Today is the last day to join, so if you want in on it, be sure to read over the rules and PM Shakespearicles!pleasant mornings · 6:38pm Mar 20th, 2018
So my kitchen smells like a farm field. This was entirely by accident as my poor little fern, which has stuck with me close to 2 years now, was yellowing, and I wanted to give it new soil. I grabbed a bag of fertilizer (made from a combo of animal and plant sources) carefully pulled the plant out of its teeny tiny pot into a bigger container... And then proceeded to just dump the fertilizer in there like it were sugar for a massive wedding cake. No new soil mixed in, nada. It wasn't until I'd poured water all over it that I bothered to read the instructions, and there you go. Too much fertilizer = farm field smell.
It's not wholly unpleasant, but it certainly was a bit distracting as I enjoyed my morning coffee.
With this outdoorsy scent, I spent the rest of my morning listening to my favorite podcasts and doing really, really, really bad still-life drawings. I was hoping the enlightened conversations (of other people) and my 'connecting' with the right side of my brain might assist me in my writing goals for today.
I have two new drafts for a certain special story that I'm trying to edit and punch up. Honestly, sometimes I think my writing needs fertilizer... if... if that makes any sense. (Which it probably doesn't.) At this point in my writing skills, the thing I struggle with most isn't line-editing (there's people and programs that can make up for my shortcomings, after all.) But to make a story have that zing... y'know? To turn:
Jack walked down the street.
Into
Jack ambled down Maple Syrup Lane with the sun warming his back and the wind protesting his progress as it blew aggressively the opposite way.
Or even just:
Judy was sad.
to
Judy was feeling winter.
Essentially what Stephen King and Gillian Flynn manage to do on almost every page. I really dig the lyrical style, but I have to fight hard for it still. You know how much progress I managed the other day? A page an hour. One page... per... hour. I am so sick of reading the same lines, it's making my eyes cross. If (on Google Docs) every page can hold about 500 words with paragraph spacing, that means... I'm spending approximately around 8.333333- (yeeeah that just keeps going) minutes per word just agonizing over style!
I think this post got away from me, but what I was trying to maintain here was a theme about seeking out enrichment. And that sometimes I think I fuck it up.
...I think I fucked this up.
Anyway, talk later. Hope ya'll have a good day.
Hope ya have a good day too.
Be careful with the fertilizer, we poisoned a citronella with it
4821150
Uh oh! Geez I'd be really sad if my fern died... I remember when I first got it. It had such a beautiful shade of green.
I'll try to get the fertilizer-soil ratio correct ASAP. Thanks for the warning!
4821246
It also depends on the type of fertilizer, whether nitrile or phosphor
You know, I decided to reread from the beginning before catching up with the newest chapters, and after reading this blog I decided to keep an eye out for elements of your particular style that I enjoy. And I have to say, I really like the use of short, basic sentences, like in this paragraph:
It may not be that flowery or overly poetic, but I've always found it more effective and enjoyable to read, personally. I mean, obviously you don't want to write the whole thing like that, but it's just something about your style I like.
4821505
Aw thanks! Brief sentences was something I started doing early. I think I picked it up from another fanfic author.
Anyway, I appreciate the encouragement!