So, I just got back from seeing Hamlet via National Theater Live with my writing partner. And, of course, my mind is churning with just how amazing it was. It is always amazing to me how different each performance can be. The words are the same; they have been the same since Shakespeare wrote them over four-hundred years ago. But every performance is completely new. It's like the words mean different things every time they're invited to invade a person. I saw another version just about two months ago and it's almost like they were completely different plays. Obviously not, but...oh words.

Stories are such magical things. They always show a different part of themselves whenever they're consumed. The best stories are the ones that have a different face for every single person; "they hold, as t'were, the mirror up to nature". There's humanity in them. I don't mean to say that a story has to be literary; some of the best stories are fantasy or sci-fi. It is in the alien nature of such stories that the humanity is most stark. But...I find myself moved by the idea of stories tonight.

I love William Shakespeare. I love his words and how powerful they are; I love the humanity in his stories, and how they resonate in the souls of man. The melodious nature of his writing is a big part of why I want to write words that sound beautiful as well as create beautiful images as they are consumed. He is as much a part of me as Austen, Gaiman, and Eliot. We might disagree on the importance of getting the history right in your stories, but I didn't have the looming threat of a vengeful Elizabeth I pressed against my neck, either. (She was not a nice lady.) And his influence is obvious in that I am working on a re-write of Romeo and Juliet next month.

I'm sorry for invading the forum again. I just had to share the feels. Problem is...Shakespeare and my NaNo Prep story don't mix. They're completely different mental states. Maybe I should have waited until, like, Halloween to watch this. Ooo...there's a great last minute night-before-NaNo routine: watching Shakespeare. I should breeze through the balcony scene...
-Quaddy

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