|
|
I am hanging in there. On day two of my writing challenge, I wrote for nearly 45 minutes. Today, day three, the outline of my story is starting to take shape, although many contradictions, problems and conundrums blight (or bless?) the path ahead. I have about 20 pages written; it's a start.
I have changed the heroine's name three times. I refer to her as "the mom." Her name will show up soon--sometimes names just have to morph. Okay. I named her Jackie. Then I named her Rainy. Then I named her Shelly. Then I suffered a brief attack of bulemia.
Every day, I look for inspiration in my books and magazines on writing. Today, I read "You Might Be a Writer If..." in the special Creativity issue that Writer's Digest magazine published for May 2005.
See if some of these are you!
1....You can't resist pointing out grammatical errors in restaurant menus.
(I scored on this one because I point out grammatical errors in Nobel prize-winning novels and on packages of toilet paper; I don't discriminate at all.)
2....During church sermons, you find yourself thinking, This could be tighter.
(Yep. I think that when my boss talks, too. Even his hello's could be tighter.)
3....You decide four sentences into any novel that the author is inept. (Sorry, Dan Brown, you have one helluva story with The da Vinci code, but you need to return to writing school, Pronto.)
4....You couldn't balance a checkbook if your life depended on it, but your submission log is cross-referenced three different ways and goes back to 1986.
(I balance my checkbook using right-brain capabilities; have never "submitted" anything in my life; and was still reasonably young in 1986.)
5....You fall in love based on proper syntax.
(Hmmm. One time this guy called me (I had never met him) and he asked me for a date. I asked him if he "was for real?" He replied in a hokey voice, "I shit you not." The relationship was over.)
6....When you nail a sentence, you're pretty sure you know how Moses felt parting the Red Sea.
(I have even more news on this one....Tears spring into my eyes when I nail a sentence. It's not a just matter of nailing, but of feeling like I hammered out my own gold medal in Sentence Olympics.)
7....You feel sex ranks a distant second to the sensation of holding a felt-tip pen in your hand.
This is where I nail a sentence: What you think about sex is your business and what I think about sex is not your business.
|
|
