Mysterious Musings

Everyone is talking and writing about Michael Jackson, especially all of us here in Southern California. 

Even if you aren’t a huge fan, you have to recognize what a tremendous contribution Michael Jackson made to music, dance and culture. You also have to marvel at the instincts, skill and courage he showed in his drive to reach the top. He was the ultimate performer — on stage and, often, off. 

It seems there was so much hurt in his life that he was always childlike and fragile. Ultimately, he may have been vulnerable to those who would use him for his popularity or for his money. 

As a mystery writer, I’m also captivated by all the unknowns in his story. Why did he die so young? Who, if anyone, contributed to his death? Who really was this charismatic, troubled, supremely talented being? Why did he transform himself so dramatically from year to year? What would it have been like to spend a day with Michael Jackson? Who loved him, who hated him, who would hurt him? 

A version of Michael Jackson would be a great character in fiction — so brilliant but yet so troubled, so public and yet so shy, so huge an icon and yet so lonely. 

Maybe this is something you can think about in your writing. Are  your characters multi-dimensional, layered and flawed like Michael Jackson? Does your main character have the drive and conviction that he had when writing and performing his music? Are you creating motives for all your characters to love, envy, dance, hate and even kill? 

We writers can look around us — to our friends, our neighbors, our pop icons — and find amazing stories, characters and worlds to write about. Maybe today you can find inspiration in the King of Pop who lived in a world of animals and children and stunning stagecraft. Maybe today you can borrow a little of that brilliance and pain and conflict.

Michael Jackson joins the long list of talented, troubled, larger-than-life icons who die suddenly and so young. Sadly, he apparently expected such an early end. According to today’s LA Times, Lisa Marie Presley, his former wife, wrote in her MySpace page that Jackson predicted an early death and compared himself to her father, Elvis Presley. 

I was thinking about this sad premonition when I came across the words to the song, “Gone too soon,” which Jackson sang as a tribute to Ryan White, the profoundly brave boy who fought prejudice against AIDs. 

Here are the final stanzas of the song, which is available on the web site, www.allmichaeljackson.com

Born to amuse, to inspire, to delight
Here one day
Gone one night

Like a sunset
Dying with the rising of the moon
Gone too soon
Gone too soon