Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Never take context out of the picture! or A quote out of context...

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.
- Stephen King

I was looking for a word today and actually still am... I still can't give a decent verb to express what happens when you bring a new methodology into this world.... Anyways, that's work...
Deadlines are marching and tasks are piling up (check out yesterday for details) so I turn to a colleague of mine for help. With a sneaky smile he shows me a randomly displayed quote that I just placed here.

Stephen King indeed said that, in fact, wrote. A very 'down to the point' piece called "Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully: in Ten Minutes".
The article looks sarcastically American (...in Ten Minutes) and unmistakenly universal. Twelve simple rules that become gigantically powerful when you think them through and open yourself up to accept them instead of arguing. In my schematic mind they fall into a spectrum to balance each other and to bring into its center a gifted you... or you, or... maybe even you. The rules that give freedom to the writer-to-be and set up a frame to fit in. No big promises, but those given are barely seen behind the series of Do's and Dont's.

The quote that woke my curiosity is part of rule #5 - Never look at a reference book while doing a first draft.

The good thing about tomorrow is that my draft will have been reviewed and I will be entitled to look up some dictionaries...

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

To accompany previous post... just came across this joke in someone else's blog:

Question : What would you like to have...? Fruit juice, Soda, Tea, Chocolate, Capuccino, Frapuccino, or Coffee?
Answer : Tea please
Question : Ceylon tea, Indian tea, Herbal tea, Bush tea, Honey bush tea, iced tea or green tea?
Answer : Ceylon tea
Question : How would you like it? Black or white?
Answer : white
Question : Milk, or fresh cream?
Answer : With milk
Question : Goat's milk, or cow's milk
Answer : With cow's milk please.
Question : Freezeland cow or Afrikaner cow?
Answer : Um, I'll just take it black.
Question : Would you like it with sweetener, sugar or honey?
Answer : With sugar
Question : Beet sugar or cane sugar?
Answer : Cane sugar
Question : White, brown or yellow sugar?
Answer : Forget about the tea, just give me a glass of water instead.
Question : Mineral water, tap water or distilled water?
Answer : Mineral water
Question : Flavored or non-flavored?
Answer : I think I'll just die of thirst.

I guess I am not the only one :)

...Perhaps I can still count at least on photography! otherwise I have no chance of capturing any thought, emotion, fact, or 'rendez-vous' in this life. Information flows definitely outscore my capacity. The multitude of things muddles me and makes my ability to concentrate vanish! Everything got plural squared - rules, languages, shows, tasks, options, books, ideas, styles, bills, dreams, fonts, currencies, goals, menus, opportunities! E V E R Y T H I N G.
I shall not deny it - that is what I always wanted and it never occurred to me that at some point I would not be able to deal with these quantities.
Here I am with all my futile efforts to catch up, keep pace and stay on top of things, but all I am vouchsafed is to snatch bits and pieces at a blink of an eye...