Illuminate - December 2021
Welcome to the December's Illuminate, a letter of encouragement to writers (and readers) on the craft of writing. Adding light to your creative day.
The Deep Midwinter
Greetings from the dark side of the moon.
I know it’s been a while. But I will try to make up for that.
Christmas-time. Whether you have a spiritual practice, were brought up in a religion or not, as we end the calendar year, something magical happens.
For no known reason, and our great good fortune, this third planet from the sun exists in such a way as to provide life. And for those of us further away from the equator, distinct seasons. Weather and seasons are greatly affected by Earth’s proximity to our Sun. So winter in the Northern Hemisphere happens when the Earth is both at its closest point in its revolution around the Sun, and the poles are tilted so our hemisphere is furthest away. This gives us longer nights and shorter days. And the shortest day of all occurs in December. Winter Solstice. From the Latin meaning Standing Sun.
What’s magic about this? We have survived. Whatever else occurred throughout the year, those of us living have survived it. And on that day, December 21st, the tides turn. We move from all the days getting shorter, to this one day when the sun stands still, when we are suddenly and deliciously “halfway out of the dark.”
So however you celebrate the season, do it with love. Love your friends and family. Experience joy. Allow it to come in. And please, write about it.
Writing Prompt
Holidays and their gatherings have long been the subject of books and movies. And with good reason. Heightened emotions, tight quarters with people who don’t always get along, the stress of serving food to large groups, the influence of alcohol, all these items, in the hands of a writer, are rich, delicious fodder.
But how do you make a holiday story real? How do you draw on personal experience, and vast amounts of previous stories and movies without being trite, without letting the importance of what you want to convey stifle you?
Start with borrowing the screenwriter’s tool: a logline. These lines are not only useful in quickly defining your story to someone, but in creating it from the get-go. The elements of a logline are these: very short description of main character (protagonist), something they want very much (the stronger you make their want the easier it will be to write your story), and the obstacle, often related to or caused by the antagonist.
Here’s a logline for a movie we recently re-watched Pieces of April: "A wayward daughter invites her dying mother and the rest of her estranged family to her apartment for Thanksgiving dinner."
What’s interesting here is no explicit conflict is listed. It’s implied in ‘wayward’, ‘dying’ and ‘estranged’. But it gives us what we want; a daughter wanting to pull off the gift of a feast with people she knows may be impossible to please.
There is an arc to every story, and it helps if you try to see yours from the beginning. Start with the main setting; Christmas in Connecticut maybe. Friends-only New Year’s Eve at a rented cabin upstate. A first time holiday gathering at the house where your kids grew up, in which their partners are in attendance. Divorced couple sharing Christmas morning with their kids.
There is an expectation going into the event which is somehow changed, possibly improved, by the end. What is your arc? How does it play out?
One of my favorite examples of a holiday story is Truman Capote’s “A Christmas Memory.” It’s been filmed a few times, but our favorite is the one with the great Geraldine Page. YouTube Link Here
NEWS
PUBLISHED: I'm delighted to announce that my story "Wing-less Victory" will be published online in Tiny Molecules in their Winter Issue! Check their site on or after 12/21/21. (Link below)
WORKSHOPS: I am in discussion with White Plains Public Library for more Writing Workshops in 2022. I'll be sending information on these as it becomes available. Stay tuned!
ONE-ON-ONE: I am currently available for individual manuscript review. Please contact me at juliarust@verizon.net if interested.
What Am I Reading?
“Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro, an amazing novel that asks “what does it mean to love?” Highly recommend.
“Firekeeper’s Daughter” by Angeline Boulley. It takes place on an Ojibwe reservation in Sault St. Marie, Michigan, and throughout the book we learn about Ojibwe culture, medicine, and traditions from the first-person narrator,
Daunis Fontaine. I enjoyed much of this very much and would be interested to hear from any of you how you feel about this book. (Trigger warning: contains violence and sexual assault.)
"Last Night at the Telegraph Club" by Malindo Lo. Highly recommend. An education on what it's like for a young Asian-American in San Francisco in the '50s coming to terms with being gay, and how she finds her tribe.
Happy Solstice!
May your sadness be brief, and happiness be long. Best of health to all.
It was a pleasure sharing my thoughts with you all. If you’ve enjoyed this email and know of someone who might also enjoy it, please share.
May all your writing feel Illuminated!