VAN-GUARD!
When your creativity needs something personal, something special, where do you go to find your special something? Your id list!
I recently attended my 8,579,332nd writer-oriented Zoom. It definetly ranked in the top 400.
The topic of the night was the Writer’s Id.
If you’re like me, you misread that as either the “writer’s I’d,” or the “writer’s ID,” but no. The id of the writer.
id: the part of the mind in which innate instinctive impulses and primary processes are manifest.
After the 10-minute preamble, the Zoom host told us about a talk given by Dr. Jennifer Barnes at the 2018 Romance Writer’s of America workshop titled, “Writing for Your Id.”
The Writer’s Id list is a running list of all the things from fiction/movies/music/tropes/tricks of the trade that get you excited as a writer and bring you to the desk, the laptop, the legal pad, etc.
After explaining the topic, the host instructed us to begin compiling our own id list, assuring us that there are no wrong answers (my favorite kind of answers) and no maximum limit to the id list. Dr. Barnes’ list is now into the thousands so, when you discover a new one, add it.
The host encouraged us to take a few minutes to come up with five. I wrote down sixteen. Here are a few of mine:
Sarcasm
Astute alliterations
Underdogs
Music references that are correct
The VAN-GUARD! moment.
I’m sure that 1-4 make sense to all of you, but number five?
Since LOW NOTES is about the art of making art through music and writing, I’ll even expand the topic to the artist’s id. Surely the writer knows what they like in sculpture, the dancer knows what they like in movies, the painter knows what they like in poetry, and more.
For those of you reading this who are familiar with the competitive world of Drum and Bugle Corps, just smile and nod, because you know I’m right. For those of you who don’t, here we go…
The Santa Clara Vanguard is a youth music organization that has won the Drum Corps International (DCI) World Championship seven times. Through the 2022 season, they are the only corps to appear in the Top 12 finals of every competitive year since DCI Championships were established 1972.
As a rabid fan of DCI, like you sportsball people, I have my favorites and my not-so-favorites. Vanguard is my top corps and always will be. My unconditional fandom is built on decades of an adherence to artistry, tradition, and excellence more than any other organization.
Through the years, a crowd-tradition built during a Vanguard show that during a four-beat gap in the music, the audience in almost-perfect unison, emits a battle cry from the stands.
As you guessed, the crowd shouts “VAN-GUARD!”
Click on the following link to get a sample:
You don’t get that kind of audience participation from Santa Clara’s Northern California rivals, the Concord Blue Devils. Just sayin’.
Last month, Santa Clara announced they will not participate in the 2023 DCI season due to financial struggles. They are deep in the red and need to dig themselves out. This is not the first time a DCI corps took a season off, and hopefully the time to regroup will be successful.
Upon the shocking news, I knew I needed a place to talk about the mourning of my 2023 VAN-GUARD! moment.
MY SUBSTACK! OF COURSE!!!
What does the VAN-GUARD! moment look like on the written page?
As much as I try to show my imposter-thwarted expertise in written things, there is a huge gap in my reading history involving battle cries. I don’t write battle cry moments, and most of what I read don’t have them either. My chosen stories end with single individuals facing each other asking, “Why?” or a beatnik driving back across the country saying “Yeah,” or a misled, easily-influenced underdog trying to undo the calamitous chaos they’ve unleashed on a city.
To my selective memory, the only moment that comes to mind is on page 733 of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Neville Longbottom definitely brings a moment worthy of cheer.
The moment of sheer inspiration to shout. It is primal, it is power, it is unity among those who feel they’re alone, it is an allegiance to something bigger than them…
And it’s fucking bad-ass!
Not everyone needs a battle cry, or sees conflict worthy of a battle cry, but they are powerful moments.
Whether it is Neville fighting evil…
or Ignatius C. Riley leading a befuddled corporate uprising in “A Confederacy of Dunces,” you can’t help but feel like joining in. At some point, everyone wants to stand on the barricade waving the French Flag in “Les Miz.”
If you didn’t feel like an Avenger yourself at the end of Endgame when Captain America commanded you to assemble, then you’re doing it wrong.
Speaking of doing it wrong, in 2018, DCI Prelims were broadcast via Fathom Events to movie theaters across the country. I didn’t have to travel to Indianapolis to kick off Finals Week. Instead, I sat comfortably in the back row of an AMC theater two miles from my house. That summer, Vanguard was on fire with their show, “Babylon,” which some were already calling “the greatest drum corps show ever!” After hearing some discussions on weekly podcasts, the topic of, “Where does the Vanguard yell fall in the show?” came up. The hosts agreed it was between the horns-up snap and loud brass entrance on the ballad, “My Body is a Cage.”
So I did.
Vanguard was the final performer of the night, so after riding the high of an incredible performance, (two nights later, they won their seventh DCI title), I sat in my car and flipped through Twitter to see other peoples reactions. Much to my surprise I found the following tweet:
That dude was sitting next to me. I remember that face. I didn’t care, and still don’t. That was my moment, there was no other clearly-defined spot in the show we collectively agreed to shout it, and it’s Vanguard. You have to shout it, because that’s what you do. Plus “Babylon” is an incredible show.
(Ok, I lie. I cared a shit-ton that night, but I got over it.)
What’s on your id list?
Where do you find childlike joy in your craft?
Do you have a memorable scene from reading or writing specifically that is your VAN-GUARD! moment?
The Writer’s Id List is never-ending. If you’re stuck in your work, go back to your list and pick one. When you experience a new one, write it down. You never know when it’ll come in handy.
“Hmm… this romance scene is a little dry. It needs something. It needs… (checks personal Writer’s Id List) a Mel Brooks joke! Perfect!”
And don’t worry about the dweeb who may tweet about it. It’s not his VAN-GUARD! moment, it’s yours.
Write on!
Making a list--what a good way to notice and validate all the things that get me excited as a writer.
Love this!
I’m forming a list now too!