Today is the 4th of July. Traditionally families will gather for picnics and watch fireworks. A family gathering is a great source of inspiration. There are other events where families gather: Christmas Chanukah, Thanksgiving, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
Focus on the members of the family and not on the occasion. Thornton Wilder wrote The Long Christmas Dinner that does just that. The play takes place at the Bayard family's Christmas dinner table over the course of ninety years. The play's action follows the family through four generations in accelerated action.
Take a look at the members of your own family. How do they react at family gatherings? Are there genuine characters in your family? like the aunt who collects cats? What family tensions always come to the surface during these get-togethers? In my friend's family, sibling rivalry always rears its ugly head no matter what the event.
It doesn't matter whether you write poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction, this exercise will give you some material to use. Try it.
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Always have pen at hand.
Always have pen at hand.
About Me
- MSR
- Twin Cities, MN, United States
- A Renaissance person is someone with interests in many areas. I think I qualify. And I have ideas and opinions on just about anything under the sun.
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1 comment:
OK, so I took my own advice. I spent part of yesterday making notes and reviewing Wilder's The Long Christmas Dinner.
Christmas and a lot of Thanksgiving's were spent at the maternal grandparents'. But our defining moment wouldn't be the dinner itself...it would be the neverending card game. We played Pan...and Italian card game with 10 decks and a bunch of cards thrown out. It has been so long I can't remember all the rules of the game, but I remember playing it before dinner, after dinner, after dessert. And I remembered I was always bored. I didn't like card games much. I even get bored playing 21 today...even when I'm winning. That took me off on a tangent of how cards were important to my parents' and grandparents' generations and how much I disliked them. That gives me more fodder for some writing.
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