Another bit of widget wisdom

Quote :

You can write that sentence in a way that you would have written it last year. Or you can write it in the way of the exquisite nuance that is writing in your mind now.

The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work

Ann

Dear Ann,
I understand that widget. It is a matter of growth of mind and seeing the old idea with the new eye.

I have been looking over old writings that I had never finished ( or thought they were not right), and I find that what I wrote then has some basic strain of the story that I would write today. But, my story telling has grown, I have a better idea of how to say what I mean, how to put into words the vision in my head.

Not only that, my characters have grown into real living, breathing 'people.' I love them like my children. I can see inside thier minds and feel their passions.
I know it sounds nuts, but I love each and every one of them.
I am as suspicious of any new character that I write into the stories as the animals are themselves.

Perhaps I am a little mental. I do not know. I do not care.

I see in your writings that your heart is as much a part of the story as Daniel and Maria's. I believe that your passion is what will make you a famous author.
You write beautifully.

Love,
Betty

Love,
Betty

I don't know about fame and stuff, but Daniel and Maria are, as you said, a part of my heart, as are their later incarnations, Jack and Maggie and Khani and Stone, even though most of the later characters are still in my head at this point.

As for being mental, there must be two of us, then, and probably more, especially here, where we all call ourselves writers.

During the last couple of days I have been rereading Campbell's Thou art That, and am learning that it isn't just the sentences we write that change; the sentences we read change, too - so much so that I have decided to read the whole thing again, cover to cover, I feel I missed so much the first time around.

I get that the characters you created so long ago have changed, along with the sentences you use to show them to us. Redstone has gone through some transformations during the quarter of a century he was "lying fallow," so to speak.

The things we create from our hearts are real. Cho Lee Yen, Old Agnes, and Maudie are as real as Wooffer and Sport - and as eternal.

I am looking forward to meeting the new "people."

Ann

This morning two pea hens came into the yard and ate from the bird feeders and finally found the chicken house.
Cho Lee Yen will be beside himself when he sees them He has not seen a girl peacock in these many years. I worry about his old heart!

Love,
Betty