On today’s Raw Reading, Alida Winternheimer reads from her current work-in-progress, working title, Playing with the Wind.

In a moment of playful relief, Alida’s characters reveal themselves to the reader and each other.

Playing with the Wind is a historical novel set in 1920s and 1930s Minnesota. After watching the video clip, read the author’s reflections on this particular text.

Raw Reading

Reflection

In today’s Raw Reading, I share a scene in which my characters are going out for a drive along Lake Superior. Even in excerpt form, without knowing the characters or the circumstances surrounding them, I hope the mood is apparent and that the reader discovers people through their characterization.

These characters have been under duress for a long time and it has recently worsened. They’re all due for a break, so they splurge and take a Sunday drive to a picnic spot outside of town.

You might not glean this from the excerpt, but it’s the early 1930s. The old Ford is probably a Model T, bought in the 1920s when times were better. The stress is clearly economic, since they’re in the Great Depression. Burning the gas it takes to go on a drive up the lakeshore is a big deal, and this is a real escape for them all. Hence the release that comes as they leave their troubles behind.

This release is characterized by the sing-along. I chose “Tea for Two,” because it’s appropriate to the era, popular enough everyone would know it, and it’s very singable. Who can’t join in at the refrain? Even today. And it’s upbeat, characterizing the mood I want to convey to readers. 

Hopefully, I also convey a lot about these people in this very brief scene. Sarah leads the song. A person who breaks into song, a cappella, has some optimism, is not shy, and is willing and able to let go of her troubles and bring the others along.

Her husband, John, is her opposite, less optimistic, less willing to let go. He uses handling the car as an excuse to avoid joining in or joining in enthusiastically. Why does anyone care about a car? Cars are status symbols. He also might be thinking about the cost of a repair or needing to sell it soon, both of which are forms of worry, limiting his fun in the moment. 

Mrs. Dubrowski is their landlady. She would not be along if the others had a choice in the matter. She surprises them all first by singing and second by singing well. This reveals something of Mrs. Dubrowski’s hidden depths and her relationship with her younger tenants. 

Characterization is built in small moments like these. Readers best understand the people populating a story not through what they are told in narrative descriptions or via dialogue, but by discovering these people through moments that live on the page. 

This is a first draft. To what extent these words will need revision later remains to be seen. All material herein is copyrighted. © Alida Winternheimer 2021