You Had To Be There
Posted: January 31, 2008 Filed under: Writers Write 2 Comments »
This week I saw the comedian, Steve Martin, interviewed by Charlie Rose. Martin was promoting his book, Born Standing Up. I haven’t read the book yet, but since this show, it’s on my “to be read” list.
When Martin was in high school, his group of friends loved to laugh. They laughed until they fell on the floor and tears rolled down their faces. Those belly laughs were so overwhelming they almost hurt. The memory prompted Martin to wonder, “Why don’t people laugh like that at standup comedians?” Instead, the audience listens to the joke and waits for the punch line. When the comedian delivers, the joke gets a chuckle or polite applause, but the response never reaches the level of breath-interrupting, tear-inducing, wet-your-pants-it’s-so-funny kind of laughter that happens between friends.
Martin’s conclusion? Those moments came from a different place. The interaction between friends made the jokes more personal than watching Leno’s monologue after the late-night local news. Being on the outside of one of those episodes leaves us asking, “What did I miss?” The response is “You had to be there.”
Capturing the “You had to be there” moment is what a writer does on the page. We make it personal by immersing our reader in the lives of the characters we write. I’m learning to do this, but I don’t hold the keys to the universe, yet. I know how it feels when I read something that transports me. The words become a part of my experience. My favorite authors make those experiences possible. I want that from them, and I want to do that for my readers.
I went for a walk in the park a few days ago. It was drizzling again, and cold. I pushed my hands deep into my coat pockets as I crossed the ravine on the elevated footbridge. I must have been talking to myself–immersed in the pages I wrote that morning, or the laundry that I hadn’t finished, or the dinner that I was going to cook.
Still on the bridge, I felt eyes watching me. I stopped and looked out. Then I saw him. On the branch of a live oak tree, less than ten feet away, a huge bird sat on his perch. The golden eyes of a Red Shouldered Hawk locked with mine. He lingered only a few breaths before he flew another 100 feet and turned back to look at me, eye-to-eye for the second time. I held my breath, and stared back. When he broke the gaze, I turned and walked away. We had our moment. It was personal. I couldn’t get him out of my head for the rest of the day.
You had to be there.
Steve Martin’s book
Red Shouldered Hawk
http://www.briansmallphoto.com/photo/rsha.jpg
and
http://gallery.photo.net/photo/3205389-md.jpg
Looking For Inspiration
Posted: January 26, 2008 Filed under: Housekeeping Leave a comment »
I’m looking for something to write about this week. Here are a few random thoughts.
I heard this aerosol can hissing sound in the kitchen. After several days, I decided that it was coming from the refrigerator. When I pulled the big white box out of its place, I found a small puddle of water. It’s a bad thing to have a wood floor in a kitchen. I called the appliance guy. He is a very important person to know if you have a hard time parting with cash. You see, Sears charges $169 per house call, even if they do nothing. The appliance guy charges $25. He shined a flashlight into the back of the freezer and told me what I already knew.
“You have a leak,” and then, he told me the bad news, “It is leaking behind the inside wall of the freezer. Unplug it for three days and call me when the ice melts.”
I rolled the giant box into the family room that has a water friendly, brick floor. Then, I waited. Three days and a jillion trips to the grocery store later, Appliance Guy returns. He fixed the machine for less than a hundred dollars. End of story.
Bacon sort of started a new job. He went for training for a temporary (hopes to make permanent) position at a major educational publishing company. After the single day of training, he must sit and wait until they call him again. He may be sitting until mid-February, or they may call him in on Monday. It’s all up in the air, just like it has been for months. I named my husband, Bacon, but I’m still waiting for him to bring some home.
Because we have this disrupted routine, it is impossible to plan anything. Leaving town isn’t an option. Staying means being inside way too much. Our winter has turned into cold, wet spit. It’s not really rain, and it’s not ice. Instead, we have wet drizzle approximately 36 degrees Fahrenheit. It feels like cold hippo spit.
It’s lousy weather for taking pictures. I went outside and pointed the camera at the single green thing in my yard, a clump of cilantro. I photographed the bare branches of the hackberry tree. The birds won’t stay still long enough to get a good shot, especially if the dog is hanging around. Lilly Tang, the schnauzer, looks innocent enough, but she is a sneaky bird murderer.
Goals for this week, 1/24/08
Posted: January 24, 2008 Filed under: Goals 1 Comment »
1. Morning pages. I did them last week. I’m a wreck without those pages. I need to do them earlier than I do. They clear my head for everything else.
2. Blog twice a week.
3. Read a book.
4. Rewrite Act 1. The outline is finished from the opening scene through the second turning point. The scenes from my Don’t Look Down draft have been transferred to a file saved as Act 1. I need to get to work. I have no clue how long it will take to crunch those words.
5. Walk. The worst of cedar pollen season is over. I can go outside again without getting sick. I need to get moving. Walking helps me to think.
