Saturday’s Writing Life #3 was Sean Wilson hosting Mary Swan, Elyse Friedman (Long Short Story) and Diane Schoemperlen. Friedman’s stories were entertaining to my brain. The offbeat twists on expectations were light and there’s underlying compassion for her characters that was warming.
I found myself rather distracted by non-verbal in the panel.
They were all explicitly in agreement and conscensus seeking and agreeableness was at extraordinary levels. How aligned body language was in the combination of these 4! The mirroring body language would go round and round. One would lift a hand to tuck hair and 2 would immediately echo. One would go from palms together to clasped hands and the Simon says would zoom around. The hands of each were as if on a track sliding lap to knees with one remote.
I missed a lot of what was said verbally.
They responded as one person to questions from the audience with synchronized head bobs that started and ended together. Even their gestures were largely using the same box of space of mid-chest, hands open, facing upwards with very little finger movement, except when Mary Swan made gestures backwards and to left behind her.
Tidbit: The high concept: a spine you can hang the meat of the story on, the 8 words that explains your story.
The next Writers Life panel will be May 1st, 7:30 p.m. at the National Library and Archives featuring Steven Galloway, Anthony De Sa and André Alexis.