Literacy, Literacy Everywhere - Characters

Literacy, Literacy Everywhere - Characters

Left to right: Me, Elisa Pupko, Peter Mercurio (school principal),
  Honi Wasserman (school media specialist)

For years, since I was a child really, I've written. Since the early 1990s, in fact, when I was getting paid for articles I'd written as a freelance journalist, I've called myself a 'writer.' Since the mid-1990s, when I started writing screenplays, going into the 2000s, when I started earnestly writing fiction, and today, with one indie-published book under my belt and on the verge of finishing my second novel, I've been working on becoming a full-time writer. In addition to, hopefully, being able to support my family that way, I've also tried to establish, within myself and those with whom I interact - inside and outside of the writing community - a writing identity. By that, I mean for people to see me, first and foremost (outside of being a husband, father and martial artist), as a writer. I often describe myself as a "writer trapped inside a teacher's body." I'm a teacher by trade, as the saying goes, but in the land of Hard Work And Perseverance and it's close neighbor, Where Dreams Come True, one day, what I do and who I am will become one.

Well, my writing identity took a major boost last month when I spoke at my son's school. My son is in kindergarten and I was asked by one of the class moms, who's a writer herself, to be one of three speakers at the school's launch event for its annual Academic Fair. The theme this year was 'Literacy, Literacy Everywhere - Characters.' The other two speakers were Elisa Pupko, a New York-based actor and founder of Treasure Trunk Theatre in Brooklyn, and the school's media specialist, Honi Wasserman.

Each of us presented for about fifteen minutes during which we shared our own take on the theme. Honi read from Dr. Seuss and Gary Paulsen, extolling the virtue of books. Elisa shared pictures from several of her acting experiences and discussed how she uses elements like a play's setting (location, era), costumes, her characters' age, their physical appearances, limitations and their social statuses to inform her interpretation of a role she's playing.

Me, I discussed how literacy is a skill but more than that, to borrow from the rock group Queen, how literacy is a kind of magic. And, I truly, mean that. I didn't simply use such a 'ruse' to get the K-2 and 3-5 audiences to buy into what I was saying. Literacy - reading and writing - is magic. Words take you places, let you be other people, do superhuman things. And that's when you read a book. When you write something and create worlds and people and put them together in interesting, educating and entertaining ways, you become the magician. 

Discussing creativity and imagination
with an excerpt from my favourite book,
The Little Prince

I explained to them that my creativity came from many places and how I expressed that creativity with poorly written short stories and unfulfilled story ideas when I was as young as nine or ten. I recalled to my listeners that my brother and I grew up playing with action figures. (I'm a guy so I have to say 'action figures' but, really, they were dolls.) We had eight inch dolls of superheroes and movie characters from The Planet of the Apes (the original) and the original Star Trek series. They were made by Mego. I also had a GI Joe and my brother had dolls of Steve Austin and Jamie Summers. For those of who too young, that would be the main characters from The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. 

Anyway, at first, my brother and I played with them as they were. Captain Kirk was Captain Kirk, Supergirl was Supergirl and so on. Eventually, however, we started creating different characters for them and we would rearrange our bedroom so it would become another world. One time, we folded our mattresses and turned them into mountain ranges. One of our Klingon figures was the town's mayor. We wrote newspapers for the dolls to hold and 'read' and we even cut out tiny monetary notes. What I didn't realize at the time was that I, with my brother, was being creativity. I was even more clueless that my creativity would get me to writing screenplays and novels and speaking in front of impressionable young people. So, basically, I told them that anything and anyone can spark their creativity and imagination. 

I also emphasized that they must do everything they can to prevent from losing their imagination; to remain a child when reading and writing. To illustrate this, I read from my all-time favourite book, The Little Prince. I read from the opening section. To prevent a spoiler - and if you haven't read this wonderful book or you haven't read it in ages, make sure you do so now - I'll just say I read the part about the boa constrictor and the hat. 

Finally, I offered a bit of writing advice with a more practical bend. Since the theme was characters, I told them that character is action. I told them it's better to show their character being good - or bad - instead of merely writing or saying so.

Funnily, as things work out, as I was sharing my pearls of wisdom, I found myself feeling that I was talking more to myself than to my son and his schoolmates. Grown ups, you see, like myself can be such fuddy-duddies. We say "Stop!" and "No!" too often and we want things to be just so and exactly what and how they were intended to be. And, ironically, I think we become more fuddy-duddyish when we become parents, albeit without realizing it or intending to be. So, whether you're five, like my son, or forty-five, like me, remember these things - literacy is magic, don't lose your imagination, character is action, don't be a stick in the mud - and live by them. As writers, remembering these things is invaluable to our process and what we do. As readers, they make the book's enjoyment that much more meaningful. And, if you can enjoy reading and writing with a refreshed childlike innocence, you'll participate fully and enjoy another crazy thing: life. 

Happy creating everyone!

