Sunday 26 September 2010

Author's Commentary: This-That and the Other

This-That and the Other

I love it when I write something like this. Fairy tales and simple strangeness. I rarely set out to write this kind of thing (despite it probably being my favourite kind of writing) which you might think is odd, but really, I think it's the kind of thing that won't be forced. When there is the right conjunction of mind and fingers these words happen all by themselves.

I think it falls into the magic realism category. Although I would normally think that a little more 'real world gone sideways'. This isn't really long enough a piece to explore its relationship with the real world.

At the same time as I was editing this, or rather, in parallel, I was also turning it into a picture book script; which is an entirely different experience. The common fallacy, I suspect, would be to think writing picture books is easy. It's not. Not only do you have to consider the story, but also language and positioning the text and image: directing, if you will. I suspect my first attempt has a few too many pages of This-That and Other just talking to each other. Which may not be that visually stimulating even if I think the words are good.

I also need the right artist, who will listen to my suggestions as well as bringing their own talent to the table. To be honest, while I have in my head a vague visual aesthetic, and while I have storyboarded the book, I only have the loosest sense of what the two characters look like. Which is the artist's challenge... shape two characters that have to look right, when the best I can do is tell you how they feel to me...

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