Young-Im Lee's Blog, page 2
July 20, 2017
What writers exclude from their work
As writers, we are also researchers, artists, and sculptors. Often, what we choose to omit says just as much about the work than what we decide to include. Today, I want to talk about the vision I had for my novel ,”Forgotten Reflections,” and what I left out to help bring this vision to fruition.
I had never been a fan of musicals, yet, it is fascinating how a few have remained in my memory, subconsciously manifesting in my own work. I remember watching the most recent film rendition of Les Misérables and was finally able to see how music and story could be used to enhance the viewer’s experience. In that moment, I thought my work would best be showcased as a musical or a film and mourned the fact that I could only use words to describe these vivid images I had floating in my mind. After all, my story showcases musicians and instrument makers, toiling in this unrelenting world to have their voices heard.
Yet, the more I continued to write, the more satisfied I was about the fact that I was writing a novel, instead of using other auditory and visual aids. And this was because the premise of my book hinged on dreams deferred; I wanted to capture how our childhood dreams and visions are often left fulfilled as we grow into adulthood, and portray how we must deal with such realities without become devastated by them. In the story, songs are left unfinished, instruments half constructed, and dreams left to be fulfilled by the next generation. In essence, I wanted the reader to imagine what the song might have been, how the instrument would have looked like if completed, and what it means to take on the dreams left unfulfilled by those who have passed into history.
Words are symbols that point towards a separate reality (the academic branch of semiotics is entirely dedicated to the study this relationship between words and their corresponding realities). In fact, I had dabbled in this study in my university years, and I was hitting myself over the head because it had taken me so long to realize I had chosen just the right medium for this story to be told in just the way I wanted! (Mind you, this is not to say I don’t want a movie or musical deal!)
Full disclosure: I had started writing this story in the screenplay form, and had managed to write a song that I was certain would be part of the movie! I even had a name for the song and it was called “Dae-Gun’s Song.” I had imagined Dae-Gun, one of my main characters, playing the song he had written on one of those long summer nights on some mountain Jung-Soo and Dae-Gun were trekking. Though I was not sad to part with all other visual or auditory aspects of this story, a part of me still wishes I could somehow place this song into the novel.
I’ll leave you with the original guitar accompaniment.
