I allowed myself the luxury of rolling over at 6 a.m. instead of 'feet on the floor' rituals, found NPR on my little Christmas present radio, and just drifted for a while. I had a great thought for this blog - profound, robust, fascinating - and then a woman named Cornwall read a short story by Alice Hoffman titled "Burden of Proof".Ms. Corwall can read. Ms.Hoffman can write. Really write. You know it from the names. Margot, the central character, Franny her sister, Mike the hardware store owner, even Eddie Ricketts the handyman on the business card.
The subject was profound (it is after thinking about it while making the coffee), and the story highly improbable. There is no plot, no deus ex mechina, no Twilight Zone resolve. None of that. Just a wonderful tumble of words.
I like to write and will until I can't (coming soon to a theater near you by the way). After listening to every well chosen word, I've decided, or it was decided for me, that this is 'paint by numbers' here and the real stuff is made elsewhere.
A slap of reality hurts a bit but it is always good to have someone say "That's very nice but don't you mean to write like this"?