Friday, August 12, 2011

Thingish Things

I feel very sober and wise as I begin this post. I believe that feeling is courtesy of Gollum's Song playing on Pandora...I feel old as Galadriel and twice as sagacious. ;)
You all know by now my fondness, amounting almost to a passion, for well-written children's literature. You have heard how I adore A.A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh series. And you know that I can rummage up a quote for any situation from the said trilogy. I found a quote that so perfectly describes the sensation of your thoughts not transcending to your pen, that I believe it needs no other introduction:
"When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it."
*Happy sigh* Isn't that perfect? I think it is. When I'm feeling like a Bear of Very Little Brain, the thingish things inside me don't translate very well.
"I don't see much sense in that," said Rabbit.
"No," said Pooh humbly, "there isn't. But there was going to be when I began it. It's just that something happened to it along the way."
And then there are the opposite moments when my brain seems to do brilliant things without asking my permission and surprising me with their originality. Thingish things indeed, come out of those moments! How precious they are! These moments most frequently come when I am not worrying about the propers hows and wherefores thereof. :)
"You can't help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn't spell it right; but spelling isn't everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn't count."
:) See? There are days when following the rules of writing simply does not count, and you might find that you've come up with something unexpectedly Thingish! :)
A very Thingish sort of something happened in Puddleby Lane. I had not even thought there to be a such a place secreted about Piper's Corner, but I will let you read about it:

"They followed Ann Company through the meadow in a long line—Frank right behind Ann Company with Dot on his shoulders, Maggie at his side, and Cora and Tuck trudging along in the rear. All at once Ann Company seemed to disappear.

Cora started in surprise and ran to the head of the line. Ann Company’s red head bobbed along below her feet. It was then that Cora saw the steep path spiraling downward, hidden in the meadow-grasses. The meadow must be the tops of a bluff, she realized. Cora tossed a questioning glance over her shoulder at Frank.

'Go ahead, Corie. We’ll let you walk into the dragon’s lair first.' He winked and shifted Dot from one shoulder to the other.

Cora stepped carefully down the bank at first and threw her arms out for balance as the sandy path slid away beneath her feet. She gave a brief squeak and caught at a rust-colored vine.

'Don’t you worry none, Miss Cora. The sand’s a soft fallin’ place if you do end wrong-side up, but you’ll soon be getting’ yer Puddleby legs.' Ann Company put out her hand and Cora grabbed it.

Behind her, at the top of the path, Frank helped Maggie and Tucker down, then gingerly began the descent himself. At the bottom of the path the group paused. The sides of the red-clay bluffs surrounded them like a wall with an opening before them showing a piece of the blue water with fluffy clouds above.....

Ann Company pointed toward the opening in the bluffs. 'This place is called The Needle’s Eye. Folk say it’s on account a’ the fact that th’ houses on Puddleby Lane were built by well-off society men, and since the Bible is allus a’saying it’s harder for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than a rich man t’enter the Kingdom a’ Heaven, folk kinder thought it’d be a good reminder.'"

There it is. I'd never in my life thought of The Needle's Eye, but it popped up, an age-old fixture of Puddleby Lane and stared me down, daring me to write it in. :) A rather intriguing place, is it not? The other Thingish thing in P.L. is Cora's hump-backed trunk papered with illustrations from her favorite classic novels...how did I think that up? I didn't think it up. It entered the story and is there to stay, all on it's own. And now I want that trunk for myself....
....Really want it....

:) Any thingish things been happening over in your writing corners? :) ~Rachel

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