Singing in the Sandbox

Idea Sandbox.com

Writing is fun, but it is work too. I haven’t heard of a writer anywhere who equates writing even close to glamour. Most writers keep busy thinking and rethinking. Writing and rewriting. And if this isn’t enough, there’s the guessing and second-guessing, similar to what I tinker on below… 10 challenges worth mention.

#1 Is there any writer out there who has come upon this one...  "I don't know how to put this," or "I can't put this in words." I cringed on this thought. These are the absolute LAST words a writer should write. Maybe you can't put it in words, but you better not write it in words.

#2 'Just.' This is a word I use a ca-jillion times a day. And I am just plain sick and tired of it!

#3 ‘Of course.’ Of course I use this phrase just as much as I use ‘just’ and I’m sick and tired of using this one too!

#4 ‘At least’ I don't use at least as frequently. But then, still... even so... and all the buts I start off with are starting to get on my bad side as well.

#5 Thank goodness, or rather I hope this one hasn’t shown up in any of my books. (;-) I like typing sideways winks, though each time I do, it makes me shiver… a little. Words need to go there.

#6 Those exclaim marks are another issue. And yes too, so are the commas. Sorry. Got a lot on my mind, which those indicators indicate each time I pause to shift gears. But I’m going to blame them exclams on Othello and them! Besides, why were those punctuation gadgets added to the language chart anyway? I was taught they were used to show surprise, or excitement. That’s what hipped me onto Shakespeare.

#7 Losing 70,000 words don't feel so great either. I lost, & I’m going to estimate, several novels walking them to the recycle bin. And I still don't know which one it was more painful for. Me or them. Someone once told me, "the ones you won't like, everyone else will." But now no one will ever know because they are off in cyber heaven.

#8 And if losing 70,000 words makes me ill, imagine what forgetting 70,000 words feels like!?! See, in cyber heaven there is always so slight a possibility they may come back, unlike the recycle process going on in my head. 

#9 Toning things down is another problem. But apparently it’s not my problem alone. A source higher than I know is up there yelling back down here, “why!?!” Why do I want to tone things down?

#10 …Which zips right to my number ten challenge. Did I ever mention how I want to write like what’s her-his voice? I want to inherit some of that soupy caramel toffee sweetness too. I guess it’s like altos on a choir who wished they were sopranos, but who should just be grateful they have a singing voice at all!

Sing on Choir. 

It's the mix of tenors and instruments that makes great music.