Good and Prosperous Morning to all.  I actually was productive the total week.  As matters change in my life in relation to my Elizabeth character, Giselle, I have just sat back and played the spirit world of my version of Pride and Prejudice in my mind as an outsider. There aren't MAJOR changes, but some that will definitely make some P &P lovers heart skip a beat from not sticking too closely to the original.
Without giving away too much, well, just a little. 

For those who aren't as familiar with Pride and Prejudice, the main character is a strong English woman who has of course as the title a lot of pride and refuses to let anyone into her world especially men.  To me it seems everything about Mr. Darcy in appearance alone just made her angry. 

He was rich, he was good looking, he was arrogant etc. and she was against what she prejudiced him to be by appearance alone.  But in the Jane Austen version, Mr. Darcy gets rid of all of these character flaws to get closer to Elizabeth and pursues her twice after being rejected.  And through Mr. Darcy softening his heart, Jane changes her pride and accepts the one man she said she would never love.

Okay, with all of that said.  My story refuses for me to let Giselle, Elizabeth's bitter twin, off the hook.  I have added several scenes where Giselle struggles with her pride to let Mr. Washington (Mr. Darcy) know how she feels.  In fact, her father tells her that she already rejected him and unless she opens the door wide for him to know that he will not be rejected a second time, he would never walk through.  So sort of a spoiler, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy switch positions after her rejection where we focus more on Elizabeth trying to approach Mr. Darcy to open his heart.

So, the past few days I let Mr. Washington back off from Giselle and make her struggle with her own
character issues.  Jane Austen is awesome, but she made it too easy for Jane to accept him the second time without too much struggle for her own character to change.  I believe because I am telling it from a black experience point of view where there is hundreds of years of deep seated hatred between black men and women dealing with their pride, I made these changes.

I am again satisfied with my revisions.  I will be focusing from now on reading my story as if I have never seen it before.  I will be tweaking along the way, not trying to write grammatically correct yet or speak in high society manner.  I will leave all the little details for my final edit next month.
Because I see more the people visiting starting to pick up, be prepared to get a seven page blurb of Black Pride in the coming weeks.  Not soon though, I'm protective of my baby.  It is the very first scene we all get to see Mr. Darcy.  Yes, that one at the party.

Well, this is it for now.  I will see you Wednesday or next year btw. Cheers and Happy everything else.

Love,
Denise Rochelle M.

Pride and Prejudice Update: Ending Change

Wow, the holidays was less about gifts and 90% about the people in my life all across the world.  I actually might be growing up.  I was able to do a little writing.  I believe the literature is a living entity once it is placed on paper or in object outside of our minds, and there is so much I would like to have accomplished with my comedy rewrite by now, but ...  I was able to add and tweak only two scenes since Saturday.

My routine is I think of the story visually as scenes and feel which ones need it the most that day.  This time, I thought that the ending to Pride and Prejudice, yes, the lovely scene after Mr. Darcy's aunt comes and chews the heck out of Elizabeth and then Mr. Darcy comes to apologize to her.  That one.  The other scene is not in the original book, but is my Elizabeth character Giselle's epilogue which I posted, and is only the first layer and will go through two layers before the final release.

Let's first start with the ending.  I found strongly, that the way P and P ends for Jane Austen is beautiful and I ended it that way ... but the spirit of my book and the fact that my Giselle character is a strong black woman with strong prejudice against black men and strong pride to let love in, the story screamed to change it.  I won't reveal more, but the flow of this version, I guarantee that there will be some gripes with the change, but it is ingrained into my character's world.

That's another thing I found out recently that hundreds of screenwriting books and few classes and my screenwriting group never could drill in my head.

Every story creates a living reality, a spirit world of its own that as you read that story, you become part of that world.  If the writer is able to tap into their character's spirit and world it becomes a classic, because their world lives infinitely.  Jane Austen was able to do this.  Luckily, her character's spirit are easy to grasp like no characters ever before.

Secondly, I saw that my epilogue needs to set up a lot of changes that you P and P lovers will encounter.  First of all my character has a past, but she has let go of her baggage.  Secondly, she has dated before, where Elizabeth never dated or had a boyfriend.  I added references to how she became strong and too prideful to show her feelings toward men or let her heart be open so when Mr. Washington does all these things by being exactly opposite of her prejudices, it has more meaning.

So, I still have a lot more tweaks to do by Saturday concerning these same aspects.  I will let the comedy flow through from now one wherever as I don't see where else to put it for now.  So, as a writer, I am very satisfied where my story is right now. VERY.

