Search where?

This Portfolio (beholden)

All of Writing.Com

◄ July ► 2022
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31
Archive				RSS

Create New Item

Read & Review

Community

Browse By Type

Browse By Genre

Writing Resources

Friday, May. 17, 2024

11:39pm EDT

Members: 878

Guests: 1,539

Total Online: 2,417

Toe in the Water

by Beholden

Rated: 13+ · Book · Experience · #2223922

A tentative blog to test the temperature.

Ten years ago I was writing several blogs on various subjects - F1 motor racing, Music, Classic Cars, Great Romances and, most crushingly, a personal journal that included my thoughts on America, memories of England and Africa, opinion, humour, writing and anything else that occurred. It all became too much (I was attempting to update the journal every day) and I collapsed, exhausted and thoroughly disillusioned in the end.

So this blog is indeed a Toe in the Water, a place to document my thoughts in and on WdC but with a determination not to get sucked into the blog whirlpool ever again. Here's hoping.

Signature for those who are nominated for a Quill Award in 2021

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Simply Me

a day ago
In response to "The Way of the World"

I hear you there. They say the grass is greener....too and it's not. lol

1 Like

Beholden

May 15, 2024 at 6:35pm
In response to "Being Consistently Inconsistent"

Not rude at all, Amethyst. The truth may hurt sometimes but it's never rude. And you're especially right that we learn from everyone that we read, even if we're not aware of it.

1 Like

Amethyst Angel🌸📝🪽

May 15, 2024 at 6:28pm
In response to "Being Consistently Inconsistent"

I have no idea about my style… mostly I strive for class and decency. For instance, if a story I found had a lot of swearing in it or was obviously “X-rated”, I wonder who the algorithms would identify it as resembling. Short of such obvious turn-offs, I look for the same level of awareness of the importance of subtle word choices and descriptions in the works of others that I do in my own. For instance, I see you, Beholden, and our friend Jack Tyler, as being on the same level of dignified writing, saying what needs to be said, even if it’s gritty, in the most tolerable way possible. Joey (dare I say it aloud?) is in a separate category entirely. He’s a dear helpful soul who wouldn’t purposely offend anyone, but his love for tapping into the most visceral sides of human emotions, right down to the snot on one’s tear-stained sleeve, can get on my nerves. And when he writes in the Dickensian era, his language becomes nearly Elizabethan, which I thought seemed exaggerated. But one can learn from every style of writing. And I hope I haven’t been rude.

Beholden

May 15, 2024 at 6:06pm
In response to "Being Consistently Inconsistent"

That's the interesting thing - I've never been able to see that I have a style and I wonder whether any of us can. It may be that we're too involved with what we write to be able to step back and view it completely dispassionately.

In the end, I just do what I do and I suspect everyone else does their thing as well.

2 Like

Jayne

May 15, 2024 at 6:00pm
In response to "Being Consistently Inconsistent"

I assure you that you have a distinct voice. I can (almost) always tell a piece you've written without even looking at the name attached to it.

Sometimes, I can pick out an influence insofar as "that is reminiscent of [fill in the writer]" but never "Oh, that's clearly an attempt at [fill in the writer]."

Steven's is probably consistent enough to skew King. That doesn't surprise me.

For those of us who dabble in all the things, the prediction machine will no doubt bounce around.

1 Like

Beholden

May 1, 2024 at 12:36pm
In response to "After the Game is Over"

You're right - I think we all slept an extra hour this morning. Harnessing the energy - I like that idea. Makes a change to have something to harness after all!

Jayne

May 1, 2024 at 12:28pm
In response to "After the Game is Over"

I agree with the habit thing (and the YouTube & breakfast). I was getting more done in a day before lunchtime than I was in entire *months* before GoT.

...now to find a way to harness said energy. Your strategies seem like a good place to start.

Although, I slept in this morning. I figured I earned an extra few hours for one day lol. We all did.

1 Like

Schnujo is Late to Lannister

Apr 25, 2024 at 7:55pm
In response to "Cliché"

Agreed! I hope everyone congratulated whoever came up with that idea for the episode!

1 Like

Beholden

Apr 25, 2024 at 7:35pm
In response to "Cliché"

Thank you for your kind thoughts, Schnujo. I remember that episode of Star Trek! It was really cool - and hard to get one's head around the idea of talking like that. But it did sound quite poetic. What was it ? Something like in the far land of Angevin, Mortello meets the grivensor. And so on. Brilliant!

1 Like

Schnujo is Late to Lannister

Apr 25, 2024 at 7:03pm
In response to "Cliché"

I love how you look at cliches! Good for you! I agree that they have their place and can be used, so long as we are aware of what we are doing and are specifically using them with the knowledge and understanding that they are cliches.

This entry reminds me of an episode of Star Trek (The Next Generation, I think it was) where they were trying to learn to communicate with a new species. If I recall, they could understand the words (through a translator), but not the meaning until they hit upon the idea that they were speaking in local cultural context, basically using cliches.

I've always remembered that episode and thought that was a fun idea.

BTW, you are a REALLY impressive poet! I don't think I knew that. That's a pretty fabulous poem! Well done!!

Thank you for sharing your own ideas on cliches!

July 19, 2022 at 9:56pm

#1035460

Thoughts in the Waiting Room

Thoughts in the Waiting Room

In the last couple of years or so, i have been vaguely concerned at the state of my memory. It’s never been brilliant, understand, but lately it seems to forget words more often than I find comfortable. You might have noticed that I know and use quite a lot of them. So this growing disappearance of the exact word at inconvenient moments is not only frustrating but also slightly worrying.

Is this the first sign of the ultimate decay of the old brain, I wonder. But it’s not really a matter of failing memory - it’s an instant and temporary thing. Very often it’s when I’m writing and I know the precise word that will fit the sentence when I get there. And, when I arrive and reach for the word, it’s gone. I know it was there seconds ago but now there’s no trace of it - poof, gone like the morning mist in the heat of the summer sun.

It’s annoying, to say the least. But I won’t just think of a substitute that means approximately the same. I have to use the word already chosen. Usually I define the word to Andrea and she runs through all the ones I’ve thought of until she hits the right one. And I know it as soon as I hear it, of course.

Sometimes Andrea isn’t immediately available and I have to sit and wrestle with the brain to squeeze the information out of it. It works occasionally and I shout out the word in relief. Which can be a bit disconcerting for anyone in earshot. But heck, I’m an old fart now and expected to be a little eccentric.

My worries about this apparent omen of decay in the noggin region was somewhat lessened in the last few days. There seemed to be a spate of old heroes from the past appearing on television and, watching them, I realised that I wasn’t so bad after all. Some of them look properly decrepit now and they all have lost those strong voices I remember from my youth.

There are reasons, of course. My generation had some pretty heady times in our early days and we weren’t too careful about recommended maintenance of the body. It’s really a wonder that so many of us have lasted this long at all. And I am definitely doing better than I really deserve.

So enough of this depressing concern for the future. Now that I think of it, I realise that I’ve always had this tendency to forget the exact word at the precise moment I need it. The instances are a bit more frequent these days but the brain still functions well enough. And I can think of five or six acceptable substitutes in a moment.

Not that I’d use ‘em, of course. Not on your sweet bippy (whatever that means).

Word count: 476

5 Like • Comment • View 10 comments

Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/profile/blog/beholden/day/7-19-2022