When Seasons Are Characters

 

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When Seasons Are Characters

A week or so ago, here in New Jersey, after a stretch of hot and humid days and warm rain, we had a couple of cooler days with no humidity, high temperatures in just the mid 70s Fahrenheit (about 20 Celsius) and nighttime lows at around 58F (9C). Really, it felt like fall, my favourite season, and it put me in such a good mood. I almost felt like it, the fall, was talking to me; telling me that the stress of the summer (I thought summers were supposed to be easy street for teachers) with its smaller pay cheques, chaotic (but enjoyable) trips to the beach, the crushing days of oppressive heat and humidity, etc were coming to a close and a new season, with its own set of challenges, is coming. I felt like an old friend, one I’d started to realise I was missing, had just rung me up and said she was coming for a visit and asked if I could put her up in the spare room or on the pullout sofa bed.

As people do nowadays with all sorts of social media - writers, especially - I posted on Facebook and Twitter how cool the weather was and how it offered a taste of autumn. One friend ‘liked’ my Facebook post. Two others commented. Both posted statements in an “Oh no!” sort of way stating that they didn’t want summer to go just yet. To one comment, I replied saying that I love the fall because out go the weeks of heat and humidity, in comes the cooler weather and the exciting feel of putting on that first sweatshirt, taking my son for pumpkin picking and pony rides, watching the leaves change colour and, of course, the lead up to the upcoming holiday season that begins in late autumn (Halloween) and runs into mid-winter (Valentine’s Day) with all of their sights, sounds and smells. I wouldn’t even mind a little snowfall either.

As I thought about this - and like I said, I felt like the hint of autumn was an old friend saying hello - I tried to create a list of books and movies in which the season the story is set plays a major role like it’s a character interacting with the protagonist and integral to the plot. Of course, in good stories the season or seasons have to be more than ornamental but, in many cases, once it’s established whether it’s spring or summer, winter or fall, there isn’t much to them. In a story, say, about a family going on Christmas holiday, there might be snow and a fireplace but they might just be there to establish that, yes, it is winter with the characters doing things that would be typically done in a winter holiday environment. Could that story - and I’m not thinking of any story in particular - be rewritten and be just as good if the family went on a summer beach resort instead?

Examples that popped into my head were The Body by Stephen King, Picnic by William Inge and Spike Lee’s film Do The Right Thing. For me, all of those stories couldn’t have been told in any other time of the year. Coincidentally, all of them are set in the summer but that, of course, doesn’t mean the summer is the best setting for novels and movies. That’s something to look at in another post. That all my examples are set in the summer is more likely an example of my laziness or my lack of exposure that I couldn’t immediately think of a book or movie I liked, that isn’t set in summer, whose seasonal setting made a major impact.

In The Body, which was adapted into the very successful and much loved movie Stand By Me in the mid-1980s, a group of four boys set out to find a missing body - presumed dead - of another boy. They tell their parents they’re going to camp out and, naturally, go through various adventures that betray inner fears, reveal new heroism and so on. It’s not just perfectly set for the summer because that is when they could camp out and go on an outdoor adventure. It’s perfectly set for the summer because that’s when kids are out of school and have all the time in the world to do whatever they want and that often comes with having the time for self-discovery whether brought about by looking for a missing boy, having a go at your best friend or something else.

In Picnic, it’s Labour Day and the town is gearing up for its annual town event - the picnic. There’s a stranger in town. Well, the stranger is Hal, an old college friend of Alan Seymour. Then, there are the Owens sisters - Madge and Millie. For those of you who haven’t read it or seen the film, I won’t give anything away. However, I’m sure you can imagine that there’s drama surrounding the ‘stranger’ and the two girls. Again, the season, which also happens to be summer - plays a major role. I don’t think the play would’ve worked if it were set around, say, a New Year’s Eve party; at least not in today’s world. Today, Christmas and New Year are such passing holidays. As much as people enjoy and love them, there’s almost a sense of relief when they’re done and over with. The summer, however, is something that people want to linger on. This is especially true of young people and young people who are unattached and have waited all summer for something big to happen. In the United States there’s the added pressure, if you will, of Labour Day, the social end of the summer season. So, it’s a perfect blend at this end of season town picnic that everything comes to a head for Hal and Madge.

Finally, there’s Do The Right Thing, set in a balmy New York. Spike Lee’s movie is set in Brooklyn - the beautiful ethnic blend that it is - and pits characters responding to their environment, physical and socioeconomic, in the midst of a heat wave. If a summer heat wave, with no breeze, rising temperatures and overwhelming humidity is not a perfect metaphor for uncomfortable neighbourhood tensions then I must’ve been watching a different movie. Like King’s novella and Inge’s play, summer is the only season that could’ve worked with Do The Right Thing. The spring and fall are too neutral. There are cool days, there are warmer days, there are humid days but these two seasons are too varied to serve as a viable parallel storyline. The winter, too, doesn’t work because even though there are ridiculously frigid days in New York people don’t complain about cold like they do heat and humidity. The characters in Do The Right Thing could simply bundle up and feel instant warmth. There’s only so much clothing one can remove to cool down.

So, what stories do you love that have as an unnamed character the season in which it is set? Do share. I’d love to know. And, please, for my own enlightenment, let me know of those that are set in the other three seasons. The super literary agent Donald Maass said in a conference I attended that the writer has to be detailed when writing Setting. It puts the reader into the book and gives it life. Setting, though, isn’t just the description of the landscape and physical surroundings, the sounds and smells. It’s also the unseen, but definitely, felt nuances of season.