An Assignment
by Molly-Ann Leikin

I am a voracious reader. If you are too, you know that almost nothing feels as good at the end of the day than turning off the ringers on all the phones after "Jeopardy", and opening a good book. It's hard to distract me from my life, and shut up the noisy, nagging voices that keep at me long after the work day is over. But occasionally a book comes along that I can get lost in. "The Book of Ruth" by Jane Hamilton, is one of them.

This is not a Bible story.

No, I don't know the author, never Kung Pao chickened with her, never overheard the woman complaining about her nanny or her nails at my health club. I found "Ruth" by accident when I had $9.03 left from a $23.66 credit at Super Crown. Slash, the cash register guy, said I had to buy something then and there or lose the credit forever. Oh, really? Well, there was "Ruth" on the best-seller paperback shelf, saying "Buy me, buy me".

I usually read fiction by new authors, since I know how desperately hard it is to get a book published. So I do my part to support my colleagues. Hoping they'd forgive this one indiscretion, I took "Ruth" home with me.

Even if you aren't a reader, and even if you don't like fiction, I suggest you read this book. Think of it as an assignment. The characters are imaginative, rich and well drawn, and except for May, who seemed to be a lot more like my own mother than I'd have preferred, each of them is an original.

I cared about everybody. I worried what would happen next. I smiled and groaned and gasped on every other page. I even cried at the end. In fact, reading this book had the same effect on me as hearing a great song does, the kind of tune that makes you pull over, weeping, to the side of the road, saying "good for you" to the writer.

In film music classes, they often give an assignment to write a melodic theme for a main character. Welcome to the Molly Conservatory of Music. I suggest you write a different melody - one note at a time - for May, Willard, Elmer, Aunt Sid, Matt, Daisy, Dee Dee, the Rev, Justy and Ruth. Once you know who they are, you can determine how their melodic themes will sound. Some will be ominous, some romantic, some funky, some angry. Kind of like a "Peter and the Wolf" situation.

Please don't write this assignment on a synthesizer. Use some acoustic instrument - a piano, a guitar, even a three speed turkey baster. I want you to try picking out individual notes first, so all you're concentrating on is melody. Once you have that down, then you can add all the "chatchkees". But please try a simple melodic line - no chords, no harmony, no bonus miles - just the individual notes.

If you're a lyricist who doesn't write any music, then your assignment is to write some free verse about each character, being careful not to duplicate anything that has already been said in the text or dialogue. Theme songs for movies should be all subtext, so let's assume the same is true for books.

If you absolutely hate this story and can't bear to read another sentence, then go see my pal Slash at Super Crown, choose another book and do the assignment with it instead.

The chances are good you'll go through several drafts before you're completely happy with your work. That's normal. Most professional songwriters think of the first draft as being the inspirational one. Then the craftsperson in each of them takes over to do the refinements. My clients find that having this kind of specific homework gives them focus, instead of having to wait for inspiration before starting a new song.

By the way, after I'd turned the final page of "Ruth", I went back to the beginning of the book and saw that it was first published in hard cover nine years ago. The first paperback printing was two years later, and now, seven years after that, it's a best-seller. This rarely happens in the book business. Just like a CD, you get a couple of weeks and boom - if you don't sell, you're quickly replaced with someone else's dream.

I hope the success of "The Book of Ruth" gives you the same kind of courage it gave me. Like me, you probably have some great songs in the drawer that are no longer new, and nobody's wanted them so far. But it isn't over yet, is it.

© 2000 Molly-Ann Leikin

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