LJ Idol Week 7: No True Scotsman

[rswndrlst]

Thinking 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

Comments

[eternal_ot]

Could relate to your mental dilemma...the Writer's block and our love to procrastinate.. guilty of both(myself)..:)

[rswndrlst]

Yep it's such a struggle! Then I get into: well I should be writing everyday if I want to call myself a writer, right? or if it's not going to be epic and brilliant why bother? LJI has definitely helped me overcome some of my bad habits.

Thanks for reading and I'm glad you got what I was trying to say ^_^

[halfshellvenus]

:D There is nothing wrong with meta when it's done well. Some of the best entries I've read in Idol have been meta. I have one saved off in memories!

[rswndrlst]

Relieved to hear it's not a hard and fast rule that all meta posts aren't liked. It's been said in the green room that you can break every rule and still stay in the game so I hope this little piece is an example of well done meta ;)

Thank you for commenting!

[eska818]

Heh, I loved this. This is my number one problem with writing. XD

[rswndrlst]

Thank you and thank you so much for the rec!!

[eska818]

<3 you're welcome ^.^

[jem0000000]

This is indeed an example of good meta. :)

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. :)

[rswndrlst]

Oh that is such a good point. Because I go on to say that we could choose to see if we didn't lie to ourselves.

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!

[jem0000000]

You're welcome!

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!) :)

[rswndrlst]

Be careful, though, I get lost clicking thesaurus words like it's Wikipedia!

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!

LJ Idol Rec List.

[livejournal]

User eska818 referenced to your post from LJ Idol Rec List. saying: [...] On being Nothing. HERE [...]