A little sweetness ...
So there you are, beginning to read a new novel, or write a new story, and you ask yourself just how much sweetness you want. If you ask me, I’m going to answer “a little sweetness.” It’s the Goldilocks phenomenon again, discovering what is too sweet, or not sweet enough, or “just right.”
Imagine our favorite blonde burglar in the home of the three bears. Let’s rewrite the story so that the three bears have left behind, in place of porridge, three plates of pancakes (still warm). One of the pancake stacks has too little maple syrup, another has too much, but the third stack our cheeky intruder samples has just the right amount. It’s a personal preference, of course. Your answer may vary.
I use the maple syrup example because the other day I made pancakes and opened a new jug of maple syrup from Vancouver, British Columbia (home of the recent Winter Olympics, with all of its sweet memories). Pure maple syrup is not sugary or thick or sticky; it has a superior smooth sweetness that can spoil you in a hurry. God bless Canada and its maples! I poured some maple syrup on the stack of warm pancakes, and let it flow onto the plate, for dipping. It didn’t take long to know just how sweet was just right.
I don’t know anyone who eats pancakes without syrup or some sweetener. There are books, however, that avoid sweetness of any kind. I imagine these writers as stern authoritarian types approaching the reader with a large, cold, metal spoon. “Here,” they say, “this is the truth and it’s good for you … open your mouth … take your medicine! None of your sentimentality! We will have no happy endings here!” I want to turn and run, blurting out as I flee, “But Mary Poppins said that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down!” Mary Poppins (who was, after all, “practically perfect in every way”) is everyone’s favorite nanny. She knew how to get things done, and she knew how much sweetness was “just right.” To endure the nasty medicine of the truth, when the truth is hard to swallow, requires exactly one spoonful of sugar.
You may know someone who can eat spoonfuls of sugar as a main dish, perhaps someone very young. The rest of us, however, prefer sugar as a sweetener, as in chocolate. Do you want that new novel to be all sugar? No contrast? No danger? I doubt it. We have pejorative words for such writing, like saccharine, sugary, and treacly.
Back to the pancakes. While they turn golden brown in the pan I watch the coffee pot fill up with fresh brewed Kona coffee. Dark roast, which will balance the sweetness of the maple syrup. We are searching, then, for balance. On our plates, and in our books, please give us a little sweetness, a handful of semi-sweet, and just a bit of the bitter. We ask the writer to give us some hope. Leave us with something other than the old gloom and doom.
Sweetness, in the end, and in the beginning, is a good thing. ESPN asked readers to name their favorite football nickname. The overwhelming winner was “Sweetness,” which was what they called the great running back, and admirable human being, Walter Payton. That one word describes the way he ran on a football field, and the way he walked through life.
Speaking of great runners, imagine the speed of Goldilocks after she awakens to find the three bears staring at her. She flees from the house and runs into the forest, leaving messed beds, broken furniture, and empty porridge bowls (or pancake plates) in her wake. Such chaos from such a sweet girl. Well, maybe just a little sweet.
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NOTE: The 2010 Biennial Writers’ Conference, sponsored by the Honolulu Pen Women, will be held April 9th from 6:30 to 9:00pm and Saturday, April 10th from 7:30 to 5:30pm at Punahou School. All writers - men and women - both professional and aspiring, are welcome.
Lisa Yee, award-winning author of young adult fiction, will present the keynote address and offer several workshops. No matter where the setting, each book, each story, begins at the same place… from the heart and imagination of the writer.
Thirteen additional presenters will speak on a wide variety of writing styles and issues – including memoir, comedy, playwriting, travel writing, writing for film and tv and more. For further details, please go to: http://www.nlapwhonolulu.org/ or call 254-3271.
Tags: Goldilocks, Mary Poppins, Sweetness, Writing
