A Moan-day Analogy

By C.L. Beck
© 2007

Last week I told you about the mixed-up, goofball things that always seem to happen because it’s a Monday. In particular, there were gargantuan weeds, a weed-whacker that wouldn’t work, thorny roses that needed to be trimmed and a sprinkler valve box that flooded. I never even told you that my bad, bad dog, Corky Porky Pie, ran away in the midst of all of it. At the end of my tale of woe, I promised you an analogy to writing.

Actually, I promised you a pithy, Pulitzer Prize worthy analogy, but I’m hoping you forgot the pithy, prize-winning part and will just settle for an analogy.

G. Parker, a member of our blogging team, always signs her emails with the phrase, “Writing is life!” And if you think about it, the converse is true as well. Life is writing. A writer’s day is full of events that could become a sonnet, short story or a novel.

This leads me back to my pithy analogy—minus the pith.

If I choose, I could write about the roses from last week and compare the pain of trimming them to the pricks to our heart when we receive rejections. On a less personal theme, I could talk about how a story unfolds with the beauty of a rosebud in the morning sun.

Then there’s always the weed-whacker. How easy to compare trimming weeds to trimming the dead weight out of our writing. Or to give a reminder that those weed-eaters can get out of control and obliterate everything in their path. The analogy to writing? Always save your work so when you whack something you hadn’t intended, you can bring it back to life again. Unfortunately, I can't do that for my poor roses.

I could go on and compare the flooded valve box or the run away mutt to writing, but why not let you say a few words? Tell me the analogies that come to mind from last week’s blog, or an analogy that you thought of today. I’m sure that many have run through your mind. After all—writing is life and life is writing.

Books C.L. has enjoyed:
Life is Like Riding a Unicycle by Shirley Bahlmann
Publishing Secrets by LDS Storymakers (BJ Rowley and others)
Writing for Story: Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction by Jon Franklin
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Rennie Browne & Dave King
The Art of Photographing Nature by Martha Hill with photographs by Art Wolfe

View C.L.’s other work:
Newspaper Column
Photography Website
Life is Like Riding a Unicycle by Shirley Bahlmann (Story on pg. 70)