Comments on: snooping

By: cynthia

cynthia — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:04:51 +0000

Thanks, Linda. Refrigerators, hall closets, glove compartments, attics, that little drawer by the bed, the one under the phone in the kitchen–what we can’t part with, and then the trash–what we want to get rid of and sometimesin a hurry. Fascinating if we’re trying to figure out what it says about us/our characters.

By: cynthia

cynthia — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:48:56 +0000

Thanks, Stephen. I appreciate your comment. Hope you’ll be back.

By: cynthia

cynthia — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:27:12 +0000

Christina-Thanks for your comment. I hope your character’s trash is revealing. And I hope we’ll see you here again!

By: Linda

Linda — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:25:03 +0000

Thanks for bringing this book to my attention. This will be a must read, maybe more for myself than for my writing, as I do tend to look at my characters in this way. On second thought, even though I do know what’s in their refrigerators, maybe I should look into their trash. Hmmm.

You’re always an inspiration.

By: Stephen Tremp

Stephen Tremp — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:51:45 +0000

Great post….. I’m constantly looking for new ways to develop my characters and differentiate them from each other. Its easy to make them talk alike and forget about giving them distinct quirks and nuances.

Stephen Tremp

By: cynthia

cynthia — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:29:22 +0000

Walt! Thank you for taking the time to list all the tidbits that have accumulated over time in your studio. Your list is proof positive that details such as these tell “the reader” so much about character.

I have accumulated similar layers in my study and now I want to delicately unearth them to make my own list. It would probably take three pages to list all the “little things” on my desk alone.

And as for my Big Dipper Clarity (alias Charity) candle, the next time you’re here, click on the THINGS tab in the header above : ) My favorite one, other than clarity, is enlightenment!

By: cynthia

cynthia — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:15:51 +0000

Thanks for your comment, Barb!

By: Christina

Christina — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:15:15 +0000

As others have said, what a great idea to use the ideas of this book to enrich your fiction writing! In fact, that prompt at the end of your post — what’s in your character’s trash? — sounds like so much fun that I think I’m going to use it as soon as I finish this comment! Thanks also for the book excerpts. Sounds like a fascinating read.

By: Walt Pascoe

Walt Pascoe — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:07:46 +0000

…and I managed to typo your Big Dipper Clarity candle into a Big Dipper Charity candle…hmmm…

By: Walt Pascoe

Walt Pascoe — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:02:42 +0000

Identity is “the thread that ties the experiences of our past, present, and future into one narrative.”
“It is a story you tell about yourself to make sense out of what has happened in the past and kind of person you are now.”

He really nails it. The process of construction and revision we all engage in. Some people almost completely unconscious about it. And on the other end of the spectrum those who are hyper conscious, either by inclination, profession or both.

Artists are notorious. Almost every available inch of my studio office is covered w/ layer upon layer of these “bits”. Years of accumulated clippings from magazines, post cards, sketches, framed pictures, memorabilia of every imaginable kind from events sacred and profane. Some are 4 or 5 layers deep…and taking a couple things down momentarily for closer examination or a look at the back will frequently yield strange archeological discoveries: foxed pages draped w/ dust that has cohered into something resembling Spanish Moss, and painted by the sun w/ a delicate chiaroscuro of bleached lines vectoring off at random angles created by the partial overlay of some new page of saved memory that has begun to impinge and obscure the old. And pictures of my kids, pictures of my work, pictures of my friends and colleagues work, pictures of my heroes and mentors. Pieces of rocks, feathers, wood… and pictures of rocks, feathers, wood!

There are tokens of various tribal affiliations w/ prep schools & colleges. Strange, indecipherable messages scrawled on the back of peoples business cards. Stationary from the Pelican Hotel in South Beach (Superbowl, 1998.) Tickets from a prizefight one of my patrons insisted on taking me to at The MGM Grand in Las Vegas which I saved probably because I couldn’t get over the fact that they cost more than the automobile I was driving at the time. Prototypes of furniture parts. Maquettes for sculpture. Even sketches on napkins !! And most poignantly of all, artwork my grown daughters made for me when they were knee-high to a grasshopper. And books of course. The shelves and shelves and piles and piles of books!

But the award for most perversely persistent pentimento must go to the faded invoice and business card of the Wildlife Biologist who I was finally forced to hire at great expense after being utterly defeated by a very determined skunk. A nesting female…known to return year after year to their favored locations…in this instance the crawl space under my studio! Its a grand, epic tale…but I’m going to save it until we convene the Salon de LisaKenney and I can share it w/ you in person!

Not surprised that Matt managed to slide something fun and inspiring into your TBR pile. (Did that sound funny…that sounded funny…I don’t know…maybe it’s just Friday… and I have a 3:30 mtg. to get through before I can have my frikin martini…Don Draper I am not…).

Thanks for setting me off again, Cynthia. You’re the best And you have a Big Dipper Clarity candle !?!…w/ it’s own special tin, apparently? I have been giggling over that little mystery since I read this post last night. I am completely stumped…and captivated. And I just like the way it sounds: “Big Dipper Charity candle”. A delightful image I would not have been surprised in the least to have come across in Infinite Jest.