Literally Reruns: Walk on By by Jane Houghton

Even the stars will go out, one by one, the great and the small, at entropy all will be done. And such is the case with Margot, a small star in the show business sky, yet a first magnitude sun in Jane Houghton’s Walk on By. This is a fine example of parallel writing. The current story nurtures the backstory and both resolve together in a bittersweet, even uplifting conclusion.

Q: Although Margot is driven by a past that was mostly forced on her by others, I see her as free in the end. This time the choice is hers and she happily embraces it because at last taking action means more than just obliterating memories she’s tired of fleeing. Was that the intent behind the piece?

Q: The revealing of the backstory as she prepared for her final performance was beautifully done. It bloomed in its own time, and never felt rushed. Was this difficult to accomplish–by such I mean the selection of the events that had shaped her life?

Leila

Walk on By

Jane’s respnses:

Q1: Although Margot is driven by a past that was mostly forced on her by others, I see her as free in the end. This time the choice is hers and she happily embraces it because at last taking action means more than just obliterating memories she’s tired of fleeing. Was that the intent behind the piece?

A1: Yes, it was – and it pleases me more than I can say that I was able to get this idea across (though this likely says more about your skills as a reader than mine as a writer). Up to this point, Margot’s life has been steered – downright controlled, why pussyfoot?! – by the actions and decisions of others: her rapist, her fickle music producer, her grandmother and aunt/mother, her son’s suicide. She has encountered one tragedy after another, one humiliation after another, but met everything with dignity and strength. She is a good person and terrible things have happened to her. I wanted to set her free at the end, let her rise above the tragedies, even if this involved deciding to remove herself from this earthly plane. She deserves this autonomy. Her life is taken out of the hands of others and placed into her own.

Q2: The revealing of the backstory as she prepared for her final performance was beautifully done. It bloomed in its own time, and never felt rushed. Was this difficult to accomplish – by such I mean the selection of the events that had shaped her life?

A2: Thank you once again – very kind words. It both was and wasn’t difficult to accomplish. ‘Was’ because I had no clear vision of the events that shaped her life before I started writing; and ‘wasn’t’ because I had no clear vision of the events that shaped her life before I started writing. Confused.com? Let me try to clear this up. The events only revealed themselves to me once I got into the story – my writing tends to take shape in this way: simultaneously risky and liberating, difficult and not difficult. I knew that many bad events had befallen her, but the identity of these events only surfaced as I approached them. In this way, my writing feels organic, which might account for why it ’bloomed in its own time.’ Or perhaps I am just a lazy soul and can’t be bothered with the strenuous task of thinking beforehand…