JUST SO, HO, HO, HO

I was researching the poem:      

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

I was unsure of one of the reindeer’s name—Donner... 

So I Googled it...

Actually, it's not Donner but either Dunder or Donder...

Hmm?

So, I dug a little further and discovered... 

That this classic poem...

Is a two-hundred-year-old great mystery. 

The poem first appeared anonymously... 

On December 23, 1823...

In the New York’s Troy Sentinel newspaper. 

Years later, one man claimed to be the author...

Ah ha! But was he? 

There's still quite a controversy...

Is the author Clement Clarke Moore?

His title is: The Night Before Christmas

Or Henry Livingston Jr.?

His title is: Twas The Night Before Christmas

If you like fun or interesting research...

Here are two links to sink your Christmas candy-coated teeth in: 

Clement Clarke Moore

 

Henry Livingston Jr.

What I found interesting was that... 

Both men’s writing styles have been forensically analyzed... 

Looking for certain rhythms to the men's writing...

And usages of certain words and phraseology. 

Hmm? 

And that got me wondering...

What if analysts were to forensically look at my writing...

What would they find?

And just so I won’t keep you guessing...

They’d find over usages of these two words: JUST & SO... 

 I just don't know why I like them so much.

And it may be OK to overuse them in my blog posts...

But not in a novel.

Which I've been guilty of...

And thank goodness for editors.

So?

What about you?

Do you have any rhythms, words or phraseology in your writing?

And who do you think real author is?  

Always,

Em-Musing

                                                 

         

  

This post is part of the monthly blog hop/therapy session known as the Insecure Writers Support Group founded by the one and only, Alex J. Cavanaugh. If you're a writer, insecure, or just supportive of writers—insecure or not—please join us. It happens the first Wednesday of each month. It would be sweet of you to visit at least a dozen or so new blogs and leave a comment. Your words will be appreciated.   Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.   

  

The awesome co-hosts this month are Pat Garcia, Sylvia Ney, Liesbet @ Roaming About Cathrina Constantine, and Natalie Aguirre!

 December 2 question - Are there months or times of the year that you are more productive with your writing than other months, and why? 

Oh wow!

It would be fab...

If there were specific months or times of the year...

When I’d be more productive with my writing...

I could then look forward to these times...

Grab a cuppa, cozy up and hunker down... 

And write my little heart out. 

But my creativity doesn’t play that way... 

My muse determines my writing moments...

Sometimes she inspires  me for just a paragraph...

Sometimes a chapter or two...

And if she truly blesses me—it’s a whole day of writing.

Of course, there are always short bouts of drought... 

(where’d you go?)

But never for too long so I can’t complain. 

Certainly though... 

The winter holidays...

Put a kybosh on my writing... 

With all the: 

Present buying, cookie baking, house decorating, holiday feasting, party going, & traveling here and there...

My brain cannot settle down... 

Until I’ve made my list and checked it twice...

And then maybe, just maybe...

A little piece of writing to my wondering eyes will appear. 

So?

How about you?

Are there certain months you are more productive?

 Aways, 

Em-musing

TO WRITE OR NOT TO WRITE - THAT IS NEVER THE QUESTION

This post is part of the monthly blog hop/therapy session known as the 
Insecure Writers Support Group founded by the one and only, Alex J. Cavanaugh. If you're a writer, insecure, or just supportive of writers—insecure or not—please join us. It happens the first Wednesday of each month. It would be sweet of you to visit at least a dozen or so new blogs and leave a comment. Your words will be appreciated.  Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.   

 

My awesome co-hosts for the November 4 posting of the IWSG are Jemi Fraser, Kim Lajevardi, L.G Keltner, Tyrean Martinson, and Rachna Chhabria!

November 4 question - Albert Camus once said, “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” Flannery O’Conner said, “I write to discover what I know.” Authors across time and distance have had many reasons to write. Why do you write what you write?

To me... 

Writing is like breathing...

I have no choice...

Ideas come to me from out of nowhere...

And I don’t even get to choose the format or genre. 

