As I was working on an assessment task last night an idea came to me of using perspective, defined by google as a particular attitude towards or way of regarding something; a point of view, in order to reveal things implicitly about character.
In the piece of creative writing I will do tonight I hope to juxtapose perspectives to shed light on character.
Currently its Saturday Night and I’m feeling tired and not wanting to write at all, however I’m often told that the best writers can write like its a trade-any time, any where. So here goes nothing….
Black and light, Black and light, Black and light. SUV’s and Sport Cars rolled into the car park of the Casino. Men got out, formal shoes gracing the pavement, cigarettes dangling from mouths, open collars and slicked back hair. They walked with a purpose, moving quickly towards the light and dark of the Casino. They walked through the doors into a new world, a world of chance, where the thought of achieving something great, greater than oneself, was only a role of the dice away. The Casino placed the outside world into obscurity. It had the fate of those men in its cold magnetic hand.
A silhouette walked down the highway kicking cans into the creek.
How does one come back? How do I get back? Through all those years I thought I wasn’t changing, I was……. I was changing.
Wearing a green bomber jacket and board shorts he walked into the wind. His eyes were bloodshot, they stung when he blinked. His hair was short and neat, his drivers license told us he was 29. Not even 30, yet something feels inexorably gone.
Time doesn’t tell us what it takes, it just takes.
A fleet of young men, in SUV’s and Sports Cars drive past, throwing cans and yelling abuse. The silhouette doesn’t look up, whats there to look at? He focuses his eyes on the wind and beats on. The young men give up. They illicit no reaction and sail down the road, tuneless music beat deep and loud.
I think I’m going to finish here for the time being. I didn’t end up getting to the point of perspective (the very thing I initially set out to do). I think in the long run this will happen towards the end of my narrative, so no need to rush into it. I was quite happy with this, I think my depiction of the Casino was a strongpoint and I think the final paragraph of the man walking down the highway and coming across the fleet of cars was nice. I might have to make the correlations (that these are the same people) stronger. It would also be worth fleshing out the scene, maybe some more dialogue?
IDEAS
- Maybe I could reveal the silhouettes facial features at the very end?
- Have a look over ‘Life and Times of Michael K’. The dialogue here is good rhythmically, if I want to continue with this scene. Work on my short story dialogue.
- One, was not, but those with the most self-awareness found themselves leaning into a slower rhythm as they swaggered into the Casino.