Comma abuse

Comma abuse is right up there with apostrophe abuse when it comes to things I can't stand to see in a book I am reading. It is only bested by seeing the word alot in a professionally published book.

I mean do there people not have books proofread before they are published? I recently showed a few sentences from New Moon to an eight year old and she immediately spotted the incorrect comma usage. That is pretty sad IMO that an eight year old caught it but some overpaid editor who probably has a degree in this shit can't manage to figure out there should not be 2 commas in a 5 word sentence. Brilliant.

New moon doesn't abuse apostrophes but lost of other books do. Apparently it is hard to remember 5th grade language arts.

Oh and there is some horrid sentence structure in the Twilight series as well. To the point that sometimes I had to read a sentence three times to be sure of what she meant.

If it was a blog I was reading or an email or even just a letter someone wrote me I probably would not even notice there flaws but I find I am seeing A LOT of them in recently published books as if both authors and editors have forgotten the basic rules.

Write what you know ???????????

Boy I remember hearing that many times when I was just starting out with vague ambitions of maybe someday being published. It was something I was never good at because the sentence sounds so damn literal. I rejected it flat out and after many failed attempts at the great Canadian novel I have finally figured out what it means.

I have two work in progress now and writing them feels like 'coming home' yes I am still struggling with trying to avoid adverb abuse, and where to split chapters and what is needed info and what is useless background information but that is on the technical side. On the creative side where stories are born things are just flowing ...... maybe too well.

I have found this is especially true in my second project as I started to write the opening scene. I have been grappling with it for a few weeks never sure how much detail to put it, how vague to be, and worrying it would traumatize someone. Problem is the book opens with date rape and I had it butchered trying not to be to graphic until I realized that date rape (well all rape for that matter) IS graphic and horrendous and if it makes people uncomfortable to read about it then that is a good thing because it also gives victims a voice.

So as I started to write it I realized there is value to writing what you know and that writing what you know does not mean you have to be autobiographical it just means putting your own voice, experience, and emotions into your characters.

What's in a name?

I hate naming things. I have a cat named King Kong because I delegated the task to a three year old. Naming my children was harder than birthing them. I don't name plants because well A) it's weird and B) I suck at it.

So I am trying to name a girl in a new project I started today and ARGH! No name seems right. I can't go name her Bertha or something because she is supposed to be hot as rocks and yet all the sexy names I can come up with seem wrong for a 16 year old girl.

My Inferiority complex

Since Lori is showing me up in the writing department I decided it was time to get down to business and take a day off from using my screen time to read Sins and get some more words on paper/screen.

My biggest issue is when transferring work from one medium to the other I tend to edit in the process and that slows me up.

I am however making slow but steady progress. Once I learned to read my own hand writing I had to convert my short hand scribbles into coherent story. I think tequila may have helped with this but alas I have none.

Santa can you bring me an extra 3 hours a day of quiet?

I prefer the devil you don't

I have heard many people say "better the devil you know than the devil you don't" I have decided that is just a cliche used to avoid making necessary changes in you life because I really preferred the devil I didn't know.

When I first moved to my current town I thought it was lovely, I lived here 2 years thinking people were nice, and friendly, and compared to my home town OH SO normal. Then I took a job at a corner store and figured out this town is full of Alcoholics who like to drive around drunk, wife beaters, pot heads (which I can deal with) and perverts.

Now I have always believed a dirty mind is a wonderful thing BUT I prefer to save my lewd comments for those willing to listen to them. The people I have met around here just creep me out and have made me consider painting my windows black.

Also I live in a good sized community but every pervert I encounter knows where I live. If it was just one or two I would assume they were the problem but since it is a dozen or more that have told me where I live (and I have never been more specific than up the street) I assume I must be the problem and have a perv magnet in me.

Seriously I was happier living in oblivion where I didn't have panic attacks in the night and want to make sure the door was locked.

Writing has all but come to a stand still lately between time constraints and reading but I am hoping to get another chapter or two done on Monday while I have an empty house. I have a billion quick notes that I need to transcribe into long hand so very little creative juice will be needed just grunt work.

making friends

HMM I have empty screen syndrome. That is when I look at my screen and everything I wanted to say just flees my head (also known as ADD in some cultures)

So i figured if I just start writing something would come to me. So far all that came to me was a snotty kid and a hungry cat. I mean that literally I have been interrupted twice in the time it took to type this.

I am going to my husbands work party next weekend. That should be good for me I guess as I really need to make friends. I have a grand total of one friend who does not live either in another part of the country or in my computer. I used to have lots but they all annoy the shit out of me now.

I like my online friends because I can turn them off and blame it on my comp. Don't look at me like that I KNOW you have wished people in your life came with a mute button.

So I am putting myself out there and seeing if I can meet someone with friend potential. I have strict criteria though so it may be hard.

Criteria

1) you must be articulate. I am not asking for Shakespeare but you should at least be able to tell a story without making me want to puncture my own ear drums.

2) you must be educated and have a desire to learn. I don't mean you have to have a degree from Harvard law but you should at least understand how time zones work and not really think that a channel is getting our weather wrong because they are an hour in the past (seriously run into this) I am also not interested in spending my time with someone who will never think outside their own narrow experience.

3) You must not be judgemental. I have no use for anyone who is going to write me off for having a kid without even knowing how old I am. Regardless of how I look I am NOT 16 and there is nothing wrong with my having a six year old.

So really that is not a lot to ask yet it has been years since I have found anyone I want to spend More than 20 mins with.

Take some paxil and leave me alone

when things go bad in my life (and they usually do) I always try to remind myself that it could be worse, I generally do this to other people too. For example if my husband comes home complaining about his boss I will point out that it could be worse, he could have gangrene in his right testicle. Now of course this does nothing to rectify the situation at hand but it does get his mind off his issue so I do understand how this can be a helpful tool in pulling yourself out of a funk.

What I DON'T get is why when people try to think of a way it could be worse they always need to to compare it to me.

ex. A friend of mine is humongously pregnant and having a hard time moving around. I know this sucks I have BTDT and I was empathizing with her when all of a sudden she says "well it could be worse you know at least the baby is healthy, lord knows I don't know what I would do if I had to deal with your pregnancies"

Now could someone please tell me WTF my abysmal pregnancy luck has to do with her being fat and uncomfortable?

Or when someones kid is giving them a hard time and they complain they will follow it up with "well I guess I really have nothing to complain about because at least I have all my kids with me" again WTF does my loosing a child have to do with your kid stabbing someone with a thumb tack?

Mad at your family 'oh well I am better off than Melisa who doesn't see her family often'

Really I am glad to know that reminding me of my misery can help you to feel better but I would really like to resign my post as the totem pole you compare your craptastic life to when you want to feel better. Why not just pop a paxil like everyone else when you need to feel better and leave me out of it.

Can anyone recommend some good emo music I can wallow to?