Writing From the Gut: A Response

Terry Elliott recently honored my Quicksand post with annotations on Genius. And when I say annotations, I mean annotations as only Terry can - GIFs, photos, technical grammar explications, questions, praise and all manner of goodness.

This is my relatively "quicks"-"and" response.

Quicks.
And.

• I write from the gut.  I had no idea that what I was doing in my first few lines had a name (aposiopesis).  My intentions were exactly as Terry posited, but my writing is more stream-of-consciousness than conscious.  

     [How in the world does Terry know all of these technical terms? His brain must be humongous; I would have to see it writ large to even begin to conceptualize how it can hold and organize so many details.]

• I do only two things very purposefully when I write.  The first is to write as succinctly as possible.  I hate to read belabored points, and I try hard not to impose them on anyone who honors me by reading my words.

      **I use as few words as possible.**

• The second thing I purposefully do is to try to say things--either...

In unexpected ways, or 
In a different way than they have been said before.

      [Years ago, when I taught my daughter to write poetry (she might have been 5 or 6), I told her that she should use words in ways that no one else has, and she still remembers that conversation to this day, at age 26.]

• I teach middle school. This leaves me little time to revel in writing and interact with my PLN online the way I would like to.  It's a bit like watching your friends play and laugh outside while you are inside doing homework - simultaneously frustrating and entertaining. 

[Right now, I am stealing moments at work, a tiny rebellion but also a sweet breeze through my (cinder block) metaphorical window.]

To perfect this...

...there's no time.

~~I am humbled by the fact that anyone reads what I write.  I try to honor that by writing to the best of my ability, not wasting my readers' time, and attempting to make people think or laugh or question.

Terry has helped me become a better thinker and writer. And all of you make me better.

Thank you for reading.