Found Voices™ Episode #7 How Can I Use This?

Oh boy,

Do I dig this music.

Welcome to Found Voices.

I'm Carolyn Ziel.

Episode 7,

How can I use that?

So for those of you who may or may not know my background,

I don't know why you would.

This is a million years ago,

But I grew up in the entertainment industry.

My father was a unit production manager,

Producer,

Associate producer,

All the things.

And he worked on many movies.

One in particular,

He was working with Charles Durning.

Charles Durning is an amazing,

Or was an amazing,

Actor,

Character actor,

Award winner.

He was nominated for an Academy Award,

Best supporting actor for Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

He was in Scarface,

Dog Day Afternoon,

Tons of movies.

He was in one particular movie that my dad worked on.

He produced called Two of a Kind,

Not the greatest movie.

It was with Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.

So it was on Two of a Kind that my father and Charles Durning became friends.

And Charles Durning told my father a story that one day my father told me,

And I never forgot it.

So the story goes,

Charles Durning is at his dad's funeral.

And he kept thinking about,

How can I use this,

This intense emotion from this intense life event,

Life experience in my art,

In my practice?

I don't remember when my dad told me that story,

But I remember it was in regard to Charles Durning's passion for his art,

His commitment to his craft,

His passion and his commitment.

And now I look at that and I think his passion,

His commitment,

And the way he focuses in on the details of his life.

And I never forgot that story.

I never did.

So when we think about the details of our lives and our passion and commitment to our craft,

In this instance,

Writing,

We want to remember the details and how we can implement them and use them to create brilliance on the page.

I don't know where he took that experience,

Charles Durning,

And put it into a specific character.

But if he was doing that at his dad's funeral,

I'm sure he's done that lots of different times.

And that would explain the body of his work.

That would explain the awards and the nominations.

That would explain his commitment to his practice.

And I just want to clarify something.

I call it a practice,

Charles Durning's practice.

His acting was his career,

But it was also a practice.

Acting,

Writing,

Dancing.

I consider all of these things practices.

I don't care if you're a boxer,

A tennis player,

A writer.

You practice your craft.

You learn tools.

You implement them.

You practice.

You get better.

You practice.

You get better.

And part of Charles Durning's practice was paying attention to how he experienced his own life,

Paying attention to the details around him,

To the emotions he was feeling.

He would see and kind of,

I would assume,

Categorize these emotions,

Or keep them,

And remember them,

So that he could implement them.

He could infuse them into the characters he portrayed on TV,

On screen,

On the stage.

It explains a lot.

And we can take that.

And we can use the details of our lives in our characters.

And I have no idea how he did it.

So I can only imagine and explain how I might do it.

You might use the details of your life in a different way.

I will share how I use them.

And I hope it's helpful.

And you can take what works for you.

Or you can take what doesn't work for you,

And switch it around and make it work for you.

Either way,

Let's get into it a little bit more.

So if I think about my father's funeral,

I was 25.

It was a very long time ago.

I don't remember a lot of,

For instance,

I don't remember how we got home from the mortuary.

I remember walking in the door.

I remember going to the bar.

I remember it was catered.

I remember it was deli.

I remember seeing my grandmother.

I remember drinking a lot and having nothing affect me.

I remember feeling numb all day.

I remember the sound of voices.

And I felt uncomfortable in my body,

In what I was wearing.

I don't remember a lot of who was there.

I don't remember a lot of what was said to me.

I remember at the grave site the overexposed light and how it was hard to see.

I remember how my heels sunk in the grass at the grave site.

I remember that during the service,

The room was so filled with people.

But I don't remember who was there.

So what do we do with all these details?

Well,

First,

Write them down.

But this is an example of going back in time,

Picking certain things out.

And think about these images.

Images are more powerful than words.

Images are more powerful than your story.

If you tell a story about going to a funeral and the character's really sad and they're crying at the grave site and tears are spilling down their face and all the things,

And you miss these details,

You're going to miss something for this character.

