{"id":393,"date":"2012-10-07T07:23:58","date_gmt":"2012-10-07T02:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/?p=393"},"modified":"2013-07-02T08:50:48","modified_gmt":"2013-07-02T03:50:48","slug":"learning-the-art-of-revision-part-2-whisper-of-the-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/?p=393","title":{"rendered":"Learning the Art of Revision, Part 2 – Whisper of the Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"

This\u00a0continues some of the concepts I was exploring in “Learning the Art of Revision” — specifically, it addresses how those ideas are\u00a0reflected in the Studio Ghibli film, Whisper of the Heart<\/span>.\u00a0 (And since\u00a0I said that post was a ‘Part 2’ itself, I suppose this one should actually be ‘Part 3’ . . .)\u00a0 \ud83d\ude09<\/em><\/p>\n

A few years ago my brother introduced me to the wonderful films of Hayao Miyazaki, and one that I fell in love with is called Whisper of the Heart<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 This is one of those\u00a0films that falls into a category we just don’t have in American film — a realistic drama that’s animated.\u00a0 Though there are a couple of fantasy dream sequences, the story takes place in ‘the real world’, and the relationships between the family members and the interactions between\u00a0the junior high school kids\u00a0are all\u00a0quite natural and\u00a0believable.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0a story about a fourteen-year-old girl who wants to be a writer, and the first time I saw it I think I cried through most of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a sad story — it\u2019s just that I related so strongly to Shizuku that it made watching the film a very emotional experience.\u00a0 The way she spends hours writing when she\u2019s supposed to be studying\u00a0reminded me of my habit of taking two folders to every class — one for the class itself, and the other containing the story I was currently working on. (I did this from junior high all the way through college.)\u00a0 At every opportunity, I would write a line or two before attempting to return my attention to the subject of the course.\u00a0 There’s\u00a0a scene in the film where Shizuku is doing exactly the same thing,\u00a0and she can’t answer the teacher’s question because she wasn’t paying attention; she was working on her book instead.<\/p>\n

But the part of this film that had the deepest impact on me is when Shizuku gives her completed manuscript to the elderly gentleman she\u2019s befriended (who is also the grandfather of the boy she likes).\u00a0 The\u00a0grandfather has asked to be the first to read her story, and she waits while he reads it,\u00a0extremely anxious to find out what he thinks.\u00a0 When he finishes,\u00a0almost before he can say anything she blurts out that she knows it’s not good enough\u00a0—\u00a0the manuscript is far from perfect, even after all her hard work.<\/p>\n

The grandfather\u00a0says\u00a0she should be very proud of what she’s\u00a0accomplished, but agrees that the manuscript\u00a0is\u00a0rough.\u00a0 On a previous visit the old man had shown her a\u00a0geode, and he uses the metaphor of\u00a0a rough stone with\u00a0hidden gems inside; he tells Shizuku that she’s dug deep inside of herself to find the gems, and now she must polish them — and\u00a0she has to be patient.\u00a0 Then Shizuku bursts into tears.<\/p>\n

I think of that moment as a crucial coming-of-age milestone for a writer.\u00a0 There’s no question that it’s a significant accomplishment to get the muse to actually write down an entire story.\u00a0 But once that\u2019s done, you\u2019re only halfway there.\u00a0 Now you have to learn how to bring the editor in to shape and polish your creation so that others can enjoy it too.\u00a0 When you first fully understand this it’s a\u00a0turning point — but it can be daunting; you\u2019ve worked so hard just to create this thing, and now you\u2019re told you have to do all this additional work if it\u2019s going to fulfill its potential.<\/p>\n

And I love the way this is handled in the film; I think Shizuku’s reaction at that moment captures exactly what it feels like.\u00a0 Also, too many children\u2019s stories and films imply that if one has talent and passion they can learn to excel at something overnight.\u00a0 (I\u2019ve read more than enough horse stories in which a kid who\u2019s had only a few riding lessons at camp rehabs a neighbor\u2019s old horse and wins a Grand Prix over the course of one summer; sorry, folks, but it takes years to develop the skills — and muscles! — to perform at that level.)\u00a0 Whisper of the Heart<\/em> makes it clear that even learning to do what you really love takes work and time, but it makes the message very positive as well as realistic; there may be a long road ahead of you, but if you keep at it, you\u2019ll get there — you\u2019ll learn to polish that gemstone yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This\u00a0continues some of the concepts I was exploring in “Learning the Art of Revision” — specifically, it addresses how those ideas are\u00a0reflected in the Studio Ghibli film, Whisper of the Heart.\u00a0 (And since\u00a0I said that post was a ‘Part 2’ … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts-on-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=393"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413,"href":"https:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393\/revisions\/413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lcmcgehee.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}