Koala Lou: "She Loves Me. She Loves Me Not."

Creative Writing Tutorial No. 1.  This is for Quincy and everyone else interested in creative writing. There is no age limit.

Koala Lou: "She Loves Me. She Loves Me Not."

 

Sometime in 1990, I attended  a Creative Writing Workshop led by the award-winning Australian author Jackie French at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

            I adored Jackie French and I savored every word she said. But we had a conflict!

            I couldn’t see eye to eye with her regarding conflict. She told me in no uncertain terms that conflict there must be between my main characters. Stubbornly, I maintained that there wasn’t any conflict between them because they loved each other.

            How naïve of me!  How stupid!

            Just to be polite to Jackie French, the guest facilitator from Australia, I half-heartedly threw in a contrived conflict into my workshop story.

            Let’s fast-forward to 2013. My grandson asks why there’s always an antagonist who makes the life of the protagonist miserable. By way of a reply, I ask him questions.

            “If Harry Potter didn’t have an unloving and mean foster family – the Dursleys - would you emphathize with Harry as much as you do?

            “If Harry Potter didn’t have mean classmates and professors at Hogwarts School, would you have rooted for Harry as much as you have?

            “If Harry Potter didn’t have the meanest meanie of them all – Lord Voldemort – making his young life exteremely dangerous, would all of us have continued reading all seven books in the series?”

            Conflict, not love, makes the world go round.

            Having invented Harry Potter, the protagonist, and Lord Voldemort, the antagonist,  J.K.Rowling has made herself richer than the Queen of England.

            Conflict is a gold mine.

            What if it’s just an innocent picture storybook for children? Does it need conflict?  Very young children learning the alphabet and the numbers one to ten  don’t need conflict yet.

            But soon enough, conflict rears its ugly head into their young lives. It makes them appreciate conflict in the picture books read to them. (Sometimes, they ‘read’ the pictures by themselves.) Isn’t conflict the glue which holds together fairy tales? Don’t Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters make us love Cinderella more?

Let’s take the case of Koala Lou, written by Mem Fox and illustrated by Pamela Lofts. Koala Lou, the bear, was the first-born of her parents.  Mommy K loved her baby bear so very, very much. She always said, “Koala Lou, I do love you!”

Everybody loved Koala Lou. She was the superstar, the megastar, the diamond star. She was the center of the universe. She loved being loved by everyone, especially by her Mommy K who said all the time, “Koala Lou, I do love you!”

In Frame 5 of the book, conflict suddenly happened between Koala Lou and her Mommy K. How could that happen between mother and child? Between two people who loved each other?

Well, new baby bears had been born. Koala Lou had siblings and Mommy K had no more time to say, “Koala Lou, I do love you!”

Did Mem Fox, the author, put Koala Lou and Mommy K toe-to-toe like bulls in a bullfight?  No, Mem Fox didn’t. Aware that she had only 15 frames in which to develop her story, Mem Fox kept the spotlight on her main character, Koala Lou.

It was necessary to do so in order to develop the character of Koala Lou. How did Mem Fox make Koala Lou an interesting character to her readers? How did Koala Lou solve her problem? Did the conflict give her an opportunity to grow up? To shine? To discover her hidden talents and skills?

Koala Lou didn’t hate her Mommy K and her siblings. Instead, she resolved to make herself more lovable. She felt that if she could win in the Bush Olympics in the Bear Universe, she would become the center of the universe again for her Mommy K .

So Koala Lou trained long and hard for the Bush Olympics. On the day of the championship in gum-tree climbing, Koala Lou exerted every ounce of energy which she had. But it wasn’t good enough. She was only second best.

Koala Lou’s strategy to win back her mother’s love was a failure. Koala Lou was heart-broken. She went off somewhere to cry and be alone.

Surprise!  When Koala Lou crept home, Mommy K who had been waiting gave her a long, long hug and whispered, “Koala Lou, I do love you!”  

 

                 This surprise ending was in the last frame, of course. It is the most important frame because it shows the theme or message or moral lesson of the story without preaching.     

 

 

A Mother's Day Poem: "Something She'll Appreciate"

Something She’ll Appreciate

                                                           by Alyssa Jamela Dadayan
                                                              Draft 3, May 8, 2013

 It's Mother's Day today. What should I give Mom?                                                       

          I want something different,
          I want something special,
          I want something she’ll appreciate.
How about a card? With beautiful bright colors,
Shapes, and flowers in the middle.
How about a cake? Mom loves chocolate cakes.
Or a soft green pillow? She’ll love that.

