"Something very meaningful and definitely not the Fall Out Boy lyrics I wanted to put here." - Fancy Header
j.r. dawson
  • Home
  • THE FIRST BRIGHT THING
  • About
    • Press Kit
    • Recent News
    • Contact
  • STORIES

Day 166: Different Perspectives

11/12/2015

0 Comments

 
I promise this isn't just an excuse to show more wedding pictures.

So the photographs from our big day have been piling in. We have five major sources of pictures: our professional photographer, my oldest friend and her camera, my father and uncle sharing another camera, my father-in law and his phone, and my sister-in-law and her school project. So we've got really five people who were taking pictures. A stranger, a friend, a father of the bride, an uncle, and the sister to the groom. We've got different ages, we've got different motivations. And seeing the day through these different people's eyes has really reminded me that everyone sees one big event differently.

I remember it a certain way. I remember being really frustrated with my wedding coordinator. I remember being angry and hurt that Alex forgot the backpack full of props and music back down the mountain. I remember feeling fat and not believing anyone that I looked good. For the good amount of the day, I wanted to disappear, because I felt like I was ugly and unwanted at my own wedding.

But I also remember Alex looking so in love. I remember him taking my hand and pulling me in as he sang a song to me in front of everyone. I saw him smile. And I could breathe for the first time that day (mostly due to the corset in my dress and elevation of Estes Park, but you know, still).

Now the pictures roll in. Our photographer captures these small moments of Alex and me being in love. She gets these little moments with nature that are gorgeous. She shows this brilliance of the village around us, the grand landscape where we chose to give our vows.

My friend, I can tell, focuses more on details. She has this gorgeous photo of an elk that shows individual hairs on its neck. I promise, it's a lot more majestic when you see it.

My father-in-law focused in on Alex. My father focused in on me. My uncle focused in on both of us. And my sister-in-law captured pictures that no one else thought to capture, mostly of my mother-in-law and of her brothers. She even has one of my brother and me, and I got to see our relationship through another's eyes.

Seeing how each of these people focus on different things in a scene, frame it in different ways, put their own spins and angles and filters ... it is a good lesson in character. It is a good nudge to keep perspective in mind. I know that people have discovered this before, like with The Slap, etc., but it's just so fascinating.

I guess the question then becomes, how can we be mindful of this while writing?

I think the answer lies in a lot of strong characterization. Each one of us came to the wedding with our own centralization, our own web of relationships to other guests and wedding party members. For some of us, it was our wedding, for others, it was our children's wedding. There's a huge difference in emotion there.

So knowing each of your characters walking in, I think that will help ground you in separate head spaces.

What a cool exercise in perspective.

Picture
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    What is this?

    Dawson is a writer. This is her blog. In it, you shall read about reading. And writing. And cheeseburgers. Sometimes there are tangents. Huzzah.

    Categories

    All
    Advice
    Angela Patten
    Animal Farm
    Animorphs
    Applegate
    Applying
    Art
    Bad Writing
    Bats
    Bella
    Best Writing Places
    Blue Line
    Bradbury
    Caffeine Dreams
    Chicago
    Colorado
    Community
    Complicated Characters
    Concert
    Dad
    Day Job
    Dead Poets Society
    Death
    Depression
    Draft
    Dundee
    Elements Of Fiction
    Exposition
    Famous
    Father's Day
    Favorite Books
    Fox Hollow
    Frankenstein
    Frozen
    Gaiman
    Game Of Thrones
    Grant
    Grateful
    Harry Potter
    Hermione
    Heroines
    Home
    Hunger Games
    Introduction
    Iowa
    Ireland
    Katniss
    Kevin Barry
    Killing Characters
    Life Of Pi
    Lindsey Stirling
    Mardra Sikora
    Marketing
    Martin McDonagh
    Memoir
    MFA
    Motivation
    Music
    Ocean At The End Of The Lane
    Old Market
    Omaha
    Opera
    Panera
    Paradise Bakery
    Pen Names
    Personal Life
    Pikes Peak Writers Conference
    PitchWars
    Procrastination
    Radical Face
    Reading
    Residency
    Revision
    Robin Williams
    Scooter's
    Self-love
    Set Piece
    Setting
    Shelf Life
    Short Story
    Sick
    Starbucks
    Stonecoast
    The Lion King
    The MFA Years
    Thesis
    Twilight
    UNO Library
    Urban Abbey
    Village Inn
    Wedding
    Women
    Wordsworth
    World
    Writing
    Yann Martel
    #YesAllWomen
    Zen

    Archives

    May 2019
    July 2018
    November 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from smoorenburg, Erik Daniel Drost, prasad.om, Feral78, spbpda, Môsieur J. [version 9.1], markus spiske