(Read acronyms as letters)
Fragrant cup of joe,
Gluing BIC.
Click! Blank screen, new doc.
What's it going to be?
Right brain dazzle.
MG? or YA?
A coming-of-age?
Catch reader with hook
On perfect first page.
Think plot and sub-plots,
Characterization,
Which POV best?
Oh, botheration!
Right brain frazzle.
Shift gears and decide
It's a PB day.
Concise, with fewer
Ideas to convey.
Right brain dazzle.
Thirty-two pages,
The plot must evolve
Into a problem
The child needs to solve.
Lyrical language,
Or humorous rhyme
With perfect meter
That scans every time!
Right brain frazzle.
THE LESSON?
If you think too long
About perfection,
You'll dwell in a hell
Of stalled dejection.
First draft? Pound those keys
And let the words flow.
If some are pure crap,
For now, let them go.
Does this work for you, or not?
How soon do you itch to revise?
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Lesson for a Brainstorming Morning
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Awesome, Gale!
ReplyDeleteSo true!
ReplyDeleteThat's what I like about first drafts--they don't have to prove anything.
ReplyDeleteGale
ReplyDeleteWOW !
(Women Own Writing !)
You must be a woman who owns writing since you have such a command on language, style and humor!
Eileen
Love it, Gale! But I bet it wasn't a first draft. Come on, fess up.
ReplyDeleteAs my old writing teach used to say about first drafts... just keep going. Most fixes are second-draft stuff.
Favorite line -- oh, botheration!
ReplyDeleteI'm blowing it up, printing it out, and putting it above my computer.
At least when I feel it, it will make me laugh.
Thanks.
Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI agree with JA about "Oh, botheration". It's an updated version of Winnie-the-Pooh's, "Oh, bother".
ReplyDeleteNo, Janice, this posted poem is not a first draft - many hours in the writing, but I love to wrestle with words, meter, and rhyme.
ReplyDeleteThanks to all for the compliments, virtual smiles, and nods of agreement.
So back to this morning's first draft, a retelling of The North Wind and the Sun, an Aesop fable.
Sorry, J. L., I slipped a cog in the naming game.
ReplyDeleteNo problem, G.S. It was only a first-draft comment anyway. ;-P
ReplyDelete