More than anyone ever wanted to know about my writing process, I bet…
Buried 3/5ths of the way into my novel, Like a Child to Home, is a reference that flashes by so fast as to have little meaning. In describing one character’s stubbly face, my protagonist says, (and, horror of editorial horrors, there is a typo of omission there which I will correct here and now) “It was a broad mug, with a strong jaw that reminded me of hockey star, Mark Messier.”
During the final push through the novel’s second and final proof, the line read, “It was a broad mug, with a strong jaw like that of the old time B movie actor, Charles McGraw.” Charles McGraw, you say? Who was he? Which was the point made to me by my volunteer proof-reader. The odds were that Mark Messier would ring a few more bells than the long departed actor.
Over the past few weeks, I have been watching a number of films with character actor McGraw in them. He has always been one of my favorites, or rather, he has either starred, or appeared in, many films I admire and return to often. Not only was he a presence in great film noir such as The Narrow Margin in which he starred, The Killers, where his brief times on screen were excitingly pivotal to the narrative, or Border Incident, a powerful and strikingly relevant film, even today, he also had a fleeting but forceful role in one of my top ten films ever, Hitchcock’s The Birds.
When I exchanged McGraw’s name for Messier’s, I carelessly forgot why I had drawn on it in the first place. Peppered throughout my novel are movie references, most pertaining to black and white classics, including a few film noir. Whether conceit or homage, I am of an age that appreciates film and its life-long impact on me and am often compelled to make mention of my favorite examples of cinema in assorted writings. In his book, A Passion for Narrative, Jack Hodgins speaks about “creating echoes,” by which I believe he means acknowledging how characters live their lives, what activities they embrace, where they go to spend their free time, a host of things real people do. McGraw was one of my created echoes which easily found its way into the world I created for my protagonist. Though it matters only to me, I should never have excised him.
