Pausing to Rejoice by Meghan Waldron
If you know anything about the Red Fred Project, you've probably heard a little bit about the significance of the exclamation point and the comma. Did you know the body of each bird is made out of a comma and the legs are made out of exclamation points? Did you know the eye is a period, and the beak is made out of a carrot (this > shape)? Each bird/character our Storytellers design is based on a different typeface, too, which means every bird (we call them “troopers”) created in this project is uniquely individual. Just like our Storytellers.
I cannot speak for every kid, but I know that Dallas and I worked on creating my bird, Cassidy, for upwards of five hours. We sat on my couch and arranged each part of her until I thought she looked perfect. How can merging a comma with two exclamation marks and a period into an avian shape take so much time? Because every micro-adjustment of the character changed their demeanor. And though the time it took to create the character’s design might not be understood by our readers, it was especially important for me—in conjuring my story. This is a process that I will not forget anytime soon, and it reminds me of the unseen/unknown amount of work it takes to complete any finished product, like a book or a movie or a TV show.
As much as I love seeing the finished product of anything, I like the “behind-the-scenes” just as much—if not more. I absolutely love watching videos of how a certain scene was filmed in one of my favorite movies or shows (Lord of the Rings and Saturday Night Live, in particular), or how they set up the cameras, or review blooper reels and outtakes, or how makeup is applied to a cast member. But books are a little different; we don’t usually see their “behind-the-scenes” moments. We are used to the final form, never knowing how many drafts and rejections and the hours spent pouring over sentences and words it took before we type “The End.”
The final product of anything is symbolic of the work that went on before it—just how writing is symbolic; the backstage work represents who the writer is. Symbolism is different for everybody, so somebody else might not see the writer’s process the same way as the writer, or they might not appreciate the behind-the-scenes of something as much as I do. But symbolism allows anyone to find meaning out of something that was previously arbitrary or hidden.
Our characters flapping into existence from commas and exclamation points hold even more meaning to the project than just displaying individuality, as I mentioned earlier. Dallas gave the shapes—the actual typographical marks—more direct meaning with the words and collective phrase “pause(,) and rejoice(!).” This is what we want you, as readers, to do when you open one of the books by the kids. We want you to pause, to think about what you are really reading, and then to think about the authors' life and what they are going through—because even though it's a good stand-alone story, it becomes richer the more you know about the author. Lastly, we want you to rejoice in the existence of the story, the Project, the kids, and all of the work that goes into our publishing mission. Find your own meaning within the words on these pages, and just watch: you’ll end up finding more meaning in your own life, which is a very important thing to do.