Inside or Out?

In between discussions about raising the debt ceiling, world hunger, and how to increase awareness about hepatitis C, I am pondering an imponderable. Should the period and the comma go before or after the quotation marks? I am serious. Apparently it isn’t as cut and dry and issue as I had believed. For interesting and enlightening edification, read Ben Yagoda’s article in Slate.

I don’t really care where the punctuation marks go—just tell me the right way and I will do it. 

in the meantime I am boycotting punctuation marks 

ee cummings was on to something

Priorities

There are people who want to be everywhere at once, and they get nowhere. ~ Carl Sandburg

 

The above quote sums me up. I have a jillion writing ideas. I've even started some of them. 

This is what I want to write:

• Creative non-fiction
• Memoir
• Essays
• Magazine articles
• A novel
• Poetry
• Haiku
• Young Adult novel
• Children’s book
• Short stories
• A bestseller
• A juicy pornographic story

This is what I don’t want to write:

• Science fiction
• A romance novel
• A technical manual
• A comic book

If I tried to write everything that popped into my head, I’d never finish anything. It’s all a matter of priorities. The porno story is the last thing on the list. I figure I’ll be a hundred years old when I get around to that project.

Sidetracked

“Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.” ~ Josh Billings

I am feeling more like Morse code, with lots of dots and dashes. There is something so satisfying about being completely absorbed in a writing project; a satisfaction I have not enjoyed this week. I am all over the place, doing revisions and small projects.

Writing is a lonely occupation and if I was prone to neurosis, I might think that I’d never get anywhere with my writing. However, the truth is that I do, and even these little projects add up.

Scaffolding

“A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.” ~ Annie Dillard

One of my favorite writers, Annie Dillard, reminds me of the main tool I rely on as a writer—a schedule. When I do not stick to one, my writing stops, I get grouchy, and life loses it luster. A day of lousy writing is better than a day without writing.

Having said that, let me talk about my nemeis—distraction. When I put in the Annie Dillard quote, Word suggested that “It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time” should be “It is scaffolding on which…”. My mind was off and running. Did Annie, craftswoman extraordinaire, make a mistake? Perhaps she was misquoted? How do I confirm the original quote?

Then I saw that I had fallen off the scaffolding. Good thing I wore safety equipment and am back to work. The quote stands without verification. I have a life to get to…