“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” It’s one of those phrases that’s engraved upon my brain. I’ve probably said it a few times myself and immediately regretted it because it means I sound like my mother. That being said, the phrase is a helpful guide. It often keeps me from saying or writing things I might regret.*
Communications
When Words Are Both Too Much and Too Little
My status as a writer doesn’t mean that it’s easy for me to write. In fact, my ability to work with words sometimes makes the writing more complicated. It becomes encumbered with how I will say a thing and my responsibility to the words and to my audience. I find myself encountering the reality that words sometimes should not be said, that silence should be allowed to reign.
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Freelance Writers and Writing Coaches
I have the utmost respect for freelance writers. I’ve worked as a freelancer. I sometimes still do, but, lately, I’ve been contemplating how that role intersects with my role as a writing coach.
When I Write
When I write, I write for myself. At least, I write for a version of myself. I have an obsession with the idea of encounter and how I meet that other version of myself – possibly the one that’s unencumbered by over-thinking – during the course of that writing. I digress. My apologies. Let me begin again.
Off with Their Heads!
Some writers bear an uncanny resemblance to the Queen of Hearts. They’re illogical, absurd. If Lewis Carroll were to meet some of those writers, he might use his description of the Queen in reference to them. He says the Queen is a “blind fury.” She has no self-control. Every difficulty, no matter how great or trifling, is met with her well-known and oft-quoted phrase, “Off with their heads!”
The White Rabbit
Lewis Carroll describes the White Rabbit as being “elderly, timid, feeble, and nervously shilly-shallying.” The rabbit also is rude to anyone he deems inferior and grovels before those who are superior. He has no weight to him; he is all white fluff.