....you must first invent the universe.
--Dr. Carl Sagan
Hoo, doggies, am I ever finding that to be true this week.
I'm writing...but in the process, I'm also having to re-teach myself all the skills I thought I had learned in school, but, it turns out, I somehow managed to either forget--or forgot that I never really learned, and simply skated by with as little actual work as possible...which pretty much describes my college years perfectly ("Oh, that I had applied myself to homework for my other classes with the zeal I spent on my musical training!" she wailed, hand dramatically draped across forehead). So, in addition to writing, I'm learning how to do research online, format my writing so that an editor won't snicker at me (OK, not as much), syntax, rhythm, grammar--all of it. The Elements of Style and The Chicago Manual of Style, my computer, and Wikipedia are constant companions.
Considering how good I was at weaseling OUT of homework all my educational life, I suspect my teachers are laughing their collective arses off somewhere at my toil, sweat, and confusion.
(Kids, here's my unsolicited advice for the week, re: grammar, syntax, sentence structure, etc.: DO THE WORK NOW, while you're still young and in school--it's a hell of a lot harder to make this information stick when one is over forty and having to come up to speed from long-time inertia. Trust me on this.)
So, in short: in order to be able to take myself seriously as a writer, I'm having to invent the universe before I can bake my apple pie.
Oddly, I am OK with this.
RM
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