily warranted in all
situations. Because of her personal integrity and genuine character, Rosa Parks
was already a role model who then became a news celebrity by her actions, and
has since become a hero.
But
then is a hero someone who does one amazing rescue, or a faithful parent who
shows up each day? How can we determine quality substance under media glitz?
And
then, how have our lives been influenced by those whom we desire to emulate?
What happens when we discover our ‘heroes’ have clay feet?
Have
you heard the saying that you are what you eat? The application applies to be
careful whom we have emulated, or do so now, and what we value as purpose in
life. And so do our characters.
Action
Steps:
1. Ask your character how she defines a hero,
a celebrity and a role model?
2. Based on her answers choose which one has
had the most personal influence on her?
3. Is the influence positive or negative?
Why?
Share:
What characteristic of your personal role model do you still try to emulate?
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover
Words That Sing
“The writer
is attempting to find that place in a reader’s consciousness where myth already
exists, to free the ghosts and archetypes that stalk about and haunt.”
Jack
Hodgins
Word
Ideas.
Color Exercise
1.
Choose any color except green or blue. Do a five to ten minute free-write on
anything that comes to mind for that color whether cliché or not. Remember to
include phrases that are already used in common language like yellowbelly or
red-eye. Don’t limit yourself to any particular category—just write down any
thoughts that come to mind regardless of how unusual.
Brainstorm
basics give us a foundation to build from. We develop an instinct for when we
need to connect details with our emotions, and also what particular methods
will be most effective. Often the brainstorm exercises can help to find the
bridges to connect with our characters in their worlds in order to deepen their
reality. And there are so many varieties to choose from. It’s good to have a
basic familiar style to jumpstart ideas and then one you often resist to
stretch the idea muscles.
Note: I
have not read the essay from which the following excerpt comes, and have no
knowledge or idea of what the original purpose is. My sole interest is the
intriguing way he references one color and the possibilities it raises to
develop word language literally and figuratively.
On Being Blue
A Philosophical Inquiry
by
William Gass
“Blue pencils, blue noses, blue movies, laws, blue
legs and stockings, the language of birds, bees, and flowers as sung by
longshoremen, that lead-like look the skin has when affected by cold,
contusion, sickness, fear; the rotten rum or gin they call blue ruin and the
blue devils of its delirium; Russian cats and oysters, a withheld or imprisoned
breath, the blue they say that diamonds have, deep holes in the ocean and the
blazers which English athletes earn that gentlemen may wear; afflictions of the
spirit — dumps, mopes, Mondays — all that's dismal — lowdown gloomy music, Nova
Scotians, cyanosis, hair rinse, bluing, bleach; the rare blue dahlia like that
blue moon shrewd things happen only once in, or the call for trumps in whist
(but who remembers whist or what the death of unplayed games is like?), and
correspondingly the flag, Blue Peter, which is our signal for getting under
way; a swift pitch, Confederate money, ……and, when in Hell, its neatly
landscaped rows of concrete huts and gas-blue flames; social registers,
examination booklets, blue bloods, balls, and bonnets, beards, coats, collars,
chips, and cheese . . . the pedantic, indecent and censorious . . . watered
twilight, sour sea: …..just as it's stood for fidelity.”
What words
most caught your attention or interest? Why? Which did you connect with and
which do find confusing?
Which
choice of words or categories he uses would fit most naturally into your own story’s
genre?
Action
Steps:
2. Take the list you wrote with your color choice and
now divide it into the categories with which William Gass has referenced the
color blue. For example, nature includes flowers, bees, and ocean. History
includes Civil War and the Holocaust. Metaphors include gloom and fidelity.
Don’t worry that some are confusing—just do the ones you recognize.
3. Now look back at your own list. Which references
are literal and which are figurative? What categories can you place your
connections in? What areas are missing? Can you add to them?
Share:
Which category and word captured your curiosity?
Read deep, marcy
Workshop: Discover Words That Sing
“We store in
memory only images of value.” Patricia Hampl
Tying
the echoes of emotional resonance into our stories adds texture and depth that
helps support a story’s truth. It deepens our vocabulary both literally and
figuratively. We can take the codes we discover and deepen our word threads to
connect personally—even in situations we have never personally experienced.
There
was a poster once on facebook that basically said, “If you are depressed—you’re living in the past; if you are
anxious—you’re living in the future; if you are at peace, you’re living in the
present.” It’s interesting that all three are tied to memories and how we
may process them.
For
example, in the historically era movie Hugo,
the father lives in his present. Life is not easy or simple. He is raising his
son alone, working two demanding jobs, has virtually no extra time to spare and
yet every moment is filled with quality. He is dedicated to his son and his
craft and his pleasure in both exude love and peace.
His
brother also dedicates himself to the quality of his craft, showing
considerable diligence, while at the same time drowning his life in alcohol.
There is a clue that at one point these two brothers worked together, but no
explanation is given of the separation. All we see are two, almost opposite,
approaches to life after a season of grief.
Hugo’s
new acquaintance George Melie’s has buried his dreams and spent over a decade
trying not to remember. Yet when the past begins to crack open into the present,
he reacts with anxiety, fear and anger. He fights the possibility of a future
that might flood him with despair again.
Hugo
teeters between all three as he processes his own loss. He clings to hope by
spending each day faithful to the legacy of craft given by his father, and
uncle. He dreams of a future to push back the emotional pain, but hovers on
anxiety as every step closer also brings the threat of more loss. Every day he
must make the choice to follow peace in the present.
Memory
holds our emotional reservoir, both personal and public. Some memories are
buried so deep that we don’t recognize them when they echo in the present. We
have a fleeting pang or touch of comfort, and wonder why. We need these echoes
to help us bridge understanding and communication with others. Regardless of
language or status we immediately connect, or recognize, the joy of a newborn
child or the grief of a death.
Digging
deeper into memories for ourselves, and our characters, enable us to deepen
vocabulary regardless of genre. And connect with our readers in their settings,
their vocations, their character traits, and their traumas.
Action
Steps:
1. What past grief or potential future grief
is your character facing?
2. Write out a sketch of his personality
change for each version: anxious, depressed or at peace.
3. What circumstances could fuel that
outcome?
Share:
Did any reaction surprise you? Why or why not?
Read deep, marcy
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