Keep on Writin' Writin' Writin'

When I took a creative writing course at Edison in the spring of 2002, one of our assignments was to find inspiration from a song, newspaper story, a poem -- any kind of outside influence.  I wrote a story ("Night Music") loosely based on a Mary Oliver poem, which got published in The Mangrove Review in 2004.  Since then, I often find myself creating stories in my mind when I hear songs. One that I know I will write someday because I never can listen to it without thinking of how I'll put the story together is "Bus Ride" recorded by Suzy Bogguss. More recently, I have begun to outline a story (perhaps novella) based on hearing Johnny Rivers sing "Summer Rain" on the Marty Stuart Show.  Inspiration is everywhere.

One song that influenced me a couple of months ago was Warren Zevon's "Frank and Jesse James."  I've always had this western romanticism with the James brothers, and started to think it could be awesome to write a story that fictionalized them, with a parallel story set current day.  It would be a love triangle.  I couldn't get this idea out of my mind.  I felt I hit the jackpot when the show on PBS The American Experience was going to be about Jesse James.  I got my writing notebook ready and took notes.

What I heard was far from romantic.  First, I knew that the James brothers fought in the Civil War, but I didn't know the full extent of their passion for the South, that they were guerilla fighters, how they murdered in cold blood, and how much Jesse, at least, loved the public attention. The reason Jesse became so famous is because he kept fighting for the South AFTER the war, and a journalist named Edwards created a mythology around him -- Jesse the underdog was his poster boy for the poor victimized Southerners.  But that only lasted for a while and then things were calming down politically;  but Jesse didn't stop.  He kept robbing and murdering even after his brother wouldn't have anything to do with him anymore and went into farming.  James (like Poe) married his first cousin and had kids. It finally came to the point that even the governor of the state was conspiring to kill Jesse -- a feat his neighbor Bob Ford accomplished on April 3, 1882 when Jesse was a mere 34-years-old. 

Once the show was done, I knew for certain there was nothing here I wanted to write about.  The romantic mythology I had of the James Brothers was gone for good (although I still love Zevon's song).

But, the love triangle idea is making its way into the story/novella inspired by "Summer Rain."  So, who knows?  This is the kind of thing I love about the writing process -- the universe is so willing to drop us little hints along the way. It is up to us to put the pieces together, to take the various threads and weave them into something larger. After all, that is what Edwards did with the image of Jesse James -- he just took enough facts and the rest he fictionalized, and that is what we know now, many years later.  This reinforces what we already know -- the power of the pen!

The chorus of Zevon's song:
"Keep on ridin' ridin' ridin'
Frank and Jesse James
keep on ridin' ridin' ridin'
Til you clear your names
Keep on ridin' ridin' ridin'
cross the rivers and the plains
Keep on ridin' ridin' ridin'
Frank and Jesse James"

So my message today...keep on writin' writin' writin' .....inspiration is everywhere.

Here is a stripped down version of the song I rather liked:
Zevon and Browne sing "Frank and Jesse James"