Home for the Holidays?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Thu, 17 Dec 1998 09:39:31 -0500

Some of you may be slipping off to family or friends for the holidays, others may be disappearing to far parts of the world to avoid family or friends, and many of us are probably sitting at home, sighing over the things that we would do if we could...

No matter what, you're likely to find yourself in a party. One of those gatherings of people, known or unknown, with some food, some liquid, other accouterments (I hope that word means what I think it does), and probably more sound than you normally encounter all day (especially after enough time passes and people gather, there often is a sharp spike in the noise level).

Instead of just huddling in the corner wondering how you get yourself into these things, try looking around and answering these three questions:

1. Pick a person -- even the boring person who is telling you their life story -- and imagine telling someone else about this person, with exactly the right details so that they would he immediately identify the person if they ever met. What about this person identifies them, sets them apart from all the other people like them? And how do you tell someone about the little dimple in the person's cheek that looks just like a "J" when they smile, or the funny way that they lean their drink from side to side as they walk without ever quite spilling?
   
   Fair warning: paying attention to someone often makes them interesting...
   
   
2. Watch someone who is telling a joke or a story. Think about what their choice of topic, their presentation, their facial tics and blinks, their reaction to interruptions, and all that shows you about them. Notice how they pay attention to their audience, and how they work with the audience.
   
   You might even want to make a few notes about the good points and the bad points of their presentation.
   
   Fair warning: most people don't expect a critique at a party...
   
   
3. A consultant we work with recently commented that he really likes to see his clients in big parties. When I looked puzzled, he expanded on the point by saying he likes to watch "the mill" to see who talks to whom, and who is left mumbling in the corner, etc.
   
   If you're at a large party, keep an eye on the patterns of interaction. Think about how you might describe three characters, one that everyone seems to want to get close to, one who is trying to get close to someone else, and perhaps the person standing against the wall wondering just what they are doing here...
   
   So instead of wondering what you are doing at the party, pay close attention to what the other people are doing at the party.
   
   Who knows, you might even start wanting to go to parties!

[Bonus points for people who try these out and then write up some of their observations!]

"The friends that have it I do wrong
When ever I remake a song
Should know what issue is at stake,
It is myself that I remake." William Butler Yeats

Was it a dream?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 1 Jan 1999 13:25:45 -0500

a quick, short exercise...

The situation is simple. One character has seen, heard, perhaps experienced something. It could be extraordinary (a dragon sat on my car! An angel talked to me! A devil made me an offer like nothing I had ever imagined! Or something really exciting that you come up with :-) or fairly ordinary (she kissed me! I forgot where I was going. The cat had four kittens.)

The problem is simple. No one else believes them. No one else saw it. No one else heard it. There must be a rational explanation for what you thought happened. You must have been imagining things.

Resolution? That's really up to you. Whether it is the somewhat sad acceptance that miracles could never happen to me (with a little twist? A sparkle of magic dust in the pocket of that jacket? Or just a twinkle in the eye of the dog that talked?) or the fun and romance of sharing a secret unknown to most of the world with a special friend who has also seen the Phoenix flying across the rainbow, heard the drumming of the trolls hiding in the subway mazes, or felt the touch of a goddess striding through the early morning stillness of a city park spreading blessings on all that she met...

Or whether you have some other resolution (warning! This sentence is so far out of control that there is no going back and fixing it, so we'll just let it scurry off into the distance, unfinished and misshapen, a runaway leakage of words sprouting merrily across the screens of our days...)

So -- a simple beginning with something happening. A middle full of complexity, confusion, frustration, disbelief. Making us really feel the conflict and the building tension between insisting on our own experience vs. going along with the accepted wisdom -- this is where the bulk of the story is, so don't hurry through it.

And when the tension is at its highest, lead us into the resolution that you picked.

Was it a dream?

Only the author knows for sure...

Write!

"Take me up into your mind once or twice before I die (you know why: just
because the eyes of you and me will be full of dirt some day). Quickly take
me up into the bright child of your mind." Edward Estlin Cummings

slightly twisted aphorisms...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 08:01:00 -0500

Something you can do sitting in a boring meeting, while enjoying a children's piano recital, or at other times...

take one aphorism or saying.

Then twist slightly. Fold, spin dry, and mumble under your breath...

You might find yourself musing over the aptitude of something like:

"Two puppies hiding in the bushes aren't worth one piddling in your hand."

Shake it a little and see if a meaning falls out. You never know where significance may turn up...

"...I wander'd off by myself
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars."
Walt Whitman