Leila's Notebook

welcome!

2 notes

Watched first episode of Downton Abbey season 2 last night and found myself much more absorbed with Lady Mary than I was in season 1.  As her dilemma deepens and the stakes are ratcheted up, her character becomes more appealing, empathetic and recognizable.  Her inner conflict and outer conflict all make and sense on a human level and within the story and the world of the show, so her journey feels organic and earned rather than plotted or written.  She seems real.  As a writer this is basic (conflict, conflict, conflict!) and yet so easy to forget and so difficult to do.

Watched first episode of Downton Abbey season 2 last night and found myself much more absorbed with Lady Mary than I was in season 1.  As her dilemma deepens and the stakes are ratcheted up, her character becomes more appealing, empathetic and recognizable.  Her inner conflict and outer conflict all make and sense on a human level and within the story and the world of the show, so her journey feels organic and earned rather than plotted or written.  She seems real.  As a writer this is basic (conflict, conflict, conflict!) and yet so easy to forget and so difficult to do.

Filed under Lady Mary Mary Crawley Downton Abbey Writing

22 notes

Patience

Writers must be patient.  Patient with themselves.  Patient with their work.  Patient with their lives.  This poem by Kay Ryan reminds me of how the space carved out by waiting has a life of its own.

Patience

by Kay Ryan

Patience is
wider than one
once envisioned,
with ribbons
of rivers
and distant
ranges and
tasks undertaken
and finished
with modest
relish by
natives in their
native dress.
Who would
have guessed
it possible
that waiting
is sustainable—
a place with
its own harvests.
Or that in
time’s fullness
the diamonds
of patience
couldn’t be
distinguished
from the genuine
in brilliance
or hardness.

Filed under patience writing writers poetry