LJ Idol Week 7: No True Scotsman
Monday, 28 April 2014 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
codenamewanderlustThinking about Thinking about Writing
I was a dog walker and pet sitter for five years. I'm realizing that maybe I like dogs more than people. Dogs are honest and people, well we tend to be constantly blind to the dichotomy between our own words and actions.
I’m hanging out with a coworker who is telling me about a problem between two of our other coworkers. “Yeah, but I'm going to stay out of it,” he says.
I don't point out the flawed logic that his talking to me about it isn't “staying out of it.”
He moves on to talking about his new girlfriend. “I want to be here for you but I should be writing,” I think to myself. But really, I guess I want the distraction or I wouldn’t have invited him in. I had all weekend to work on a submission for the online writing competition I signed up for last month and here it was hours before the deadline and I had nothing written.
We listen to epic guitar solos and watch retro horror movie trailers. We make a list of our favorite fictional characters with mullets.
I mention out loud feeling like I’m self-sabotaging myself by waiting until last minute to write something. He tells me about ripping up his own art work and taking canvases out to dumpsters. I tell him I have nothing to rip up.
He says to write about that, about thinking about something to write about.
“No,” I say. “That would be called a “meta post” and you’re not supposed to do that.”
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 4/29/14 12:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 4/29/14 08:11 pm (UTC)Thanks for reading and I'm glad you got what I was trying to say ^_^
no subject
Date: 4/29/14 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 4/29/14 08:15 pm (UTC)Thank you for commenting!
no subject
Date: 4/30/14 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 5/1/14 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 5/1/14 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 4/30/14 11:58 pm (UTC)One metaphor did strike me as a little off -- we as people certainly do often forget, or sometimes simply neglect, to think about what we're doing in light of what we're saying. Blindness doesn't really fit with that, since a blind person doesn't typically have the choice to start seeing things. Other than that, I thought this was really well-written. Not only can I identify, but there seems to be a sort of whimsy in writing about thinking about thinking about writing that appeals to me. :)
no subject
Date: 5/1/14 05:35 pm (UTC)If I were to rewrite this I might just put it "that we remain ignorant of" or try to figure out some other way to imply that we are choosing to be oblivious to "the say one thing while doing another" habit.
I'm glad you liked it and thank you for the crit!
no subject
Date: 5/1/14 06:07 pm (UTC)Hmm, "oblivious" is a noun, you could pop it into that sentence in place of "blind" and it would make sense without needing a longer phrase. Or use the "thesaurus" option in Word/Writer and pick your favorite synonym. (Be careful, though, I get lost clicking thesaurus words like it's Wikipedia!) :)
no subject
Date: 5/1/14 10:53 pm (UTC)Haha a totally a legitimate fear for the writerly inclined. I even have a dictionary extension on my web browser so that when I highlight any word the definition pops up in a little bubble above it. Don't even get me started on Wikipedia hee!
no subject
Date: 5/2/14 10:59 pm (UTC)