Day Thirty-Two: Mary Poppins, Heights of Characters, and Syllabi

We went to a play. It's the first bit of work I'm doing for my (hopefully) third semester project. The next bit of work is in the West End, halfway around the world, when we see Matilda. Today we saw Mary Poppins.

We were in tears by the end.

Mr. and Mrs. Banks always choke me up, but this was especially heart-breaking because I'd never seen this rendition of the story (the stage musical) and it was so much more poignant than the movie. It is beautifully written (which I chock up to Travers), and Saving Mr. Banks makes a lot more sense now.

Suffice to say, I don't hate theatre with the same amount of vehemence that I hated it a few months ago.

It also made me want to dance. Holy God, those people could dance. My knee injury has been so frustrating, but today I just put in some "Bad Blood" and went nuts in the living room.

I mean, I totally did no such thing. Harrumph ... writing!

As I've been writing about, I'm having a hard time knowing what goals I'm working toward. So after coming home from the play, I sat down and wrote a five-page syllabus that my mentor is going to look over with me this week (because she is a kind and generous person and she really doesn't have to do this, but she is willing to). Once the next draft is written, I'll let you in on my goals.

I introduced a character today. I didn't get to write as much as I wanted to (people walking in and out, other obligations, and that will probably always be a deterrent), but I did get a chapter written. I also took sticky notes and marked out the heights of my characters on the wall of my writing room (as pictured to the left). I made the main character my height and then worked everyone around that. I was surprised to see how everyone stacks up against each other, and I was also surprised I'd never done this before.

I'm feeling better, now that I have a syllabus with deadlines and goals written out in chronological order. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm promising myself to reward us with a trip to Disney if I do well.

That should be enough motivation.

Now just to figure out how to structure this blog. In the meantime, rambles abound!