along with some comments on the world of a freelance editor
What It Is (posts below left; rate sheet, client list, other stuff below right)
My name is Bob Land. I am a full-time freelance editor and proofreader, and occasional indexer. This blog is my website.
You'll find my rate sheet and client list here, as well as musings on the life of a freelancer; editing, proofreading, and indexing concerns and issues; my ongoing battles with books and production; and the occasional personal revelation.
Really? Well, have you ever seen "Little Foxes?" Bette Davis's character allows her scheming estranged husband to die of a heart attack by withholding his heart medicine (presumably nitroglycerine, picture above.)
When one has a broken heart, the beloved's withholding his love is as devastating as someone witholding medicine from a physical ailment. "Heart on my sleeve" is the cliche.
I believe this haiku makes straightforward connections. Of course, Troll didn't get your haiku either. So maybe you and I are simply writers of more complex haiku in keeping with our soulful and sophisticated personas.
Fleur: "Soulful and sophisticated": applies to you and my next correspondent. Not me.
Moi: Well, if it's that obtuse, I guess I'm a loser this week.
Here is the story. The original puzzle question was, "Take a grid of 3 dots by 3 dots. Connect all 9 dots with 4 lines, without lifting the pencil off the paper."
Invariably, everyone tries to start at a dot and draw four lines to connect all the dots by staying within the parameter of the square. Can't be done.
The only way to connect all the dots with four lines without lifting the pencil is to draw outside the square, which doesn't occur to people that it's something they can do, even though there is no rule against it.
From this exercise/puzzle comes the phrase "thinking outside the box" -- to employ some ingenuity to solve a problem in a way people don't usually consider.
And my point is that people often use cliches without knowing what they mean, or that cliches might have some interior meaning that can be profound, before overuse rendered them banal.
D'oh——I get it now! Very, VERY clever! Just because something has to be explained, doesn't mean it's a loser. I was just foggy from barbecue and beer, most likely.
reading backwards on yore blog--the em dash?--I'se SO guilty. Mea culpa. However, I wonder iffin' that for BLOGs, use of a dash is more, ah, elastic. Seems to me that blogs lend theyselves to writin' as mimic of yakkin'--so, since we yak wif' dash mode speech, reckon it's OK to dash an' dot yore blog posts?
I has a deadline of tomorry noon fer a online 'zine (uh, paid-- not like them folks I 'coritated in mah recent post) an' I'se now hyper aware of mah dashes an' dots abuse. I better mend mah ways--reckon?
Read my comments on that entry, too. I have no problems with em dashes myself. I posted the piece not in agreement with the Slate writer but to see if anyone else had the same take.
I think of a line from a favorite book:
She: "Words don't seem to bother you."
He: "Only in certain combinations."
Em dashes are fine. My biggest writing problem is adverbs. If my prose never saw another adverb, I'd be much better off.
I am working on a book, though, about Jewish architecture after Auschwitz. Author is mildly fond of em dashes, but in one chapter uses ellipses instead. Jarring. I'm just indexing so I can't change anything, but I don't know where the copyeditor was on this one.
i remember this exercise - but it was the version aunty mentioned -the one where you cant lift your pencil. good haiku even without the image - esp the part of not knowing how cliches came to be. thats why this one is so good. well done!
13 comments:
Csar...that is GOOD! It sounds good when read aloud, too! Very elegant with the illustration, too.
Really? Well, have you ever seen "Little Foxes?" Bette Davis's character allows her scheming estranged husband to die of a heart attack by withholding his heart medicine (presumably nitroglycerine, picture above.)
When one has a broken heart, the beloved's withholding his love is as devastating as someone witholding medicine from a physical ailment. "Heart on my sleeve" is the cliche.
I believe this haiku makes straightforward connections. Of course, Troll didn't get your haiku either. So maybe you and I are simply writers of more complex haiku in keeping with our soulful and sophisticated personas.
I like the way it sounds even though I'm not sure I understand it fully, either, although I know it can't help but be anything but clever.
Fleur: "Soulful and sophisticated": applies to you and my next correspondent. Not me.
Moi: Well, if it's that obtuse, I guess I'm a loser this week.
Here is the story. The original puzzle question was, "Take a grid of 3 dots by 3 dots. Connect all 9 dots with 4 lines, without lifting the pencil off the paper."
Invariably, everyone tries to start at a dot and draw four lines to connect all the dots by staying within the parameter of the square. Can't be done.
The only way to connect all the dots with four lines without lifting the pencil is to draw outside the square, which doesn't occur to people that it's something they can do, even though there is no rule against it.
From this exercise/puzzle comes the phrase "thinking outside the box" -- to employ some ingenuity to solve a problem in a way people don't usually consider.
And my point is that people often use cliches without knowing what they mean, or that cliches might have some interior meaning that can be profound, before overuse rendered them banal.
Heh--very very clever, cause it is TWO cliches, one stated and one implied and made visual--"Think outside the box" and "Connect the dots."
BTW, that same puzzle has another method to connect the dots but in just three lines w/o lifting pencil--also requires outside the box thinkin.'
Everybody needs an Aunty who understands them. Bless you, Aunty.
D'oh——I get it now! Very, VERY clever! Just because something has to be explained, doesn't mean it's a loser. I was just foggy from barbecue and beer, most likely.
reading backwards on yore blog--the em dash?--I'se SO guilty. Mea culpa. However, I wonder iffin' that for BLOGs, use of a dash is more, ah, elastic. Seems to me that blogs lend theyselves to writin' as mimic of yakkin'--so, since we yak wif' dash mode speech, reckon it's OK to dash an' dot yore blog posts?
I has a deadline of tomorry noon fer a online 'zine (uh, paid-- not like them folks I 'coritated in mah recent post) an' I'se now hyper aware of mah dashes an' dots abuse. I better mend mah ways--reckon?
Aunty: Thanks for hunting around.
Read my comments on that entry, too. I have no problems with em dashes myself. I posted the piece not in agreement with the Slate writer but to see if anyone else had the same take.
I think of a line from a favorite book:
She: "Words don't seem to bother you."
He: "Only in certain combinations."
Em dashes are fine. My biggest writing problem is adverbs. If my prose never saw another adverb, I'd be much better off.
I am working on a book, though, about Jewish architecture after Auschwitz. Author is mildly fond of em dashes, but in one chapter uses ellipses instead. Jarring. I'm just indexing so I can't change anything, but I don't know where the copyeditor was on this one.
Moi: The B&B fog. I often make that one work on the first B alone.
i remember this exercise - but it was the version aunty mentioned -the one where you cant lift your pencil. good haiku even without the image - esp the part of not knowing how cliches came to be. thats why this one is so good. well done!
Chickory: Thanks. Love the visuals on yours. Is that your own work?
Your site is always so beautiful to look at.
Ooooh, very good haiku AND visuals. No one is going easy on me this week.
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