Sometimes a photograph or a work of art inspires a character in my work — sometimes I am looking specifically for them, (I have notebooks filled with images for almost every character I have ever written) and sometimes, they simply appear and demand to be included. This guy did just that — muscled his way into my imagination the moment I saw it. The caption read “Hungarian reaper, 1930.” My first thought was is he a good guy? or a really, really bad guy? He’s scary — but only because he is captured in this frozen moment, head turned toward something, a handful of wheat in one hand, while resting that terrifying scythe on his shoulder. But what comes next?
3 thoughts on “What Is It About a Scythe?”
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Hi Midori–
Thanks for coming by–I needed a wave! And how interesting that you do this sort of thing. I know people who cover the wall with charts and know that a character has a mole on his right shoulder blade, but I don’t do that sort of thing. Maybe I should try it. I tend to just have people appear, and I don’t know everything about them but begin to find out.
I suppose that is an argument against writing advice. We all do what we have to do, and we’re not the same.
Haha..it’s true some authors are worse than method actors, wanting to know everything about their characters. I like collecting portraits because they suggest possibilities rather than pin them down. And I admit..I would love nothing more than to have a beautifully illustrated edition of one of my novels – ala Andrew Wyeth who prided himself on illustrating scenes that alluded to but never filled out in the novel — art in-between the text.
And I love stopping by The Palace at 2:AM. I so enjoy all your poetry collection reviews.
Thank you for jogging my memory. My own grandfather worked with one of the long handled scythes, the kind with the long curved blade. I was too small to work it properly but he showed me how to sharpen it. I can smell the steel.