When I was young it was poetry...

Next came short stories... 

And then my first novel came to me... 

In the shower no less...

Random bits and pieces flowed to me...

And I had no idea where they were coming from...

But I felt compelled to write them down...

So, wrapped in a towel, I ran run to my computer... 

And wrote everything that was coming into my head...

It felt like I was taking dictation.

After a year of this...

I looked at what I’d written and thought...

I have a book here...

And I did.

But after clumsy submissions and scads of rejections...

My insecurities took over...

And I closed the file and didn't open it for over a decade. 

Then...

With the encouragement from writer friends...

I opened the file again...

And after editing until my eyeballs fell out...

I sent out more queries...

Then more rejections...

But I wasn't going to give up...

I decided to Self-publish. And here is the fruit of my labor.

And still...

Every morning while I'm writing on my computer...

I thank my muse... 

Because if it was up to me and my brain...

I couldn’t write a word. 

And yup...

I still get inspiration in the shower.

So?

 What about you?

Why do you write what you write?

 

Always,

Em-Musing 

P.S. AZAEL'S LOT  is available on Amazon under my pen name: 

Karen Lee Baldwin. And surprisingly the genre is supernatural thriller...

not humorous women's fiction.

ALL- WRITER?

This is the monthly blog hop/therapy session known as  the  

Insecure Writers Support Group 

founded by the  one and  only, 

Alex J. Cavanaugh.  

If  you are  a writer, insecure,  or  just  supportive  of  writers—insecure or not—please join us. It happens the first Wednesday of each month. It would be sweet of you to visit at least a dozen or so new blogs and leave a comment. Your words will be appreciated. 

The awesome co-hosts for the October 7 posting of the IWSG are Jemima Pett, Beth Camp, Beverly Stowe McClure, and Gwen Gardner!

October 7 question:

 When you think of the term working writer, what does that look like to you? What do you think it is supposed to look like? Do you see yourself as a working writer or aspiring or hobbyist, and if latter two, what does that look like? 

Hmm? 

Interesting question.

I have been a copywriter for many years...

For video, film, TV, radio, and print...

And have won awards too...

So, I’ve always known I am a writer­...

But author?

Well, that took years...

Before I would consider myself that...

And only after I was published.

For me...

There’s an emotional difference... 

Between being a writer and being an author.

Copywriters, whether freelance or inhouse, 

Write “copy” for a specific job or assignment. 

They're given the subject to write about...

Or at least know the direction the writing must go.

When the editing is done and job approved... 

It's handed over to the client or boss..

And the writer’s part is done. 👍 

Shortly after, they can see or hear their work and are paid.

But authors... 

Whether they’re writing a novel, poem, short story, nonfiction or whatever... 

Start from scratch...

The whole process is up to them to figure out...

And when finished...

They have to find their own path to publication.

If going the traditional route...

It starts with the query process... 🙏

Searching for an agent and/or publisher... 

With all those emotional twists, turns, and detours...

(at least for me)

And if they don’t get picked up...

It’s on to the self-pub’d trail 😬

And Lord!! 

That’s an arduous journey of considerations:

Editors, book covers, marketing, advertising, reviews and everything else, 😱h my!!

Just to make sales...

 Though I've heard some say: 

“I write for the pleasure and not for the money.”

Wow! I had to think about that one. 

Guess I write for my passion of writing, the kudos too...

And in my perfect word...

Millions of sales.

So? 

What’s your writing experience like?

 

Always,

Em-Musing

MIDNIGHT IN MIND

               Blog Day for the INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP

            The first Wednesday of each month, members of IWSG announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share insight or a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. IWSG was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh and is a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life. Remember, the question is optional.

The awesome co-hosts for the September 2 posting of the IWSG are: 

  PJ Colando, J Lenni Dorner, Deniz Bevan, Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, and Louise - Fundy Blue!

 

September 2 question – if you could choose one author, living or dead, to be your beta partner who would it be and why?    

Ooo!

My own beta partner who’s an author living or dead?

