The Creative Process: Saving Mr. Banks

 

I recently watched one of the Oscar contenders from last year, Saving Mr. Banks. To be honest, nothing about the film held any appeal for me when it was released. Not the subject matter, the making of a Disney movie, not the comedic clash of cultures between an uppity Englishwoman and the king of make believe, Walt Disney, not even the lead actors, both of whom I usually find hard to take. But my husband always wanted to see it and thought it would be something the whole family could watch. Well, we finally did.

And I’ve been thinking about the movie, which I actually enjoyed very much. Now, it was spawned from the Disney machine so of course, it was what I saw described as “aggressively likeable.” There were moments of sentimentality and humor, mixed to a pleasing balance, and a bit of stereotype here and there. These weren't the most developed characters you'll ever witness. And if you’re looking for a comprehensive retelling of the making of Mary Poppins, this probably isn’t it. As is always the case with films “based on true events,” you can google lots of articles about how Saving Mr. Banks was misleading or incomplete or whatever. Here’s one.

The film does begin at the point that P.L. Travers (played by Emma Thompson) is grudgingly on her way to Los Angeles to participate with the development of the Mary Poppins movie. I actually enjoyed her emotionally restrained English-y demeanor, as well as her interplay with Tom Hanks, who plays a thoughtful Walt Disney. The thing is, I think it might be one of Hanks’s best performances. Yeah, I said it. He was fantastic. I’m sure there was much, much more to the story, but the patience and insight Hanks’s Disney shows to Travers, and the way these two characters eventually form some slight connection (or in the least, a stalemate) is something to see.

But what I enjoyed the most about Saving Mr. Banks is the part that I imagine was the most fictionalized: the flashbacks to P.L. Travers’s childhood, which unfold almost as a mystery. Her beloved alcoholic father and his road to ruin, the ways this most vital relationship bled into her writing of the books. Without saying too much--in one of the final scenes, Disney relays some of the difficulties of his own childhood, and the differing ways he and Travers have handled hardship. It is apparent, however, that each's creative outlet was powered by these early charges. We are also left to make some extended assumptions about what drove Disney to his particular obsession, the entertainment of children, and to ponder how our own experiences color anything we create. Whether this part of the storyline was true or not, it left me thinking about influences and memory, and the stew from which we draw our best broth.

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Poem for the Weekend

 

Today's Poem for the Weekend comes from one of India's most well-known public figures. Sarojini Naidu has an amazing biography, which you can read here. She was the first female president of the Indian National Congress, a state governor, a suffragette, and a poet active in India's literary scene. Sometimes called "the Nightingale of India," she died in 1949.

Autumn Song

by Sarojini Naidu

Like a joy on the heart of a sorrow,
The sunset hangs on a cloud;
A golden storm of glittering sheaves,
Of fair and frail and fluttering leaves,
The wild wind blows in a cloud.

Hark to a voice that is calling
To my heart in the voice of the wind:
My heart is weary and sad and alone,
For its dreams like the fluttering leaves have gone,
And why should I stay behind?                             

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Poem for the Weekend

 

I've had Mark Strand on the brain this week, after reading a flash fiction piece he wrote (I mentioned the collection in my last post). And so, I went to find a poem for this week's entry. It wasn't easy to choose just one. Strand has collected just about every award and accolade a poet can, for good reason. You can read about him here.


The Prediction

by Mark Strand

That night the moon drifted over the pond,
turning the water to milk, and under
the boughs of the trees, the blue trees,
a young woman walked, and for an instant

the future came to her:
rain falling on her husband's grave, rain falling
on the lawns on her children, her own mouth
filling with cold air, strangers moving into her house,

a man in her room writing a poem, the moon drifting into it,
a woman strolling under its trees, thinking of death,
thinking of him thinking of her, and the wind rising
and taking the moon and leaving the paper dark.

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Cross-training for Writers

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up this book in a thrift shop while on vacation. This collection of "very short stories" was chosen by staff and students at Wright State University in 1992 and follows three previous collections with some form of "Sudden Fiction" in the title. The introduction touches on this change, explaining the criteria for "Flash Fiction;" basically, it's shorter than sudden fiction. It's interesting to think of the ways short fiction has and hasn't evolved in the past twenty years, with the dawning of Twitter and sound bites, and but then again, Haiku is ancient.

Flash Fiction is a fantastic collection of pieces, really stellar. I kept waiting for the stories to decrease in quality as I went along (this often happens with collections) but they never did. So many searing images and nuanced insights, so much feeling in these short works. There are stories by Carver, Atwood, and Updike, by Mark Strand, Tim O'Brien and Jamaica Kincaid. Lots of authors you may know, and some you probably won't. But all of the stories had something in common: each was a short, vivid experience.

I realized that reading these brief pieces of fiction would be a really great exercise for any writer wishing to think about writing scenes, because that's what many of them were. A writer could do worse than to strive for the immediacy and sensory immersion usually evident in flash fiction. Even in the breadth of a novel, it could be helpful to envision an hourglass when you're writing a scene. Be purposeful, present an experience, create a tension.

Sometimes, I'm asked in interviews to give advice to writers and really, the same thing always comes to mind: READ! Read the type of books you want to write, and read everything else too. Consider yourself an athlete in training. You have to exercise different parts of your brain, like an athlete moves from one muscle group to the next. Read flash fiction to learn about creating impactful scenes. Read poetry to remind yourself of rhythm and beauty, biographies for character insight, non-fiction for cause-and-effect and reason, memoir to experience someone else's feelings. And always, always read fiction because there you will find the most crystallized stories and voices, and grains of sand turned to gem.

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Blog Hop: On Importance

One rewarding aspect of my burgeoning career as a writer is connecting with kindred souls. The expanding cocktail party of writers in which I’ve had the pleasure to mingle the past several years is an ongoing source of motivation, commiseration and support. And so, when I have a chance to highlight some of these talented folks, I usually jump at it. I’ve been asked to participate in this Blog Hop by the effervescent Katie O’Rourke, who probably is repaying me for roping her into the last one (!), but I’m happy to bring her and her work to your attention again. You can read Katie’s answer to the Blog Hop question here, and find information about her two published novels, Monsoon Season and A Long Thaw, as well as excerpts from her next one, Finding Charlie.

 

THE QUESTION:

 

Why are you working on the project you are writing now? Why is it important? (to you, or to the world, or...)

 

I'm beginning work on a novel, with two great working titles which I won't share with you because of superstition. But it's about, in the main, being a person and what it means to be whole or complete. Of course, this feels like a very momentous undertaking to me (all projects do, at the start!). It's very important to me to work out these thoughts, to explore the characters who have started to crowd and talk over each other in my mind. I'd like to think anything I write might have some relevance to readers, that maybe someone will find a new insight or feel connected, even if for the length of a story. That's important, I think, when it happens.

 

And now, I'd like to tag two authors you'd be very wise to check out. They'll answer this same question soon. 

 

Douglas Bornemann is the author of The Demon of Histlewick Downs, a recently-released fantasy novel already garnering great reviews, and currently priced a steal for the ebook. I met Doug and his wife Genelle at a conference and they are brilliant and talented, so I'm looking forward to diving into his book, which looks top-notch on my Kindle! Doug also blogs here, where you'll find his upcoming post.

 

Patricia Morris is a writer I met through Authonomy.com years ago. Her novel, Going Out in Style, was one of the more inventive, quirky and touching things I read, and the story has stayed with me all these years. I follow her blog, where she always has something illuminating and interesting to say. You should follow her too.

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