This week, Ash & I got together at her lovely apartment, enjoyed a home cooked gourmet lunch, and pumped out our very first draft of "Life's a Paper Picnic!" It is amazing how enjoyable writing can be when you have a collaborator who shares in taste, is open-minded and agenda-less.
What is interesting about writing with a partner, is that each has her own set of ideas and predispositions. I have actually discovered writing tendencies & points of view that I didn't realize I had until working with Ash! For example, though I consider myself a generally positive person, the story and character concepts I initially brought to the table had elements one might interpret as dark. As we've conceived it together, our story involves two women sharing a deep connection that they don't anticipate. It centers around a bride-to-be and her wedding designer who meet at the beach to make final decisions on the ceremony. The fiancé is nowhere to be found. Without giving too much away, over the course of the story, the bride and designer forge a bond.
What we had yet to decide, is how our story would end. I initially envisioned a backlash from the protagonist, the bride, once her fiancé shows up at the beach. I pictured the bride going back to her typical behavior, and possibly belittling the designer in front of her fiancé in an effort to compensate for the events that take place prior to his arrival. What does that say about how I perceive human nature?!
On the other hand, Ash, ETERNAL OPTIMIST, thought--wouldn't it be nice if the fiancé shows up and the bride takes the reigns, displays her newly found independence, and walks her husband through the details of their upcoming nuptials, as the designer looks on, content? Life wrapped in a bow.
What we decided on together is a more realistic approach. Life is neither wrapped in a bow nor cruel, but rather messy. People can change for the better, but not overnight. Lesson learned? The eternal optimist and self-proclaimed realist must keep each other in check.
I look forward to our next writing session when we get to revisit, revise, and dig deeper into our story. Maybe I'll discover something else about myself or the world through the process and share it with you. Isn't that what creating art is all about?
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