OMG! That would be fab!

Mine...pens down...would be Gertrude Stein... a famed icon of modernism.

Why?

Let me digress and tell you about Gertrude Stein's character in one of my favorite movies Midnight in Paris. 

It's a Woody Allen movie starring Owen Wilson as the writer, Kathy Bates as Stein, and Cory Stoll as Hemingway.

Here’s the short synopsis: it’s present day. A writer goes to Paris doubting his ability to write a novel. One night he’s out walking and at midnight a 1920’s car pulls up and the occupant, Ernest Hemingway, tells him to get in and takes him back in time to meet Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald and other writers and artists.  The writer then kvetches to Hemingway about his unfinished manuscript, and Hemingway introduces the writer to Gertrude Stein who offers to read the manuscript and critique it, which she does.

OMG! I would LOVE it if she could do that for one of my manuscripts!

But just as much as her critique, I would love to have been at Stein's home on a Saturday evening for her formal gatherings that brought writers and artists who helped define modernism in literature and art. Attendees often included:. ErnestHemingway. Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Thornton Wilder, Henri Matisse, and many more. She called them the Lost Generation..  

Well, there you have it...

Gertrude is my pick for a beta partner. 

Imagine the conversations? The inspiration? The imbibing? 

And speaking of imbibing...

Hemingway, a frequent guest of Stein...

Is not only known as a famous writer but also a famous imbiber.

So in the spirit of him...

And the others of the "Lost Generation"...

And also to the only book of his I've read - A Moveable Feast.

I raise my bottle of  Absinth...

So?

Who would your beta be?

 

Always,

Em-Musing

 

FROM WHENCE IT COMES?

                                           

Its  Blog Day for the

                                      INSECURE WRITER’S SUPPORT GROUP

                                                             

The first Wednesday of each month, members of IWSG announce a question that members can answer in their IWSG Day post. These questions may prompt you to share insight or a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional.

IWSG was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh and is a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life. 

Remember, the question is optional.

 

The awesome co-hosts for the August 5 posting of the IWSG are Susan Baury Rouchard, Nancy Gideon, Jennifer Lane, Jennifer Hawes, Chemist Ken, and Chrys Fey!

 Quote: “Although I have written a short story collection, the form found me and not the other way around. Don’t write short stories, novels, or poems. Just write your truth and your stories will mold into the shapes they need to be.” 

 

August 5 question: Have you ever written a piece that became a form, or even a genre you hadn’t planned on writing in? Or do you choose a form/genre in advance? 

Actually, I have written in a genre I hadn’t planned...

One that I never knew existed.
One day... 

A poem came to me...

I know... not that unusual...

But this time...

The poem came not from my thoughts...

But from somewhere “within”...

Like heartburn that finally surfaces and releases...

This burn was a poem that asked to be written...

So I wrote it... 

It was a different style then I had ever used.

A month or so later... 

Writer’s Digest had a writing contest...

One category was Non-rhyming Poetry.

Hmm? I thought.

Should I? Will I?

I did.

But before entering...

I was curious to see if there was a name for this type of poem.

Yup, there is:

Anadiplosis 

A repetition of the last word or any prominent word in a sentence or clause, at the beginning of the next, with an adjunct idea.”

Here’s my poem:

 

NIGHT OF THE LIVING SAD

 

We walk among you

You the normal ones

Ones that had childhoods of unquestioned love

Love from parents with no issues

Issues of depression and scary bouts

Bouts that caused sadness’ hidden

Hidden, in pillows sopped with tears

Tears of shame, and wanting

Wanting to be like other kids 

Kids with no twisted emotions 

Emotions wrought in a bedroom 

Bedroom: a haven, a prison, a trap 

Trapped by another’s desires

Desires for what was not meant yet

Yet I survived

Survive still

Still

 

I haven’t heard about the contest yet...

But am keeping my fingers crossed.

So?

Ever hear of this type of poem?

And/or...

Did a genre ever prod you to write?

Or are you an plotter?

 

Always,

Em-Musing