if it quirks..

An excerpt from the movie Amelie

“Mado my dear, your absence gets more painful every day.

I’m in exile in a grey world. I can’t sleep, I can’t eat.”

“I made the biggest mistake by accepting this training course

” that will keep me away from my wife for weeks.

I think of you all the time. Your Adrien.”

“I gave up the money of my last commission

” in order to make up for resigning so abruptly.

“I catch myself dreaming of better days.

“Orange days. Do you remember, Madeleine my love ?

Your Adrien who’s always loved you so much.”

“Good news. I’ll soon be able to afford a car.

“That way I’ll be able to come home every day.

“In the meantime, I hope you’ll come over Friday night

and that we’ll go out, the two of us.”

—

I felt bored.

Even though I have a book to read, which I read a chapter of…I didn’t want to continue reading. It was even at the really good part – the END!

I had a nap, but I was still bored.

I watched him play Zelda…still bored.

I needed some inspiration to write because my brain was mushy.

So, where could I turn?

That’s right.

The good ol’ interwebs.

This place is infinite and boundless.

I did a generic search – “find something random”

And what should pop up, but this website. 💎

Trust me…it’s worth it. Way better than social media black holes and much more surprising, in a good way.

When you are a writer, whether it is copywriting or technical writing or freelancing, one of the things you will deal with is criticism.

Everybody else can write it better.

Everybody else is a better writer.

Everybody is a critic.

—

If you are a copywriter, you write content for marketing purposes.  You write words that sell.  That’s your job.  So, criticism is expected from your clients and even welcomed.  Clients are, after all, paying you to write for them.  The work should be producing results.

Most clients will give you feedback that is helpful and even worth you knowing.  You catalog that in your list of facts to know about the client and build upon it for your next piece of work for them.  That is fine and dandy.  That is valuable critique.

HOWEVER, there is always that one client who is never satisfied; who can write it better; who is, apparently, a writer themselves.

But the problem is they are not.

They think that they make the copy better or they add way too much where it’s unnecessary and harmful to the conversion of the piece.  Or their grammar is a nightmare and a half.

Once you get their corrections back, it is nothing close to what you initially wrote.  Gah, they wrote an essay when this is an email newsletter.

These are the people who do not actually understand writing for marketing purposes.  Yet, they may be extremely knowledgeable about the topic or the product.  They can be a great source for input and inspiration, but not so much for the writing.  Or they are simply a smidge big headed.  Perhaps a combination of the two.

What’s a writer to do?

Copywriting is tricky.  You really can’t tell your client, “Thanks, but no thanks for this mumbo-jumbo.  Now, I have to start from the top again.”

Instead, you receive their email titled “Feedback” or “Corrections” and you cringe.  You know it is only a mountain of redundancy you will have to fix.  You know it is only back-tracking.  To put it bluntly, it is wasted time, effort and productivity.

You go to your coordinator or boss and ask them to politely mention to the client in the next meeting that you recommend doing XYZ for the [insert name] project.  Or you make little comments in the text with your input and “advise” this or that.

Then, you huff about it out loud to your computer screen and cry to your co-workers.

These are the types of clients who make you wonder why you write at all.  Why did I even try on this piece? 

But here’s the thing.  As a writer, you have to be grateful for those annoying hits at the end of the day.  Honestly, every kind of feedback can make you a better writer.  Also, it helps you to understand your craft better and to learn how to deal with customers or clients with unreasonable expectations.

Besides, that customer is the one paying for your services.  All you can do is suggest and let them know you are trying to help them be successful.  If they are not big enough to take your recommendations or they are too proud of their own “expertise” to take feedback themselves, then it is their loss.  At the end of the day, they paid you to do your job.  You did your job.  If the content does not achieve it’s goals, then you can say (in your head, of course), “Told you so.”

—

A peanut gallery is annoying and frustrating, but they will help you grow.  Focus on your craft and be the writer.

Breathe.  Remind yourself not everybody is a writer, even when they think they are.  But let them have their moment.  Roll your eyes and just keep writing.

I am not the only one who finds popping pimples satisfying.

Some people like watching paint slide evenly in glossy ribbons of smooth color to coat a surface and dry in one complete glass-like sheen.  That is satisfying; I’ll give you that.

Some prefer perfect florets of icing precisely blooming on the top of a dozen or more cupcakes like a perfectly cloned meadow.  That is sweet.

But pimples. Ugh. There is something so incredibly and inexplicably satisfying about popping them, about seeing them popped, about feeling the insides extinguish from exhausted skin; I could go on.

I love once it’s out to marvel that such a small bit of nasty caused such havoc on my skin. My skin literally threw a fit and went haywire over this small granular dirt or oil or whatever.

I even like getting pimples out of other people – namely my husband.  He doesn’t understand my fascination.  The problem with him is that his pain threshold is literally 0.  He whines and moans when I have to “use my nails”.  He will wait to let the pimples get nasty, white and raised.  Even then, I have to remind him to take care of them in the shower.  He complains when his pimples bleed after being extracted.

What do I think of that?

Cowardice.

I would like to tell him to get over himself.  I would like to say try bleeding from between your legs once a month and balling up in the fetal position.  Try giving birth.  Try having people bombard you with new products to enhance or un-enhance certain aspects of your body.  But that would be feminist and nagging.  So I hold my tongue.

Back to pimple popping.

It’s amazing.

