How I became a writer Part XIII

How I became a writer

Part XIII

Chemistry.  When I was a kid, I watched those Disney Sunday night movies and one night they did a movie on a group of college kids with an invisibility formula.  I was inspired to do something sciency!!  That night I did my first chemistry experiment to get my own incredible concoction!  I got bottles out of the garbage, mixed into them some unlikely things (ketchup and Italian dressing, with water...I think) and left them on the work bench (that Grandma Lane had bought me for Christmas).  What was that supposed to do?  I have no idea, but I was horrified when Mom threw it away!!!!  She complained it started to smell!!  My career as a world famous scientist might have been cut short BUT I had another shot at glory in high school chemistry class.  I walked into class with visions of Dexter’s Lab in mind, but what I got was... ANOTHER MATH CLASS!!  AHHHHH!!!!!  I would have never passed without Dodie!  I didn’t cheat off of her but as soon as Mr. Andrus was done lecturing I went right over to her and begged for help! For some reason I struggled to understand the alphabet letters seemingly jumbled randomly before my eyes!  She was a very good tutor and could break it down for me!  Did I ever thank her for all that help?  Yes!  I roasted her good during gag gift time at Prom!  Um, person in the back row waving their raised hand vigorously, what is it?    A Hallmark card would have been better way to thank her?  Now you tell me!

Chemistry on stage doesn’t need any math and it’s something that can’t be generated with a formula.  I’ve noticed that even in movies where the lead actors hate each other off camera, sometimes they have amazing chemistry on the screen!  The weird thing is that at times, it has nothing to do with the skill of the actors involved either!  Before I share my thoughts on acting chemistry, I want to point out that it can’t make up for a poor script or a poor cast and thankfully, that was NOT a problem at Bethel (my high school)!!!  The Lord really blessed our drama program!!  It is easy to build energy in a dramatic production when you are constantly playing off good actors and actresses!  That being said, there were some actors that I had unusually good chemistry with when acting with them.  Marc was one of those actors I clicked with on stage ...because we just did. In the play “David” I loved acting off Marc!  In the Play “A Family Portrait” my favorite part was playing off Mr. Henninger the first time he meets Eddie.  We never said the lines the same way and it was so much fun.  The plays “Macaroni at Midnight” and “On Holy Ground” I liked anytime I played off Barb:)  Even when I was a suitor for her early in “On Holy Ground”, it was like I was playing a game with my big sister, rather than doing a romantic scene with a senior.  Again, though, there were MANY great actors in those plays who made them work! 

The moments of greatest chemistry come when you least expect it!  In history class, Mr. Henninger assigned us partners to do a historical love scene with and provided us a script.  Unlike when I was younger, there were now school things I would work hard on, and something involving acting fell into that category.  I spent what seemed like hours in front of a mirror practicing that script.  Mind you, this was not going to be done on the stage with lights and an audience but for my class and a grade.  Still I worked hard at it.  The big day came and my partner did fine with her assignment.  She was a vet of the school plays and was very talented.  At the end though, Mr. Henninger had the two he thought did the best do the scene one more time.  It turned out that was Shari Benem and me.  We just clicked!  Maybe we had both taken the assignment way too seriously and now had someone to push off of, I don’t know, but I think that was the best bit of acting I ever did in my life!  The only moment greater was in college with my future wife in a mime.  No, I’m not saying this because I have too:)  It was a mime named the “puppet” and I had done it before with different mimes over the years.  This time I would be God and Satan and she would be the puppet performing at one of our college assemblies.  Gail was in mime face but she wore a colorful outfit in contrast to my traditional mime appearance.  We didn’t perform...we flowed.  Action, reaction, effortless, riveting, and fun is how I would sum up that performance.  The mime troop grew after we did “puppet” so I would say others were captured by it as well! 

