Yesterday, I wrote about how BlogHer is holding a wonderful contest. They want bloggers to write an acceptance speech for the Academy Awards soiree: “If you were on that stage this year, who would you thank? Or not? Play yourself as yourself or play yourself as an actual nominee, make it serious, make it funny, we don't care.” What a lovely notion. I only wish I knew how to write a good speech.
This morning while riding on the bus, I tried to come up with more good examples of acceptance speeches other than that given by Emma Thompson at the Golden Globe Awards. Oddly, I could only remember speeches protagonists delivered in movies, and not actors when accepting awards. Is this due to the fact that many actors can act, but they can’t write? Do actors actually write their own speeches?
The only example of good writing I remembered this morning wasn’t even an acceptance speech, but a book dedication. For the life of me, I can’t remember who wrote it, other than he was British. I am paraphrasing here, but it went something like this:
“This book is dedicated to my loving and long-suffering wife. I wish to express my deepest gratitude to her for her constant and unfailing criticism and her complete lack of encouragement or support in my pursuit of a writing career. Without her, I would never have developed the resolve and tenacity to follow my inner calling.”
Perhaps, many people reading this dedication might initially think it rather harsh. Yet, the author wrote the dedication in such a way, which I haven’t been able to duplicate, that made it very clear that there was no one else on this planet whose opinion he greater respected, no person whose criticism was more valuable, and not one who could judge his work better than his wife. The ingenuity of the dedication was in its formulation.
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