Is it good enough to make me cry?

Actually, the answer to my title is, "It doesn't take much." But, good paintings move people’s emotions. I have always been fascinated with Picasso’s Guernica and it’s agony of war. Good books have the same effect. They move me to experience their world.

I wish I did not cry so easily. It can get darn embarrassing actually. I cry over books and movies, parades and flags, babies and old people. I can see a little old stooped guy with saggy pants and my eyes fill with tears. Of course, it usually reminds me of my dad. I had to turn the Cancer telethon off last night because I was bawling too hard to watch it. Which was perhaps not the effect they hoped for? But then again, I have lost seven relatives and several friends to cancer, so there is that too.

And, that is the thing with a good book or a good movie or a good painting; they are all something to touch memories we have. They should open up our hearts, even if it is to some past pain. We need to identify with the protagonist and live the experience, feeling their emotions and let our own emotions out.

I have heard people who comment that they cannot feel what other people experience and I am sorry for them. The one person I know who has stated this a few times is an avid reader. I think he must miss an awful lot of the essence of a book when he cannot feel the emotion. I know he is a bear to watch a movie with as he likes to point out all the “things” that are not possible. I so want to say, “For crying out loud, this is fantasy. It’s a movie. It’s not life, just shut up and get lost in it, or just pretend.”

I may not be enjoying the made up words so much in Terry Pratchett’s “The Color of Magic”, but I sure do enjoy his world. It has its laws too but they do not intrude on the wonderful story. He takes you off on an adventure, where chests have legs and run away, cameras have little painters in them and giant turtles “with geological slowness” and "hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs” and “sea-sized eyes…crusted with reum and asteroid dust” live. Yes, I am wearing those lines out but I love them.

These are the items that move my emotions and memories. They help me visualize his world with things I can see, and even though I cannot see sea-sized eyes, I can see what they would look like.

Looking at Guernica, I can see the agony of a people being bombed out. Just as I can see the Star studded night sky dancing in VanGogh’s Starry Night. And, cry my eyes out when Dumbledore dies or when Harry is so bravely walking to his death. And, cry over the Ghost and Mrs. Muir, even though I have seen this movie more times than I can count.

I think of this each day as I do my final edit and go over each sentence. Is it good enough to make someone visualize this world? Is it good enough to make someone laugh, or cry? If not, is it necessary? If yes, reword it. If no, cut it.

"What if ......"

I think I have lived in a fairy tale world, since I was born. I am often happier being “in” a book than in life and I love to lose myself in a movie. I hate when the lights come up in the theatre. Living in a fantasy world has made it so much easier to come up with ideas for novels. Of course, this is the same woman who once, took a marker and drew out all the pictures I saw in the wood on the bathroom floor. It was the subflooring mind you.

I do look down a lot at things and my mind see pictures that others do not. I often hear, when I point them out to others, “HUH? You see what?”

A story for me needs only a “What if …” My mystery started with “What if a gorilla was kidnapped.”

My YA novel began with “what if…” and an event in my life.

I’m not filling the “what if…” in right now, as it is central to my plot and, I think, so much fun for a fantasy that I want to save it. Hopefully, soon, I will put up the book flap copy that I propose, and it will be in there.

This YA novel, also started from my life and the three boys I am raising. It involves three brothers traveling from their “not so great” life in the human world to a realm that has lived alongside humans since the beginning of time but humans being who they are refuse to acknowledge them. I have used stories told in the history of most cultures. There are always tales, around the fire, of other life forms, from giants to fairies. I have also used a lot of Native American mythology.

So, if you are every sitting there wondering, “What do I write about?” just ask yourself “What if…?” OR, you could try drawing on the bathroom floor.