by Meryl Neiman
Wednesday night I went to hear Nora Ephron speak. Nora is a journalist, novelist, screenplay writer and director (it's annoying that someone's so talented -- but that's another post). She told great stories, including the inside scoop on how the famous orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally came about, but she focused her talk on the ephiphanies that have shaped her life as a writer.
Her first lesson was an early one, taught by a rather unsympathetic mother. When she or one of her sisters complained about a horrific life experience, her mom's response would be: "makes great copy." Everything was fodder for the pen.
Although I wouldn't recommend this parenting style, I do think the lesson is an uplifting one for writers. We are uniquely positioned to make lemonade out of every lemon thrown our way. We can take any life event and use it in our work. If the plot doesn't serve our purposes, we can also look to the emotion the event inspired.
No other profession can make this claim.
I have to say I felt empowered by this revelation. Life does make great copy. I just found out tonight that a parent at my school has a rare form of eye cancer and will be off to Philadelphia for several weeks for treatment unavailable in Pittsburgh. I don't know details about the cancer, but it's possible that it is an ocular melanoma. This woman's parent died of a melanoma. For that reason, she and her children wear silly looking hats and long sleeves and are never without protection from the sun. If she now faces a rare form of skin cancer, what could be more tragic. But the irony does make great copy.
Aren't we blessed as writers that we can fashion art out of pain?
7 comments:
Oh, for pete's sake, I wanted to go to the Nora Ephron thing.--I need a personal assistant!
You're so right about taking inspiration from real life, Meryl. I find that I do it a lot writing mysteries. (Family & friends even phone to say, "I think you can use this....") But I hardly ever took even a small detail from life to use in any of the romance novels I wrote. Difference between fantasy and not, I guess.
Good post!
>No other profession can make this claim.
I beg to differ: psychotherapists use the angst of life to learn about the experience from the inside or develop new methods for treatment. Researchers use it to get grants funded as well as write books and papers on the topic.
I DO want to hear about the orgasm scene!
>No other profession can make this claim.
I beg to differ: psychotherapists use the angst of life to learn about the experience from the inside or develop new methods for treatment. Researchers use it to get grants funded as well as write books and papers on the topic.
I DO want to hear about the orgasm scene!
Sorry! I double-clicked at the wrong time and entered my comment twice.
Meryl,
You are so right. And it is a gift to be able to take the emotions of what you felt in real life and transfer them to the page. That is where writers differ from "normal" people. Where others try to push the pain away, writers absorb the feelings, hopefully to use them in the future.
I also think actors, actresses and all performing artists use their angst from real life as their "muse." Think about Salvadore Dali and Picasso. How would anyone know what happy is unless you had experienced sad?
As to your friend with the eye cancer (maybe). I have a girlfriend who had the same thing. Melanoma behind the eye. She's gone through a lot of surgery and has a fake eye, but she's alive and fine. It's a sad story that has turned into a happy (of sorts) one. Hmmmm .... it would make a good detail in my book.
Great post, Meryl! Loved your explanation of the orgasm scene.
If it weren't for all the angst in my life, I'd never be able to write mysteries.
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