And if you want your reader to really connect with your character,

And not just your character,

But your writing,

Because it's through your writing that your reader connects to your character,

You want to include those details of what's going on around the character.

Let me give you another example,

Because we're not Charles Durning.

We don't stand at a grave site and think to ourselves,

How can we use this,

Because we might be distracted.

And that's fine.

I'm just using that as a crazy example of commitment and how important it is to notice the details of our lives.

So here's another example.

You're walking along the beach.

And yeah,

It's a gorgeous day.

And the ocean looks like diamonds on the water and the seagulls and the people.

But you also want to remember,

What does it smell like?

Does it smell like Hawaiian Tropic Coconut Suntan lotion mixed with kelp and salt and seawater?

Or does it smell like Bandy Soleil jelly?

Remember that stuff?

I love the smell of that stuff.

Or Coppertone.

Or the sounds of the waves crashing and the kids laughing.

So you want to remember your five senses.

What are you seeing?

But what are you feeling?

What are you smelling?

What do you taste in your mouth?

Are you walking along the beach and you just had a cup of coffee,

So you still taste the coffee on your tongue?

You want to remember your five senses.

So here's how you might use all these details that you remember from a simple walk at the beach.

You have a couple,

A man and a woman,

Husband and wife,

Two characters in your story walking along the beach.

And on this day,

He asks her for a divorce.

So of course,

She's shocked or not.

But in this instance,

Let's say she's shocked.

Let's say she's thrown for a loop.

They just had breakfast.

They're on a lovely morning stroll on a Sunday.

And he springs this on her.

And she is like,

What the heck?

So you can,

Of course,

Incorporate it through dialogue,

Through commentary,

What she's thinking and feeling,

Right,

Through backstory.

And what if you lace in or layer in what she's smelling,

What she's sensing,

What she's focusing on?

You know,

A lot of times when something crazy happens,

When we're at a funeral,

We focus on something small.

Someone's breaking up with you,

And all you can do is stare at the penny on the floor and or a seashell or something in your hand that you're holding.

Or all you can focus in on is the sound of the airplane going above your head,

Whatever it is.

So if you lace these details in,

I want a divorce,

He says.

The sounds of the ocean,

The children playing,

The smells of the suntan lotion and the seaweed.

And the ocean salting mist,

The brine.

And all this detail layered in between the dialogue of I want a divorce,

What are you talking about,

Whatever the dialogue is.

It will make that scene come alive in such a unique and real way.

Because somehow,

A lot of times when we're writing,

We forget real life.

We forget when these powerful things happen to us,

What we remember.

Like the funeral,

And all I can remember are certain sound bites,

Certain flashbacks,

And the overexposed sun,

And how hot it was,

Or whatever it is.

And we remember the certain details.

And those are the details you're going to pull from your life and put into your stories,

Into your poems,

Into your essays,

Into your fiction,

Into your nonfiction,

Into your memoir.

It's those details.

So when I think about that story my father told me and Charles Durning,

I sometimes wonder,

You know,

Here he is.

I'm sure he was crying.

Did he take his tongue and stick it out of his mouth and reach for one of his tears and take note of how it tasted?

That salty tear taste.

You know what I mean?

Have you ever done that?

I've done that.

To be able to use those details.

And again,

We're not going to go to a wedding and in the middle of a celebration think to ourselves,

Oh,

There's such a beautiful couple.

How can I use this?

But after the celebration,

Just remember,

Maybe put a note on your computer.

How can I use this?

Remember the details of your life.

What else can we use?

What else and when and how can we use it?

When we put these details into our stories,

Into our characters who are us,

I don't care if you're writing about an evil queen or a tragic hero or a dog.

You're in that character.

So must the details of your life be in that character.

I hope,

I hope,

I hope you've enjoyed this.

I hope this has given you some insight and something to think about and something to write about the details of your life.

So thanks for listening to this episode of Found Voices.

Keep on writing.

Write on.

I'll see you next time.