Plus, I no longer feel guilty about my story not allowing me near it until my heart is straight.  Now, after a week off, I have a fresher understand of Giselle and her world when I started to read the story pieces after staying away from it.  Writers should be at peace with not always working for THAT particular project every single day.  Rest the eyes, stay silent and it will come, and like love you will have a higher appreciation for it once you resume.  I have rested a total of three weeks on Black Pride whereas other stories I worked on for years everyday trying to hammer out the problems.  I have never been this far along and unworried about my story world before after only two months of it coming to me.

Watch out world, another Pride and Prejudice redux is coming.

I love you sincerely across the globe,

Have sanctity in your words,

Love,
Denise Rochelle M.

Update: Can't Force A Good Thing

Merry Messiah celebration and Merry Christmas, everyone!  As I said, I didn't write.  It was a natural week off to let the story rest and settle and come to me.  You can't force a good thing.  I do realize that by surviving this tough year, I need to be tough with my character Elizabeth character, Giselle.  If you have studied screenwriting, you know they tell you to throw your character up a tree and be mean to them and throw rocks at them when they try to get down.  Well, I never was mean to my characters, hence boring story.  As a writer, sorry to say, but you are God to your story world and its universe.  I wouldn't accept this. 

I always let my story tell itself and not DIRECT or guide their journey which, hell, I have to admit leads to no focus or direction.  It just becomes an elaborate journal that I wish others would like.  That is selfishness and I realize this 35 years later of writing, that I need to give my character a rough time and to make come out of it a better person in such a way that the audience can go, oh, they survived this, maybe I can too.  Because essentially, my character is me who has gone through something that an audience or reader is going through and it shows that they can conquer this problem as well.

 

There are many issues in Black Pride, but the main one if you look at my about page, is the issue that Giselle deals with her black prejudice and it holds her back from the ONE.  The forum has not gotten to my question asking men to voice their opinion on their grievances with black men.  I'm waiting on this website because they are very truthful and honest.  

 

So, now I will write this week focusing on the comedy when it comes to me and figuring out how to make Giselle's life harder than just people and men problems.

 

Until then, smooches, enjoy the family and see you Wednesday!

 

Love and Hope,
Denise Rochelle M.

Update: Black Women, We Need to Chill

Happy, Happy Wednesday or in the industry Hump Day. 

For clarification, I am a reformed man hater and found this type of black woman, including my mother, made me think this way at one time. Then I look and see how they chewed up their men and try to give me advice and thought ... you are WRONG. 

How is it I would have tens of cool men friends yet when it came to my past dating I viewed them as evil?  When actually, I never had been treated wrongly, EVER, by a black man.  I've been wooed just like in the movies with flowers, sweet words and I was the one screaming at them.  Black women just kept telling me black men were nothing, they lie, cheat etc.  Yes, maybe to THEM, but by being friends first this never happened or it ended before it got to that point.  And the one guy who did cheat I asked him and he told me straight yes, but he was still in high school and I was a cougar at 23!  Ha, ha.

Sisters, this is wrong.  You bring on what comes to you, change the mindset.  I would love to represent this more in my book and any black men complaints.  After living with my mother and see how she can bring even my docile fun attitude to the brinks of hell, my thinking changed.  Men aren't evil, we bring it out of them, Sisters.  I think men are beautiful creatures like children and their attitude is just a mirror of your own.  Anyway, I will be focusing more on this in the novel and think it needs to be addressed and end in black society.

How was my writing this week?  One word.  Exactly.  That is all that I was able to write for my story this week since Saturday.  One aspect of creativity I found out, it is a living entity once you apply it to a substantial plane like paper or material.  It does NOT want to be touched if your Spirit or Mind is not giving it its 100 percent attention as I was not giving Pride and Prejudice this last few days. 

But, I have finally had a conversation with a person off line that I could have good give and take about this idea and they can't wait to read it because they think this is a great idea.  Can you believe in over a month this is the first feedback I get? 

Where does my energy come from to pursue this venture?  She loves P&P and thinks having it told from the high black society side hasn't been done and will be awesome.  I needed that encouragemental shot!  Anyway.  I am waiting for all the responses from one forum where I asked the men all of their complaints of black women because I think it is lacking in this story.  Besides, I think black men catch enough slack on the big screen, time they get represented and show the black  female side is actually deserving of their wrath sometimes. 

It looks like I will have my first real draft as planned by the end of December but want to take another month to clean up the details and final edit before I self-publish a few copies and send them out to readers for their feedback. 

