…no, Mabel, the blog post title above is not a reference to yer handwriting… although if it had been, we’d be comparing my penmanship to the proverbial chicken scrawl… what I’m rabbiting on about in this piece is sum’thing that’s been surprising me of late… I’ve just completed the three-week-long series of self-edits of my latest wee offering in the Jack Calder series, KILLER CITY, which then goes to my amazing Crooked Cat Publishing editor, Maureen Vincent-Northam to do the proper edit… in the course of reading through yer own WURK, it’s astonishing how much of it jumps at yeez as if it was sumb’dy else’s book… (I wonder how many of yeez Lads and Lassies of Blog Land experience the same thing?)…
…I keep finding LUVLY inserted phrases and ‘bits of writing business’ that occurred only at the split-second of getting it into the narrative… free flow mind-set stuff… the little nuances in yer scribbling that I think lend it yer Author’s Voice, that essence that mesmerises so many newbie writers… y’see, once ye’re past the dependence on amateur-cliched WURK, what’s left by definition becomes yer own ideas… yer own brilliance (or mediocrity… please yerselves!)… ‘ALL YER OWN WURK’, as the phrase goes… and it’s quite delightful to discover the wee curly bits in yer writing that makes yeez smile to yerself and say, ‘that’s my wee baby, there’… it might be the inclusion of an afterthought. or an aside, a throwaway sentence of even half a sentence… but it makes the narrative different…
…and here’s the confounding thing about it… yeez don’t plan it… it flows out of yeez, almost by accident… pretty much in the same manner that yer characters so frequently hijack yer fingers and have yeez tapping out a completely foreign version of yer story than the one yeez thought was yer own… it amuses me, yes… it delights me, yes… it makes me feel special, yes… but do I understand it?… no, I don’t, and please Gawd, I never will…. keep it fresh… see yeez later… LUV YEEZ!…
ALL MY BLOG POSTS ARE FREE TO SHARE OR RE-BLOG SHOULD YOU SO WISH—BE MY GUEST!
I call that “in the zone” – where you lose the inhibitions and the words flow so freely and lucidly. And when you go back later to re-read it, you say to yourself – did I really write that, because it verges on brilliant (doesn’t happen to often for me but when it does – oh my).
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…THAT’s what it’s all about, m’Lady 🙂
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Have YOU got any ‘wee curly bits’ in YOUR writings that you’d care to share with Seumas and the WURLD 😈
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…cheeeeers, that man, Chris ..:)
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I love those moment when I read something of mine and say, “Hey, I wrote that! Not too shabby.” Of course, for each one of those, there’s a, “Oh dear, that needs work.” It’s a roller coaster ride until the prose smooths out and I’m wearing a smile.
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…these are the bits that keep us coming back, m’Lady, Diana…:):)
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Finding those ‘curly bits’ is what makes writing so much more than putting words down. It makes me smile and go “YES!” I wrote that! Makes up for all those “duhhh” moments when I go, I can’t believe I wrote that! 😉
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…and eventually, the ‘YES-ES!’ overcome the ‘DUHHH’s”, m’Lady, Jackie :):)
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Those little bits make me think, “However did I write THAT?”
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…but we DO, m’Lady, Noelle, we DO! 🙂
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Oh yes, it’s bliss when you’re in the hard slog of editing and you come across your gems. Makes my day ☺️
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..and may you continue to find hundreds and thousands more of these gems, m’Lady, Christine:)
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I try to slip humor into my pieces as I write mostly flash fiction these days. Sometimes I surprise myself.. In a memoir I’m writing, I find the more I write the more I remember. Things pop into my head I’d forgotten and I write them down before I forget again. My memory is like that these days. I finally wrote a timeline and it’s become like a jigsaw puzzle. I’m just glad things pop in and don’t pop out forever. Then I’d be concerned. Coming and going and coming back again doesn’t bother me much.
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…and it keeps it all fun, m’Lady, Suzanne;)
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Wonderful isn’t it? I just love to write, and these special moments are all the proof I need!
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…betcha!
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Nothing like getting up in the morning, pour a cup of coffee, open a document from the night before, and say, “Wow, I can’t believe I wrote that.” The feeling is fantastic, and I love that you brought it up here. 😀
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mwaaaaah 🙂
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You’ve just reminded us why we love writing. Thanks Seumas!
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…mwaaah, m’Lady, Olga:)
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