What’s that?  Is mime boring?  Perhaps traditional is but not what I call American Mime.  Gail and I went to see Marcel Marceau in Binghamton and I was so disappointed.  Oh, his technical skill was far beyond mine but he was so boring to watch!  When I was in high school I had a wild dream of going to France to train under him.  Boy, am I glad I didn’t do that!  American mime has popular music or soundtracks washing over the crowd and it sets a tone for the story.  American mimes have colorful, wild makeup, and use anything to enhance the story ...even using occasional props.  I should tell you that the term “American Mime” is my own.  Perhaps it is the fact that I’m a Christian mime and bring the Lord into it...that gives it a spark beyond mere entertainment has driven me to create this style.  I’m not the only one who does this kind of mime.  “Toymaker’s Dream” (a professional Christian production I saw in the 90s with my wife) was this version of American mime done at a whole new level!!  Anyway, I haven’t done much mime in years but I miss it sometimes.  I’m too old and slow for it now:)

Praise the Lord, I get to act in our churches Drama Department!  I usually pick small roles and rarely enjoy playing big ones anymore.  We have too many good actors and actresses at the church and I get too distracted as a director to act.  Anymore I’m always worried about what others are doing:)  When I do act, I have had my children, Adrianna or Leland direct me.  During our VBS skits, I will at times take a bigger role but overall, I’d much rather watch other people act!  I enjoy writing the plays and directing them so much that I prefer to sit in the audience watch others act, over having a large role:)  I don’t know how Mr. Henninger (my high school drama director) was able to run plays that had three times the run time as my plays have AND kill it as a lead actor.  I couldn’t do that! 

Chemistry in a book is important too.  Not merely between two characters but in the very plot itself.  In a play, good acting or great special effects can compensate somewhat for an average script.  I’ve often told children in English class (I’m a substitute teacher) that merely changing one voice, a reader can totally change the tone or mood of a book, when they are reading loud to others.  Take “A Wrinkle in Time.”  When I read Mrs Who to the class, I give her a mysterious, almost a sinister voice.  It gives the whole beginning of the book a very different feel but it also makes her alien...old.  I realize that she is a good entity and not an evil one, but I think the way I do it is true to the character.  When I saw the trailer for Disney’s version of it, I thought, “You missed it!  You don’t understand the three mysterious women at all!”  They picked talented actors for the roles but the three women needed to be more Johnny Depp and less Disney Princess.  (I like princesses but it was not the right call here.)  Now the young black girl who played Meg looked like she was going to be GREAT, but I didn’t have the heart to see the movie.  The score on Rotten Tomatoes, 42% critics and 28% audience seems to have justified that decision.  My point is in books you have to rely totally on the readers mind to view your characters properly so the burden is on how you write it.  There will be no actors, voices, or special effects to bail you out!

There is chemistry in my book American Fairytale not just in the plot but with three characters.  How do I know?  I’ve read my story out loud to people and those three characters are perfectly balanced.  You have the Grandfather, a bombastic, grumpy rich British man, his adopted grandson, sincere, nice young man, and Giles, Grandfather’s right-hand man.  When the three are confronted by a nervous servant outside of parliament, the conversion is just pure magic.  It wasn’t my genius that did that but just how the chemistry of the characters came together and the Lord:) 

Leland and Autumn like American Fairytale but they have some complaints.  Leland doesn’t think I should have put that old English introduction on it, he thinks it ruins some things.  They also both insist that the story is not done.  I tried to explain to both of them that it is based on fairy tale genre and that generally those stories close with “and they lived happily ever after.”  This did not satisfy either aggrieved party!  When I finished reading it to Autumn I said, “Well, what did you think?”  She shot back, “I’d give it a six out of ten.”  I was very disappointed.  “Oh, I thought you liked it,” I said, thinking I had misread her body language and giggles.  “The story is a ten, dad,” stated a very defiant Bear (my nicknamefor  her), “BUT you didn’t finish it!  You have about a hundred pages yet to go!”  I guess she really liked that chemistry of that one:)

*** Note: American Fairytale is available on Amazon.com and the e-book version is just $.99.  Please give it a shot and tell me what you think.  ***