What Little Women (2019) Taught Me About Being A Writer/Story Teller


I've been building worlds in my head for as long as I can remember. As a child, it was a way to cope with life in a wheelchair. As an adult, it made sense to try and put these worlds to paper. When I began writing seriously I did it simply because I enjoyed it. I had no real expectation at the time, except maybe to share this inner-world with others who might enjoy it.

Then came the expectations, my own to be sure, and little by little the joy seeped out of the craft. I looked at my stories and they seemed too simple somehow. My stories, the ones I love to write, those stories which seem to flow most naturally from me, are simple stories. Stories about a tiny hamlet and it's everyday people with everyday lives. The 'magic' in this story is natural, simple magic. The love story at the heart of this series is equally simple.

I looked at it and thought of the 'market', feeling my little, simple story quite inadequate. So I tried to make it more complicated and that's when writer's block ensued. Now for any writer, there are few things as terrifying as writer's block. We always worry that inspiration is never coming back. I've had writer's block for about two years now and though I still wrote during this time (or tried to) I not only did not enjoy it, I also found I did not like any of the subsequent drafts I managed to produce. Something just always felt off.

This brings us to the 2019 version of Little Women. Those who know me, know how much I love period movies. So it should come as no surprise that I love this movie, just as I loved the 1994 version with Winnona Ryder and the 2017 BBC Mini-Series as well as the original book by Louisa May Alcott.

But I absolutely adore the 2019 film adaption, directed by Greta Gerwig. Watching it the other evening with my mother while munching popcorn something unexpected happened. I was reminded of the joy to be found in simple stories, I was reminded why I started writing in the first place and it wasn't for money, or rave reviews, or fame, or even for 'the Market'.

No, I started writing for the simple joy of telling a story. In the movie Jo, one of four sisters, remarks on her simple novel full of little everyday moments, which she doubts anyone will really care for. Then there's this scene of Jo watching her novel being printed and bound and the look in her eyes...I know that feeling, that joy and later, when she is handed the finished product and hugs it to her like it's her firstborn, I know that feeling too.

My books are my children, the only children I'm ever likely to have and I think I finally figured out what's bothering me about my 'middle child'. I've been trying to push 'her' into a mold not made for 'her.' I was trying to be George R.R Martin when in fact I'm just a simple story-teller, building a world and traveling in my imagination, inviting you the reader to come along if you so wish.

I'm not George R. R Martin or even JK Rowling, nor, I now realize, do I aspire to be. I'm only Freeda Moon and my stories are simple ones. So tomorrow when I start the 3rd draft of A SELKIE's MAGICK, I'll do so remembering why I started writing in the first place because I love it.

That is all and that is enough.

Regards

Freeda Moon

Comments

  1. Unknown1 March 2020 at 08:54

    I love the way you first figure and sort everything out and how in the end it all comes together as a story.
    I love reading your work.

    ReplyDelete

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