Procrastination Gets a Bum Rap

Today I will answer a question found on the Discussion Forum.

Help! *`Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’ The first line won’t come and I sit and stare at the blank screen!

Alice: `Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
Cheshire Cat: ‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to’
Alice: `I don’t much care where–‘
Cheshire Cat:`Then it doesn’t matter which way you go’
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: Lewis Carroll

Now, most would advise this writer to just write anything to get some words up there. Even if it’s ‘I want to write but can’t think of anything!’ about a hundred times. That’s supposed to unblock the imagination so the story hidden deep inside can come out. I’m not going to say that. I’ve tried that logic, but found it got in the way of procrastinating so I don’t advise it anymore. Procrastination is a good thing, and we should learn to appreciate it more. It’s been getting a bum rap for too long.

Read With Skill

Learning to review depends largely on how well you’ve learned to read. When readers read a story, they bring along their own experiences and understanding. The author tries to guide the responses, but inevitably each reader will perceive it in their own individual way. Ethnic background, education and life experience all contribute to the images they see and their response to the story.

As reviewers, we can and should make an effort to understand what an author seems to be getting at. Writers can tell a great deal, but they cannot and should

Getting Read,Reviewed and Rated

You’ve decided to join a writing workshop to show your work and hone your skills. You’ve read in the ad’s that, ‘members read and give constructive reviews,’ and you definitely want to be read! But did you quit reading before the end of the sentence?

With excitement you think: “Will anybody read it? Will they like it?” Then, you take the plunge and, Merry Christmas! It was read! And it was critiqued. Oops.

Paul Smith — Typewriter Artist

Hate Has Become the In Thing

It seems that the country has turned its negativity into political power, and it’s so magnetic that it’s slowly pulling us all in.  I can’t believe what I hear and how easy it is to divide into groups, one against the other.

This division has no purpose but to grab more votes from those who are easily led.  Why do they fall for it?   So many just do not have the capacity to think for themselves, or to think logically.  The lies are blatantly ‘in your face’, but the blind, deaf, and needy don’t want to see or hear or even have to think too hard.  They’re so easy to persuade to jump from the cliff.  Why do they have to drag the rest of us down with them?  Why do they have so much hate in their hearts?

Many citizens forget (or were never taught)  who is supposed to be in charge, and are freely tossing away all their rights.  For what?  What will be their reward?  Embracing miserable poverty and complete domination.   Who really wins?