But I have no materials for a colorful card.

I have no money for either a sweet chocolate cake or a pillow.
I guess I can’t give Mom a gift. All I can give her is LOVE.
But still, I want something different,
              I want something special,
              I want something she’ll appreciate.
I’ll just pick five red roses from our garden,
take off the thorns, tie them with a white ribbon.
And put a little note on it.
When she gets home, I’ll kiss her and say,
“I love you, Mom, very much!”
          That’s something different,
          It’s something special,
          It’s something she’ll appreciate.

Alyssa Jamela Dadayan's DRAFT 6

The Chair and the Table

by Alyssa Jamela A. Dadayan

 

Yesterday, 2013 April 16, was Alyssa's second session in Creative Writing. During the first session, she started drafting a dialogue poem by imitating the format of Shel Silverstein's "The Little Boy and the Old Man."  Alyssa is drafting a dialogue poem between a chair and a table. This is draft 6. Although it's still less than perfect, I think it is safe to publish it. Alyssa's only 12 years old right now. When she's older, I'm sure she'll have new insights and she may wish to revise one more time...

“I’m more useful than you!” said the chair to the table.

“No, you’re not!” argued the table. “I’m more useful than you!

“I have more uses than just sitting on.  

 

 I can make people feel more comfortable. 

 They can rest and relax on me!” yelled the chair.

“Well, the priest cannot proceed to the consecration 

  without me,” said the table proudly.

“People can stand and walk on me whenever 

  there’s an emergency!” screamed the chair.

“People can use me for their cooking preparations,” rumbled the table.

“I show position in society,” rattled the chair.

“I can save people’s lives as an operating table!” roared the table.

“Huh, looks like I have more uses than you, chair. 

 Goodbye!”  The table stormed out.

“Wait a minute, table,” said the chair sadly.

“Why?” asked the table.

“I’m so sorry, table. I’ve been so proud of myself.

  But I think it will be better if we work together,”

  said the chair with a hopeful smile on its face.

Imitating Shel Silverstein's Dialogue Poem

It's Summer 2013 in the Philippines. April and May are spring time elsewhere, but it's scorching summer in the Philippines! Some kids go to the beach, some kids go to the malls, and some kids take summer classes.

For the second summer, I'm offering speech and writing classes in my hometown, Nasugbu, Batangas. My host school is Adelaido A. Bayot Memorial School, Inc.

Alyssa Jamela Dadayan, an accomplished 12-year old swimmer with many medals won from many competitions, decided to stick to her Creative Writing Class even if she's the only student. Her would-be classmates had transferred to Academic Writing for practical reasons.

And so I decided to keep the Creative Writing Class even if I have only one student.

Our first session was on writing a dialogue poem. I don't lecture. I let my writing students dive into the pool immediately. And that's what I did with Alyssa. She's a be-medalled swimmer, after all.

However, Alyssa came right up gasping for air. Ooops, I'm getting ahead of my story.

How did I proceed? First, Alyssa and I did a dramatic reading of Shel Silverstein's dialogue poem, "The Little Boy and the Old Man."

Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon."
Said the old man, "I do that too."
The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants."
"I do that too," laughed the little old man.
Said the little boy, "I often cry."
The old man nodded, "So do I."
"But worst of all," said the boy, "it seems
Grown-ups don't pay attention to me."
And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand.
"I know what you mean," said the little old man.   

After reading the poem, I told Alyssa to write her own dialogue poem between two persons or two objects. She said she'd write a conversation between a table and a chair. "Okay, you've got 15 minutes to write," I said.

In a manner of speaking, I threw her into the pool. And she came right up gasping for air. "I cannot think of what to write," she said. Her draft 1 was two lines long.

So I showed her how to do a mind map of the chair's uses and the table's uses. Then I gave her 20 minutes to work on her second draft. Afterwards, she said it was too long and sort of rambled. It was prosaic, not poetic.

I told her to choose only the more important ideas which means excluding the less important ones. I told her to work on draft 3. When she finished draft 3, she said she didn't know how to end it.

I asked her which one she wanted to win the argument between the table and the chair. Let the winner have the last say.

Her draft 4 was a pleasant surprise!  She said she didn't think she could finish a dialogue poem in one session. And she's very happy with the result. Alyssa's draft 4 is far from perfect, but already has the making of an original poem with an original message.

As soon as Alyssa's ready with her draft 5, I'll publish it in this blog. I'm sure you'll love it!