THE BIG PICTURE

This is a two part blog using alternate media to illustrate a writer's process. I can't help but see similarities in the creative process no matter what the art form, and sometimes other media is an easier concept to grasp than the elusive written word.

First of all, I urge anyone with an extra five dollars laying around ($5.00 = 1 1/8 gallons of gas, 1 fancy coffee and maybe a breath mint, 1 rental at Blockbuster plus a bag of microwave popcorn, etc...) to hie thee to a Walmart or probably BiMart and maybe who knows what other kind of mart and buy yourself a copy of Second Hand Lions, the 2003 three movie starring Michael Caine, Robert Duvall and Haley Joel Osmond.

First watch the movie, even if you've seen it before. Then turn the DVD over and watch the cut scenes, all of them, with the director's voice over. I promise you, you will get a very visible, very clear view of what it means to honor pacing in your novel, to exercise discipline when it comes to recognizing what belongs and what (no matter how charming, no matter how many hours or as in his case, money, was spent creating it) detracts from the end product.

When I watched this, I thought of the many times I knew something had to go in a WIP and hesitated cutting it. I finally reached the conclusion I would "temporarily" cut the excess baggage and paste it on the end of the document so I could salvage it later when I came to my senses and realized the book could not exist without it. I can't think of a single time I ever went back and replaced the scene.

The cut scenes in the case of Second Hand Lion were not mere snippets. In fact, you could almost hear the director's pain as he described the care with which a scene was created only to be lost in editing. Some of it was directly related to character arc and to me would have seemed impossible to do without. But it wasn't. Just as the alternate ending was very satisfying and I still see it play out in my head, the fact is the real ending - which I had seen the night before when I viewed the movie-- was so much fun I had been thinking of it and smiling for twenty-four hours and smile now. I'm glad I got to see both endings and I agree with the director, he served his movie by choosing as he did.

The second part of this blog involves a similar situation, only this time with music. I happen to enjoy a singer named Rob Thomas and bought his CD, This Is How Heart Breaks. On the flip side of that CD is a DVD of recording studio footage where we see Thomas singing the title song.

Not being versed in this kind of thing, I watched with interest as he he interacted with his producer. He'd stop singing and say I went up there but down here, what do you think, up or down?" The producer would answer. "I liked the up." Thomas would say, "I'm going to try up both times." And then he'd do it. I couldn't tell the difference. But they would agree that's the way to do it and go on about polishing the next stanza. Editing. Perfecting. I could relate his precision with the changes a writer makes every time they read through their WIP, tiny word choices, nuances, polishing...

And now to wrap this baby up, a note about creativity: On the Thomas DVD side, The producer at one point said, "The first part needs to be more menacing," and Thomas did it again, and this time I heard the extra gravel in his voice. When he finally sang the song through, I couldn't believe the workout he went through, the cords in his neck bulging, his face contorted, jumping and pumping his arms as he sang -- wow, a performance even in a record studio looked grueling.

Then I went to U-Tube and watched the video of this song. It begins with Thomas walking down a sidewalk. He looks through the crowds as he sings (menacingly) and sees something or someone. He turns, he runs, he's still singing, but now he's racing up a ramp, climbing stairs, running through buildings, leaping fences, across rooftops. I.e. he's running for his life and that's why when he sang the voice-over in the studio, he had to work as he did and that hit me strongly because that's what I do when I write a scene. I close my figurative eyes and I run and leap and I type fast and I feel the jarring motion in my knees when I land and fight the rising tide of panic that chases me. Even as I write this little passage, I am writing faster than I did with the earlier part because I can feel the tension of this scene.

Isn't it amazing how similar the creative process is? Planning a garden, planning a quilt, making a record or a movie, writing a book, painting a mural ... all share the vital importance of being able to focus on details while never losing sight of the big picture.