Well, I know the basic steps to writing. In my third grade classroom we start like this:
And knowing all of this is not making it much easier. You see I can talk a mile a mile a minute about it, but putting pen to paper, oops - fingers to keyboard - is a tad harder. Is that because it is more permanent than thoughts? I remember when I managed a bookstore that many people expected me to be the kind of person with a book inside me just waiting to be written. They thought I was working there not because I loved books but because they thought I was a frustrated author. NO WAY!! I am a reader. I appreciate and relish a book. Nothing more. I absorb, ponder, and chew on the words of others but no adequate words seem to gel together in my mind to be put on paper.
For the most part I am content with my non-writing skills... until it's time to write my thoughts to someone, create a verse, a letter, or merely write a short review. Now I'm stuck. See my problem? Now this "review writing block" has seeped into my personal life! Egads!
My feeble attempt:
Suzanne Collins, here's my number. Call anytime. Let's have a long chat about your terrific characters, their growth, their fears and their passions. About Katniss Everdeen (I don't care what Stephen King says, I LOVE the name.) Let's talk about actions and consequences. But let's laugh a little too. I need a little bit of that after some intense time with your book; it wasn't always happy.
Shall we do lunch? Because I certainly don't want to do bedtime stories with you. Blood and guts and evil - yes, that's what war is. And your books of war are quite frankly the stuff of bad dreams and nightmares. Unfortunately they are real. War is not pretty and I am grateful that you didn't pretty it up. The Capitol did that.
I didn't like you much at times though. Characters I liked didn't get the respect I wanted and were gone in an instant - no goodbyes. How dare you?!? But, on second thought, that's life. We don't get notice that this will be goodbye or GOODBYE. We just go on.
Your ending took time. Thank you. I expected something different but in the end it feels just right. I felt like I was watching a friend who suffered PTSD. No easy answers, no overnight "get well." Thanks for being careful there. Yep, life went on. Time really can help us grow scars over our wounds. Like Katniss and her physical wounds, hearts and minds will always carry the marks of war or loss. May time be a careful healer over those griefs and losses.
You know, Suzanne (I feel we're friends now,) I'm glad Katniss made the choices she did. Gale or Peeta? That too was fine in my mind. Her reasoning resonates in me. Thanks for that. So I don't ruin it for others, just call me (remember, you have my number) and we'll talk about it a little more!
Now, that's done. My thoughts are clear in my mind. I'm ready to talk with anyone else about it too. Bring it on...after a few weeks of not wanting to hear anyone else's opinions I'm ready and waiting.
Good, now that's one thing I can check off my Saturday list!
