groping in the dark

That's what it feels like when all you have is a cool title and only a vague notion of what you are going to do with it.

In the writer's group I belong to one member put forth the notion that all you get from an editor reading your manuscript is 250 words before they roll their eyes up in their heads and pitch it in the trash or hit "delete".

I did some grubbing around on the web but couldn't find any yeas or nays to corroborate this, but it wouldn't surprise me. I won't let it bother me much either.

Maybe I should have called this blog "Honing the Hook" but that sounds vaguely pornographic, which, given the genre I'm attempting, is not all that far off the mark.

I was rummaging through old notebooks with the intention of not letting them go to waste when I found the dry leaves and the hard cash  in the notebook that holds the bones of my first two novels, both patiently waiting their turn while I get this one done.  I pissed the money away on lottery tickets..keep you posted on that one.

 Then, in a spiral lined notebook I came across this written in pencil so light it had to be a 4H, my old dear favorite from a very long time ago.

"The 11th Commandment"
Thou shalt heed these my commandments, not out of fear of the Lord's retribution, but in the certain knowledge that He has given you the ability to weigh your actions, the wisdom to foresee the consequences and the strength to live with the outcome."

And under this,   "see your options"

WTF?    I checked it in Grammarly.    It's sui generis. What was I smoking?

Comments

  1. Dr John YeomanJune 22, 2014 at 12:12 PM

    Sui generis, Deb? I knew a professor who couldn't make three remarks without including that phrase. I think it was the only Latin he'd ever learned, but it sure impressed his colleagues!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deb LacativaJune 22, 2014 at 1:23 PM

      I had a deviate fascination for Latin when I was a kid having heard it described as a "dead language". What did the dead have to talk about? We were required to take an alternate language in junior high and I thought taking Latin would get me off the hook for speaking aloud in front of anyone. Lucky me! Mrs. Callenius thought teaching conversational Latin was the way to go. That experience and the original fascination has stuck to me all these years like so many scabby barnacles.

      Delete

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