From the reader, the writer learns . . .
P.L. Travers on the relationship between reader and writer. (The Commonplace Book Project)
“A writer is, after all, only half his book. The other half is the reader and from the reader the writer learns.” — P.L. Travers, as quoted in The New York Times (2 July 1978)
Today is the last day of my daughter Adrienne’s visit. She’s on her way back to Oregon tomorrow. Tonight, we went to see Mary Poppins Returns and I’m so glad I got to see it with her.
Mary Poppins is a special kind of magic, isn’t she? The kind that goes beyond a writer telling the reader that she’s magic. Her magic is shown, not told.
Here’s a good article in the New Yorker about P.L. Travers and how her life led her to write a character that shows magic so well.
Saving Mr. Banks is a movie from a few years ago starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, about his twenty-year quest to turn Mary Poppins into a movie. The movie, of course, changed everything. But the way it affected the author is worth exploring.
I think probably anyone who writes for children wants to do what P.L. Travers did. Create magic in that one character that generations of readers connect with.
The quote above shows that maybe Travers knew the answer to how to do that. You can’t write believing that you’re the only person who matters. You have to know, right from the start, that you’re only half the equation. Once the reader gets their hands on your story it doesn’t even belong to you anymore. Not even half.
Or maybe half — but the writer’s half comes all frontloaded into the process. The writer owns the story wholesale until they get brave enough to give it to the reader, and then it is 100 percent the reader’s.
And if you can create a character who is your own, wholly, but also belongs to every reader who picks up your book? Then you’ve made magic.
Mary Poppins, She Wrote by Valerie Lawson is a biography of P.L. Travers.
And of course, the Mary Poppins books are still magic, more than 80 years after the first was published. I’ve added them to my list for 2019.
Here’s my secret weapon for sticking with whatever your thing is.
Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the author of Viral Nation and Rebel Nation and the upcoming novel The Astonishing Maybe. She is the original Ninja Writer.
