September 07, 2004
Daunting, really.
I don't want to talk about the personal stuff today, I don't want to talk about my family, how I feel, my Mr. Y, or the temperature that hovers outside my window (which I don't actually know, anyway). I don't want to talk about why I am still wearing a towel around the house or why I want to vaccum but haven't gotten to it yet. I don't want to talk about my lovely friend Jim who should arrive here sometime this today, or about the tabby bombs that should be shooting through the house sometime this afternoon (I hope I hope I hope). I don't want to talk, I don't want to talk, I don't want to talk.
I also don't want to give up on this site, hence today's rather meagre post.
Some time ago, Mr. Y suggested that I write short stories for magazines. I bought a literary guide to help me find said magazines. I also have bought a few writing magazines to help me figure my way out of this telecom nightmare and into a world that means just sitting in front of my pc, orchid dripping to my right, stuffed kitten toy sitting to my left, and just write. Ooze onto the keyboard, gush into the monitor, make no sense whatsoever and clog up the hard drive.
The magazines, however, are whipping me.
One whole article-a whole article!-is about the use of the present tense.
The present tense.
Now, I was a real English dork once upon a time. Diagram a sentence? You got it! Learn vocabulary words and use them in daily dialog? Why certainly! Your pulchritudinous oculus have a soporific effect on me! Dangling participles? Nothing to get wound up about.
But a whole article on the present tense? Including sentences such as:
"...reserves his major irritation for journalism rather than fiction, but his complaints echo a frequently-voiced prejudice."
That buzzing sound you hear is me snoring.
Or instructions at the end of such article:
"There is a correlation between narrative tense and narrative tension, and it can be a good exercise to transfer a piece of your own writing from past to present in order to explore the effect of this shift...Try it and see where you stand in the ongoing 'tense-and-truth' debate."
Hold me back, now! This is too exciting to be real! Hot damn, I could be part of a debate! Whoo-eeee-bob! If I transfer from past to present tense, maybe it's better than sex! Maybe I can walk the wild side now, and throw my cordless keyboard to the wind! This is living baby, screw the champagne Fridays, I could be writing in present tense from now on, living dangerously in the literary world!
Mr. Y, upon seeing this article, rolled his eyes and said: "You can never again make fun of me reading train magazines, if you're going to read articles like that."
I think he has a point.
I don't know if the magazines are really going to help much-I'm not saying I am above needing help, I am saying I don't generally analyze the struture of what I write. I just write. So while I may not give a great goddamn about what tense I write in, what "prejudices" are implied by said tense, or if I have armed myself with a quill on the side of the past tense or a rubber eraser on the side of the present tense debate, I am going to continue reading those magazines, just in case.
Just in case, because more than anything in the world, I want to be a writer. Please just let me be a writer. All I want to do is write.
When I grow up, I think, dancing in bright pink fairy slippers and with two pigtails swinging on my shoulders, reaching up to the countertop height and looking up at the ceiling light with enthusiasm, I want to be a writer.
And so, nestled in the middle of said magazine, is a contest which is judged next January.
I am entering said contest.
I'm not going to win, but I am going to enter.
I have to step off the diving board somewhere after all.
Posted by: Everydaystranger at
09:38 AM
| Comments (26)
| Add Comment
Post contains 767 words, total size 4 kb.
Posted by: Simon at September 07, 2004 10:27 AM (OyeEA)
Posted by: melanie at September 07, 2004 11:02 AM (jDC3U)
Posted by: RP at September 07, 2004 11:14 AM (X3Lfs)
Posted by: Lemurgirl at September 07, 2004 11:59 AM (/0bZ0)
Posted by: kyle at September 07, 2004 12:38 PM (blNMI)
Posted by: Sarcasmo at September 07, 2004 12:57 PM (y96vL)
Posted by: Solomon at September 07, 2004 01:33 PM (k1sTy)
Posted by: emily at September 07, 2004 02:04 PM (AO0sO)
Posted by: Brass at September 07, 2004 02:19 PM (SrRJG)
Posted by: Helen at September 07, 2004 02:46 PM (GoCG9)
Posted by: Helen at September 07, 2004 03:13 PM (GoCG9)
Posted by: martha at September 07, 2004 03:37 PM (5HJ2h)
Posted by: Roger at September 07, 2004 03:57 PM (8S2fE)
Posted by: Emma at September 07, 2004 04:45 PM (MAdsZ)
Posted by: Lisa at September 07, 2004 04:50 PM (Wu7QI)
Posted by: Jim at September 07, 2004 05:23 PM (GCA5m)
Posted by: Mick at September 07, 2004 07:01 PM (VhRca)
Posted by: Sue at September 07, 2004 08:44 PM (AaBEz)
Posted by: Jennifer at September 07, 2004 09:28 PM (jl9h0)
Posted by: kat at September 07, 2004 09:48 PM (ZHp6T)
Posted by: Helen at September 07, 2004 11:56 PM (GoCG9)
Posted by: kat at September 08, 2004 01:44 AM (FhSIP)
Posted by: Dane at September 08, 2004 03:05 AM (ncyv4)
Posted by: aaron at September 08, 2004 03:34 AM (2FiwY)
Posted by: LarryConley at September 08, 2004 04:50 AM (aontM)
Posted by: Almost Lucid (Brad) at September 09, 2004 07:55 PM (NOiRr)
35 queries taking 0.0826 seconds, 150 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.