cwfgal
08-21-2005, 06:58 PM
How does what you experience in life color what you produce on the page? How much does being a writer skew the way you view life? How much of your life becomes incorporated into your writing? And is it character or story that most people find interesting?
I've been pondering these questions much of late because I live in the small tornado-ravaged Wisconsin town some of you may have heard about on the news recently. Fortunately, my family and house came through unscathed, but my life has been forever changed by what I've seen and experienced over the past few days.
The tornado passed within a mile of my house and I saw it out my kitchen windows. Took a photo that, unfortunately, came out quite blurry. The sight of it was utterly fearsome, riveting, fascinating, and terrifying. You hear stories all the time about people who stand and gawk at things like this and you wonder, "How could anyone be so stupid?" I've thought that myself before but I'm here to tell you now that LOTS of people, myself included, are that stupid. It's because the image is so hypnotizing. It mesmerizes even as it terrifies. You want to look away and some inner alarm (not to mention the sirens outside) are telling you to run for the basement, yet you can't seem to pull your eyes away from the sight.
I'm an ER nurse and within seconds of seeing the tornado go by I heard sirens everywhere and quickly went to get dressed for work, knowing what was coming. I had my pants on and was grabbing for my top when my phone rang and I was called in to the hospital, which had already initiated its disaster protocols.
I spent most of Thursday night tending to the wounded and the homeless and the bereaved. After being up for over 28 hours, I slept most of the day on Friday, then watched news reports during the evening. I spent most of yesterday out in the neighborhoods worst hit, volunteering for the clean-up efforts and helping people sort through the rubble of their homes. I listened to all the comments and stories and opinions expressed by those who were affected and those who were not. And through it all, I kept processing what I saw, what I heard, and the people I met with my writer's eyes and ears.
Inevitably what I ended up with was stories. Sure, there were memorable people, too, but for the most part what made them memorable were their stories. I realized that the face(s) of the person(people) behind the stories didn't matter a whole lot. The gender didn't matter much. A person's character DID matter a lot in many cases, meaning how they faced the situations they found themselves in (were they frightened, resigned, depressed, grateful, heroic, etc?) But without the situation, aka the story, the individual's characters most likely would have never been revealed.
In listening to my coworkers and neighbors process all that has happened, what I keep hearing are the stories. Rarely is a person named and if they are, it's almost incidental. What seems to intrigue most people is the plot behind all that has happened. People are inspired by the stories of survival in the face of near death, of optimism in the face of overwhelming adversity, of the awesome, frightful, and arbitrary power of Mother Nature and fate. And believe me, it's hard to imagine anything as arbitrary as a tornado, which can turn a house to rubble and leave the one right next to it virtually unscathed.
I have gained a lot from this experience, both personally and as a writer. I've seen the very best of the human race emerge over the past few days as neighbors come together to help one another. I've seen people who have undergone devastating loss demonstrating amazingly upbeat and positive attitudes. I've seen families grateful, even celebratory when they find a tiny memento or a single photograph, often the only salvageable item left from their home. Every one of those items has a story behind it and I managed to hear quite a few of them.
As a writer, I've gained a wealth of stories, as well as dozens of character situations, traits, and quirks to store in my memory banks. As a human, my faith in my fellow man has been given a heck of a booster shot.
Don't be surprised if you see a tornado pop up in one of my future works.
Beth
I've been pondering these questions much of late because I live in the small tornado-ravaged Wisconsin town some of you may have heard about on the news recently. Fortunately, my family and house came through unscathed, but my life has been forever changed by what I've seen and experienced over the past few days.
The tornado passed within a mile of my house and I saw it out my kitchen windows. Took a photo that, unfortunately, came out quite blurry. The sight of it was utterly fearsome, riveting, fascinating, and terrifying. You hear stories all the time about people who stand and gawk at things like this and you wonder, "How could anyone be so stupid?" I've thought that myself before but I'm here to tell you now that LOTS of people, myself included, are that stupid. It's because the image is so hypnotizing. It mesmerizes even as it terrifies. You want to look away and some inner alarm (not to mention the sirens outside) are telling you to run for the basement, yet you can't seem to pull your eyes away from the sight.
I'm an ER nurse and within seconds of seeing the tornado go by I heard sirens everywhere and quickly went to get dressed for work, knowing what was coming. I had my pants on and was grabbing for my top when my phone rang and I was called in to the hospital, which had already initiated its disaster protocols.
I spent most of Thursday night tending to the wounded and the homeless and the bereaved. After being up for over 28 hours, I slept most of the day on Friday, then watched news reports during the evening. I spent most of yesterday out in the neighborhoods worst hit, volunteering for the clean-up efforts and helping people sort through the rubble of their homes. I listened to all the comments and stories and opinions expressed by those who were affected and those who were not. And through it all, I kept processing what I saw, what I heard, and the people I met with my writer's eyes and ears.
Inevitably what I ended up with was stories. Sure, there were memorable people, too, but for the most part what made them memorable were their stories. I realized that the face(s) of the person(people) behind the stories didn't matter a whole lot. The gender didn't matter much. A person's character DID matter a lot in many cases, meaning how they faced the situations they found themselves in (were they frightened, resigned, depressed, grateful, heroic, etc?) But without the situation, aka the story, the individual's characters most likely would have never been revealed.
In listening to my coworkers and neighbors process all that has happened, what I keep hearing are the stories. Rarely is a person named and if they are, it's almost incidental. What seems to intrigue most people is the plot behind all that has happened. People are inspired by the stories of survival in the face of near death, of optimism in the face of overwhelming adversity, of the awesome, frightful, and arbitrary power of Mother Nature and fate. And believe me, it's hard to imagine anything as arbitrary as a tornado, which can turn a house to rubble and leave the one right next to it virtually unscathed.
I have gained a lot from this experience, both personally and as a writer. I've seen the very best of the human race emerge over the past few days as neighbors come together to help one another. I've seen people who have undergone devastating loss demonstrating amazingly upbeat and positive attitudes. I've seen families grateful, even celebratory when they find a tiny memento or a single photograph, often the only salvageable item left from their home. Every one of those items has a story behind it and I managed to hear quite a few of them.
As a writer, I've gained a wealth of stories, as well as dozens of character situations, traits, and quirks to store in my memory banks. As a human, my faith in my fellow man has been given a heck of a booster shot.
Don't be surprised if you see a tornado pop up in one of my future works.
Beth