The Adventures of Kenny Chameleon
By Kenny Mulhollandeon.
For any reader, adult or youngster, who might like to read my next short
work at AuthorMe, "C'mon kids. Time for a story down at the Old
Hollow Log". Here is a question. What is Lucky's lucky number?
The clue is: kids, cowboys and characters. The answer will be posted on
the next Newsletter along with the name of the first person to guess.
'It's not easy being green: Having to spend each day the colour of the
leaves.
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow, or gold-or
something much more colourful like that....'
' Who can make a rainbow, sprinkle it with dew?' The Candy Man can.
So can, ' The Old Master Painter from The Faraway Hills', paint all the
dewdrops and the daffodils.
So can, 'The Ghost Riders in the sky', become the Ghost Writers in your
works.
'It's not easy being a writer: Having to spend each day working along
the same way.
When I think it could be nicer being something much more colourful than
that....'
Something much more colourful than that....
How about, ' Those faraway places with the strange sounding names, in a
book, that I took from the shelves....'
And how easy is that?
Take those books down from the shelves. Read them again. Read all the
old tales and stories that you have kept from childhood to now.
Right now, I'm looking at a copy of ' Dinnie, Binnie and Jinks', by
Irene Cheyne. Inside the cover it lists; Kenneth Mulholland 2.A. (That's
Primary, second grade-I was about seven years old. Year-1951.)
Registered at the General Post Office, Melbourne, for transmission as a
book. Whitcombe and Tombs Pty. Ltd. Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.
This tiny children's book bears no date, but it is mine; entrusted to me
by kind permission of the Victorian School Papers (Which are now long
gone and forgotten-as would be the Modern Printing co. Pty. Ltd. 34-46
Leicestor street, Melbourne.)
And it reminds me of John and Betty, out my first grade Reader Book:
'John can run. Betty can run too. So can Spot, the dog.'
And how can we see that from another point of view?
'John and Spot run fast. So can I.'
'Betty and Spot run so fast, but I can keep up with them.'
'Look at Spot! He can run as fast as both of us.'
'That darn dog runs as fast as Betty and John!'
'Those two kids and their dog are always running!'
'Woof! I can run faster than Betty and John!'
Oh yeah, the point is, You can be anything you want to be as a writer.
Here is a plus for us. Writers are not constrained by limitations. We
can be the Kenny Chameleons. We can write about whatever we want.
And we can do so in whatever random pattern we choose.
And, we can write on any subject we choose: many subjects, all at the
same time.
So.
We can be Chameleons in writing.
Being a male writer, I can take up a feminine point of view and attempt
to write as a woman.
Likewise, so can a woman of a male viewpoint.
We may not always succeed, but we are able to try.
Sometimes, the best man for the job is a woman.
In writing, the best man for the job is a woman, or a man, or a child.
We are here, all equal.
So, not only is it possible to write, working on several different
subjects at once; it is also possible to work at writing from very
different viewpoints: All of which are exercises in the making of a
writer's palette.
A writer should, and must have a palette, similar to that of the
painter's.
A writer needs to be flexible: to be able to absorb, to mix, to add and
subtract, to colour and to extract the tiny details, to distil and to
re-assemble.
As the great painters, composers and writers of the past have done, so
must those of the future do; using and building on the old blocks of the
past, as they go forward.
So think about where you want to be in each thing you write. Think about
your attitude toward the story. How you want to approach it, from which
viewpoint, how you want the reader to take it in.
And remember, that you are not bound by any hard and fast rules here.
You make the rules as to how you will shape your story, or poem or great
novel. You have the choice as to how it will read.
And you also have the choice of the Chameleon; to write about a
multitude of subjects in a multitude of ways.
Don't procrastinate. Procrastination is a recipe for mediocrity and
disaster.
Dare to work from all vantage points, get inside your character, see
your character from outside; try the work in your mind as a
past/present/future tale. Look at it from all angles.
And most of all, think about the diversity of writing. You can be a king
or a harlot, a down and out tramp or a store keeper. You can be a cat
raiding garbage bins or sitting in state as the precious pet of an
Emperor.
Look at your style of writing and then aim for no style by trying your
hand at lots of different subjects and viewpoints.
Try writing about Marcel Marceau, ( If he was ever arrested for some
offence would he be given the right to remain silent? ) and describe
what and how he works. ( Actually he was interviewed recently on radio
and I was expecting a lot of questions followed by a lot of silence, but
he was extremely interesting in his comments about his life and the many
people he had met. At the end, I gave him a rousing round of one hand
clapping.)
It is said that people steal from each other to create further works,
and I think that may well be so.
And may well it be, if it continues to further the evolution of the arts
to greater heights.
As for writing, may we all become the Chameleons that lie untapped
within us.
As usual, we are out of time again. So for this time I'll say goodbye
until next time, when it will be time to say hello.
Or maybe 'Once upon a time.'
Think about that.
Take your time.
Ken
Mulholland
Country
Editor - Australia
AuthorMe.com Group