It’s incredible how wonderful it feels to get that gunk out of your skin.  It’s like a release.  Your skin can breathe again.  You don’t feel dirty or painful pricks when the skin is touched or brushed against.  Pimples are brutally painful if left to themselves.  And they like to spread, which is why I think it’s important to get them out of your skin.

But I think my real satisfaction comes from removing something that is not supposed to be there.  Something that isn’t actually part of me – that is causing pain and malformation.  Also, I just don’t feel clean with pimples.  They gross me out.  Maybe there’s something to analyze here.  I’m sure there’s a therapist out there who would love to psycho-analyze me or anyone else who takes literal joy in removing pimples.

Yes, I actively look for them to remove them.  And oh the pinch can smart, but the squeeze and juicy outpouring of skin garbage is …

…

S O  S A T I S F Y I N G

Eyes wide open

Groggy, groggy, groggy

Yawn

Stretch, stretch…..S T R E T C H

And I rub my eye

And I rub my chin

Then the mirror puts things into perspective

It’s like zoning in on a target

I can’t take my eyes off of it

“Neither will others”, says my interior.

White. Bulbous. Swollen. Inflamed.

Right there underneath my nose – that cliff in the middle of my facial landscape

Just above my lip – that canyon where all things flow

I flinch because I know it’s gonna sting

That space between the cliff and the canyon is so delicate and tender –

soft turf that pains one to trample on

It has to go – S Q U A R E D  S H O U L D E R S

Now, I am awake. Wide awake and ready to go into action.

Into battle.

My weapons?

Two crescent scythes attached to my fingers – those excavators of my world

Here comes the first charge

S Q U E E Z E –

 

 

 

I dream in pink and red
Pink like your gums and the 
palms of your hands. 

Red like your tongue-popsicle 
stained-Red like the blood just 
protected by a few skin cell layers; 
red like cheeks and rashes on babies' cheeks

I dream in yellow, and I am 
restless because light keeps 
me awake. 

I dream in shades of blue 
with turquoise jungle drops.  I imagine 
that shooting an arrow like an 
Amazon is most likely a dream. 

I dream in black, and I know
it's a good dream because I 
have no recollection of it.

 

 

 

“To know things, for us to know things, is bad for them. We get to wanting and when we get to wanting it’s bad for them. They thinks we want what they got . . . . That’s why they don’t want us reading.”
― Gary Paulsen, Nightjohn

In the book “Nightjohn”, an escaped slave, Nightjohn, teaches a young girl, Sarny, to read and write.  The story not only highlights the harrowing story of slavery in America, but it takes a stance on the importance of literacy.  Nightjohn teaches Sarny something that her white master would never want her to know.  Nightjohn gives Sarny the ability to learn and to know.  When she does, she has power.  Reading is empowering.  Writing is empowering.  The book Nightjohn is a testament to that.  Yet, this power seems to be a lost skill in our culture.

But why do we live in a society that turns its nose to reading? Why is there a deficit in our society of reading and writing?  Why don’t kids want to read?  Trust me, I know.  I am an English teacher in a 6th and 7th grade classroom.  On the daily, I hear kids say, “I hate reading”.  Why don’t people want to learn to read, I wonder to myself. I marvel at the number of kids who spend their time staring at their screens and taking selfies of themselves.  They can barely see past their own self.  How are they supposed to relate to others?

When I think about reading, it makes me thankful for the gift we have as humans.  It is one of the things that sets us apart from the rest of the birds and beasts.  Another point is that reading and writing are skills that help me to learn and to know.  People can share ideas and opportunities through reading and writing.  Change occurs; movements sweep nations; people rise up.

For example, in the 1500s, the world was very different.  The common person was unable to read or write.  Usually, the people who were reading and writing were the monks in the remote monasteries carefully copying down the Bible.  Mass was said in Latin, and there were no hymnals.  People simply listened to the scriptures.  There were no other books, but the Bible available to the people living in Europe at that time.  The lords, nobles, kings, and church officials of the time were able to control the population easily in this way.  When everyone is being told that they will be taken care of and this is what the book says, etc, well there is no way for anyone to deny it.  People were easily ruled because of the lack of literacy.  ENTER THE PRINTING PRESS AND MODERN LANGUAGE!

People started to develop their own languages and to record them.  Monks in monasteries began to print bibles in the vernacular of the people from their region.  The people started to print materials other than the Bible.  A young German monk named Martin Luther was one of those people.  He was studying the bible and translating it from Latin to German.  As he translated it, he realized that there were things written in the Bible that did not match up with the teachings at the time of the Catholic Church.  Luther was enraged at the corruption and the lack of piety from the church officials.  He composed and posted his 95 Theses, which he famously tacked to the Wittenburg Castle church.  Luther had started a movement — the Protestant Revolution.

Whether you agree or disagree with what happened after Luther posted his 95 Theses, the point is that he did something magnificent in questioning the status quo.  He was able to spread the word quickly because of writing!  The ideas that he posted caught fire throughout Europe.  He shared ideas.  The ability to read and write was so integrative to moving society forward out of the dark ages – out of oppression.

Literacy is essential to the survival of our free world.  If you can read, you can do anything.  I tell my students that all the time.  I tell them that reading is the most important thing that they can learn.  Think about it. It doesn’t matter if you are interested in other subjects – you have to be able to read to understand them.  You must read to understand science, math, history, art, music, politics, computers, and so on.

Literacy allows people to communicate, to share, to connect, and to form their own opinion.  But above all, it keeps us informed –informed about whatever we are interested in.  Nobody can own you or hold you down and tell you what is what until you can verify it yourself. Be literate.  Be free.

 

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