Ramblings from the underground # two…
What is it that makes one person a better writer than another? For my part, the robotically academic, rehearsed answer is: practice. As with most endeavours it is actually the correct answer; , but makes for very little rambling and besides that isn’t really my pondering; my question is very deliberately: what makes one writer BETTER than another. So, my ‘ nonacademic’ wild card answer is: the fire that burns within you. The spirit as we call it; as Da Vinci has called it; as Nietzsche has rambled on about in philosophical muttering, as Pratchett has labelled it, as Kundera has exposed it. Why do we have a proclivity to one type of story teller over another? We can contemplate that it has little to do with the writer but rather the receptive spirit of the audience. Or perhaps a combination of the transcendence to another world plotted by endless possibilities, grounded always in realism. We all want to be Peter Pan, but at some point our story becomes far more real when we grow up… when we expose our vulnerabilities as writers because we trust the audience will appreciate them as such.
Let’s think of Peter Pan; such a tragedy, poor boy to never grow up, to always win, to conquer Captain Hook, hence to never know defeat, to never know the paradoxical pain and euphoria of loving Wendy forever, to always only have fun… escapism is nice (with the rather insignificant emphasis on the insignificance of a word like ‘’nice!). But all this considered, I want to know what happens to Peter without Neverland and Hook and Tink and lost boys; I want to know what happens to Peter when he grows up…I want to know. I want to know what would happen if Peter’s archetypal ability of unending youth should abruptly come to an end. What if the archetype takes on a different archetype?
Now, imagine for a moment that you are allowed to touch Peter (if you are unaware of this basic facts, no-one is ever allowed to touch Peter – hence that Tink intercedes when Wendy offers him a thimble or Kiss) …imagine if you were allowed to touch him, thereby destroying his archetype of unending youth, who does Peter become without youth. Who is Peter? How do you make him believable to the audience and other readers as someone tainted by a touch and manifested as a real man? How do you become a better writer than JM Barrie? How do you capture the spirit of a boy who died at 14 and will never grow up (JM Barrie’s brother died at 14, hence the Peter Pan stories). How does he become the grown spirit that captured JM Barrie’s writing fingers as a grown man?
I am the audience, enthrall me about Peter Pan as the archetype of old age – the Wise Old man – also known as the Sage, the Senex (in Psychology) or the Sophos. Merlin is a sage, Chiron from the Iliad is a Senex, Obi- Wan Kenobi is a sage. What happens to Peter should he be made wise old man archetype.
My point, with these ramblings, is that good writers are ALWAYS thinking…they are always creating new plots from old ones, new characters from old ones, new societies from old one….they are questioning constantly why, if a pen was lifted, it cannot continue now in a different time, place and emotion…
Tell me the story of Peter the wise man…
Yes, this is a task (600-1000 words)
AS and A level English 
Fantastic. This is going to be very interesting…
Hi Bronwyn, I just wanted to ask if the student activities from the course manual must be uploaded on to my blog?
Hi Brett,
By all means, please paste all on your blog. Please remember that i am not following all of you. It is your (plural) responsibility to e-mail your URL to me each time you post a blog.
Hi All,
Amy asked me the following on mail, that i think may berelevant to all:
Hi Bronwyn,
Hope you’re well! 🙂
Just a question I have for you regarding task 2.
Are we writing about Peter Pan, the Wise Old Man, therefore putting him into that archetype and creating a story (?) of him in that ‘position’. So not including anything of his ‘life before’ (namely, still a ‘boy’ – never growing up, Neverland, Tink, lost boys, captain hook, etc)
So basically, writing about ‘who is peter pan, the boy who grew up’ and creating a tale about his ‘new’ life in that sense?
-Amy 🙂
My answer (which i hope assists some others) is as follows:
Hi Amy,
Part of developing a character, includes the ability to create the thought process of the character, thus if Peter Pan, the wise man, has thoughts or reminiscences about his childhood – it would indeed form part of the character. If you are writing in the 3rd person narrative such a process could be told like this:
.”…Peter escaped to the attic, his cob webbed rocking chair a reminder of the little introspection he has sought of late. It was a sanctuary as much as time machine for Peter. Once in seat his thoughts blurred almost immediately to a time of never worlds and the boys…ah, the boys, his beloved Simon….”, etc etc.
If you are writing in the 1st person it is a similar process, except as though you are Peter himself: ‘.. I hadn’t been to the attic in almost a decade, afraid of what i may find there, of what might stir in fleeting moments of lullabyed rocking merging with the gentle motion as though it were immediate. I become Peter, the boy, the naive…”. etc etc
You see it all depends how you write best, for me it is sometimes easier to write in first person and become the character, that way i almost act my way through the thoughts, whereas writing from 3rd person – its almost as though you are directing the character.
But,the answer to the direct question is you must create more than flesh for an audience and i think the heart of a good Peter Pan; the wise old man story, lies in the reminiscence of thought…
Choose your narrative perspective wisely, it can make all the difference to a piece of writing….
Kind regards
Bronwyn