04 June 2010

Procrastination and Dr. Suess

Latest Session

I was perusing my quotes again today. (Instead of writing.)

And rearranging and fixing the fonts. (Instead of writing.)

Because since getting a new-to-me computer, the fonts are far more updated, text boxes actually work and this process of "organizing" quotes, obviously, is completely necessary. (Instead of writing.) Or I risk laying awake in bed tonight while the morning hours creep in thinking to myself, "Is W. Somerset Maugham more of a green font sort of fella or maroon?" Or, "Is Veranda exciting enough to highlight a fine piece of Jane Austen's wisdom?"

Really.

I am so not joking about this.

I think I might need an actual psychiatrist, an actual therapy couch and an actual session on it.

Nonetheless, instead of writing, I decided to post a few of my favorites, though the fanciful fonts are not supported here, so I have had to make do.

Though think of me when I am not sleeping later tonight.

T
 _____________

“Hold on," Lula said, pulling a red flowered scarf from her coat pocket, tying the scarf on Harp's foot like a flag. "Don't want to get a ticket. I hear police are real picky about having things sticking out of your trunk."
Janet Evanovich, "Three to Get Deadly"


The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't. ~Douglas Adams

from William Safire's "Great Rules of Writing":
Do not
put statements in the negative form.
And don't start sentences with a conjunction.
If you reread your work, you will find on rereading that a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
Unqualified superlatives are the worst of all.
De-accession euphemisms.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Last, but not least, avoid cliches like the plague. 


“You said I killed you - haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” ~Emily Bronte (Heathcliff on Catherine’s death) "Wuthering Heights"

"We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper, it would be impossible for us to publish any work of lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that in the next thousand years we shall see its equal, we are, to our regret, compelled to return your divine composition, and to beg you a thousand times to overlook our short sight and timidity."—a rejection from a Chinese economic journal


Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. Dr. Seuss

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