Everything Worth Saying Has Already Been Said

The Library of Congress in Washington, DC has 838 miles of bookshelves and over 30 million books. Thirty million. Actual physical paper printed with words. In the Old Library at Trinity College in Dublin, there are 200,000 books that date back hundreds of years or more. They can’t be opened because of their age and many of the authors are now long forgotten, but if you stand in the middle of the room and stare a while, it is easy to believe that every meaningful thought in history originated somewhere within those volumes. Until you read about the ancient Library of Alexandria in Egypt that was started in 200 BC, held 700,000 scrolls, and was around for six centuries.

It’s enough to make a person stop writing. I mean, have you ever gone into just a regular bookstore or city library and been overwhelmed by all of those stories? Have you thought to yourself, not only will no one person ever be able to read all those books in a lifetime, but what do I possibly have to add that hasn’t already been said? I certainly have. Continue reading “Everything Worth Saying Has Already Been Said”

Count the Clichés

She was a flaxen-haired beauty, cute as a button, and never missed a beat.

She was sharp as a tack, but on the other hand, she had those two left feet.

She took for granted that she’d grown up in a land of milk and honey.

She’d give it up in a New York minute, but not for love or money. Continue reading “Count the Clichés”

Sales Versus Selling Out

Give me moneyMy introduction to the realities of book sales came in junior high school. I was one of two finalists for a story contest in Language Arts class, and my competitor’s story was a literary masterpiece. I don’t remember the plot exactly, but her story involved an orange cat and the writing was so offbeat and lyrical and deep that I knew she had a special talent and deserved to win.

My story wasn’t even good enough to be considered ordinary in my own mind. But my characters were named after each student in the class, and I put the girls in situations with their guy crushes and made several of the jocks fall face-first into a pond, plus other giggle-inducing drivel. So when the class voted for the winner, I won by a landslide. Continue reading “Sales Versus Selling Out”

And: The Rule That Never Was

Every time I begin a sentence with “and”, a voice in my head sings, “You’re not supposed to do that.” I usually fix it and apologize internally to my ninth grade English teacher. So it pains me to admit that after hours of research, I could find no official rule against using a conjunction to start a sentence. Yes, there is a raging controversy about it, but here’s what’s not up for debate: If there is or ever was such a rule, it has a long history of being ignored. I pulled six books at random from my shelves and easily found the following examples. Continue reading “And: The Rule That Never Was”