I found this is the best way. I  did that for my "Last Cottonpicker" story, to which I moved back to the countryside to write.  The feedback on that story was it was a beautiful rich story, but it had no focus.  Now, recently with the heavens opening and giving divine inspiration, even that story has become more clear to me. 

Anyway, I will return Saturday, but it doesn't look like I will be writing so much, and I learned not to force it either.

Have a good one and thanks for checking back.

BLACK GENTLEMEN Do you have any grievances that you would like for me to put in the book of the number one annoying thing black women do that you must have added to the story?

Love and Peace,
Denise Morris

Video (eek!) Update

"I could easily forgive his pride, if he had not mortified mine." - Jane Austen Pride&Prejudice

Jane Austen, you were born way too soon, it's like you could see the future of what would never change!!!

(Freshly washed and moisturized face not a natural glow, btw)

I moved back to Arkansas from LA to write another novel and self-published for my family, and now this peaceful environment is great for My Black P&P.

I'm not much of a fan of pictures or video of myself, but I like variety!  I probably take one picture a year and run from the rest.  The profile pic is how I think I look and all the others are just crazy angles that don't represent, so this is rare footage, OMG!  Here is me this week on my family's land. 

I concentrated on the comedy aspect layer and will be for longer than expected.  It is actually fun to do more so than any drama I written.  Anyway, if you are a fan of P&P you will remember there was one character who was always drinking and sitting around Mr. Darcy and his sister and in the television adaptions he is always sleeping.  I found out that this dude is actually funny when he is awake!!  So, you will be seeing him re-imagined as Domino at just the right time in my adaption, awake and with a mouth that says what everyone in the room wishes they could say.

Here's a blurb of what I recently added.  Remember when Elizabeth went to the Darcy's with her aunt and uncle and bumped into Mr. Darcy.  When she left the women were making fun of her clothes, hair and the way she looked.  Well, here I have re-imagined Elizabeth as Giselle and Wesley as Mr. Bingley, and Ambrosia replaces Bingley's annoying sister.


My Black Pride & Prejudice Excerpt:

“Her hair was much wilder and untamed than usual.” Ambrosia said.

Domino wakes up at the precise time of the women's counting of Giselle's many misfortunes,

"Actually, I like that wild Rick James Brown look on a woman.  It's a refreshing change from that catered ... well-bought look I see everyday.  From the nails to the hair, one doesn't know if they are kissing a woman or a manufactured piece made in India."

With that Domino rested his head on his shoulders leaving Wesley to snicker in the background.

The ladies unable to object to this information raise up their dainty cups and sip their tea in tensed silence.

This is only the second layer of comedy re-write, so I hope to add more flavor and Jane Austen style writing to it in the final draft, I don't want to interrupt the flow.

Thanks for reading and leave any advice on what is funny about Elizabeth's family whose father is the mayor of Manhattan yet living in a "farm" in New York.

I'll return on Wednesday with an update.  Until then, have a fun rest of the weekend and keep reading anything with words. :)

Love and Peace,

Denise Rochelle M.

I hear you, Marilyn.  I had planned to start with my next layer of adding comedy to the story, but saw that I was becoming addicted to all of the advice online on how to write and tips on comedy that in a sense now I realize ANYone can be taught comedy.  I watch enough movies and television in my past that when I saw the 'rules' of comedy, I kind of felt duped as if plot points and formulas were inducing an emotional reaction.  I studied 20 years of screenwriting and I do not agree with the "Dying is easy, comedy is hard".  Dying is hard, comedy is...a matter of heart and a formula.

I had trouble writing a great anything for 30 years because I was trying to write damn sad stories all this time.  Finally, a comedy comes my way and everything I was taught finally makes sense.  It doesn't hurt to have a living beautiful muse to easily imagine as one of my characters.  Where was he all my life of struggling for the perfect story? Anyhow, in other words, I went to start writing FUNNY into the book and ended up learning for the week and a half.  So, much I learned that it might take the rest of the month to go scene by scene with all of the things I could add. 

What specifically?  Well, for instance, my character's quirks can be funny.  Things that are opposite like my Elizabeth character is so in style and kind of wild with her words while her mother is very conservative, uptight and the angry black mama type.  In other words, I have only a basic story and now is the fun part of adding the sprinkles and icing to the cake.  So, I'll see you next Saturday for an update and possibly an excerpt if I graduated enough from comedy class to show you something that makes me laugh out loud.  Actually, that was one's writer's tip.  Never leave in something unless it is funny to you. "If it ain't funny to you, it ain't funny to anyone else." Good weekend, Everybody.

Peace, Love and Joy,
DeniseRochelle M.