When I was out on one of my walks a few weeks ago, my friend and I talked about coincidences being signs that we were on the right track (that was the day we discovered we both knew the band Twiddle). I've been experiencing more and more coincidences lately (like discovering Barry Manilow wrote both the song "Mandy" and the State Farm Insurance jingle) but yesterday's coincidence was just crazy and absolutely delightful and arguably meaningful.
All day I was questioning why I am taking a Creative Writing class, second guessing my desire and my ability to write, and wondering if I should be taking the class at all. But I signed in to the class on Zoom and we started with 15 minutes of writing based on this writing prompt: "After ten years, two friends make contact and decide to meet for lunch. At the lunch, they discuss why they’ve waited ten years to see each other… when a waiter comes up to the table with a silver platter with a cover on it. He asks who this order was for…uncovering the platter to reveal a gun." I did not feel like writing about violence, so I instead took the direction that the gun was an old antique family heirloom that belonged to one of the friends, recovered by the other friend. (read the whole thing at my Creative Writing Blog: https://promptedvoice.blogspot.com/) We then read our pieces out loud. Our professor commented after mine that he has been using this prompt for 4 years and I was the first person not to include violence in my piece. He later went on to emphasize that thinking outside the box is one of the most important things to do in creative writing. That felt like a win to me, and it felt good.
Then we watched the first half a movie called "The Fisher King", which I had never heard of, in order to discuss story structure and character arcs. The movie stars Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams, but one of the first scenes features none other than David Hyde Pierce! If you've been following this blog, you know that I have been rewatching Frasier (starring Pierce) and in one of my googling extravaganzas discovered that Pierce's husband wrote The Secret World of Alex Mack. I also just wrote a Jeo-party clue about the Disney movie Treasure Planet, which starred Pierce. He keeps popping up everywhere. Just a coincidence, or a sign? At that moment, it felt like a sign (or a confirmation) that I should indeed be in this class.
While we watched the movie, I took notes about different parts of the story structure, trying to figure out the hook, catalyst, inciting incident, turning point, villain, themes, etc. In my notes, I write "Theme: Scrooge redemption type story?"
After the viewing, we discuss what we watched. Our professor starts by explaining that this movie was actually not the first draft of the screenplay. The first draft was written with very different characters and settings, which ended up being a LOT like the movie Rainman, which came out before the screenplay was completed or filmed, so they had to scrap it and start over again. He uses this example to show that first drafts are both important and not at all important (important to get done, not important because they may completely change by the final draft). He also used the example of Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman, which was actually a first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, not a sequel (which is a fact I shared for a question on last week's Jeo-Party! Another "coincidence"?), that probably should not have been released to the world (there was a reason why when she submitted Go Set originally, her publishers told her to start over, focusing on one little scene, a flashback, in Go Set which eventually turned into To Kill and got published, and became a hit).
When we started to discuss the theme of the movie, our professor said it was about "redemption" which is exactly what I wrote in my notes! Vindication! (btw I'm using the definition "proof that someone or something is right, reasonable, or justified")
Then he replayed for us some really cool cinematography shots in the movie that I totally missed that were full of symbolism to prove his point that nothing is done by accident. Every word, every image, every decision has a purpose. This reminded me of the classes I used to take that would help me analyze writings like Hamlet and Frankenstein to point out symbolism or themes or understandings that I totally missed. It reminded me why I like classes and learning from teachers so much.
All in all, it was a delightful evening and confirmed for me that I should indeed be in the class, and I think now I'll be able to enjoy it instead of fretting about it.
With delight,
♥Jamie
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