Sunday, February 23, 2025
Time: 3 PM
Song: Moon River
Artist: Audrey Hepburn
Mode of Consumption: Jodi practicing on the keyboard.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1XwAKjAZ1xDZOcuyZoqce4?si=12f6cadba710405d
One of the writing contests that I am entered includes a requirement to judge story duels between two other contestants. Everything is anonymous, and you never judge in the genre that you are entered in. My case I had to write a Revenge story, so I have not read any Revenge stories.
I was in the middle of judging one of these duels when Jodi walks in needing to use the computer. She offers to wait for me to finish, so I begin the second story.
This story is a Time Travel Romance, and it’s taking an ambitious approach, mixing in fragments of letters written by the narrator’s mother to his father. It’s a story told in short segments, and clearly trying to lean heavily into imagery. Frankly, it’s a more difficult read than most in the contest.
Then Jodi starts plunking on the keyboard. That sounds bad, but the reality is that she hasn’t practiced in a long time, so she plays “Moon River” key by key, the melody not quite arriving at her pace. It’s a song she had become pretty good at, but again, she hasn’t practiced, so her playing is stunted.
Each sound draws me from the story, my mind stretching to understand what the writer is trying to do. Is the writer being too vague? Am I not smart enough to understand? Plunk, did that note just plunge through all my synapses?
She finishes the song, and goes into another. Something easier because she plays quicker.
I finish the story, and think, screw it, I am going to have to read that again before writing my critique.
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