AUTHOR: suz TITLE: SUCCESS! DATE: 7/25/2005 09:03:00 PM ----- BODY:

It is 9pm. My baby's asleep. Last night she slept for six straight hours. This has only happened three times before in her life. J and I actually watched a whole movie together, uninterrupted, for the first time since about halfway through my pregnancy. (I lost the ability to sit still for more that ten minutes somewhere around my fifth month.) We watched The Station Agent. It was quite good. It was well-written and well-performed, and we giggled a lot. One of the characters reminded us of a friend's beloved border collie ("can you play with me now? how about now? how about now? now? maybe now? ok, later. Is it later yet? how about now?"). The writing had something I am beginning to think most important but can't yet wholly define: it's that something where everything flows and the characters and the plot and the setting all combine into the story organically, without being forced or manipulated on any obvious way. It is something beyond simply good writing. Perhaps it is the ability to trust the story and get out of its way, and to let the characters speak for themselves, even when you don't necessarily want to hear what they are saying and when they go places you don't want them to go. I'm still struggling to let them speak to me at all again. It occurs to me that I am trying to type this very quietly, in a whisper almost, to avoid waking her.

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