Mister Bump UK

Flustered

Clipart image of a girl writing

inspired by Fandango’s One Word Challenge (FOWC) of 8 March 2022, harried.

When I sat down this morn to narrate,
My man badgered me into a state,
But my subsequent haste,
Left me somewhat red-faced,
‘Cos I just ended up throwing down any old crap for the last line.

Prompt image for the Fandango One Word Challenge prompt

30 comments

        • Smoke and mirrors. The order in which you read everything is not, generally, the order it gets written. For that reason, writing a passable sonnet, quite a complex piece of poetry, is a doddle. Shakespearean in particular. They are so easy.
          Making something good, however, is a different matter.
          But it is the same with everything. Haiku, limericks, the works.

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          • Ahh but good is subjective because what I think is good you may find crap and what I struggle to read you may find brilliant speaking in general terms
            I write my title and build the post around the context of the title or something bothering me that I work out through the post ( ie Ukraine, self doubt, bullying, stress at work)

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            • It’s probably not so subjective, you know.
              A while ago I chatted to another WP user, we got onto the subject of our favourite blogs. You know, the few we make sure never to miss a post. Our lists were the same. I think good writing is good writing, no matter who the reader is.

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              • That’s very interesting and perhaps you both have common threads and similar tastes and povs too
                I enjoy a wide variety of blogs although as you can see I get behind in reading and commenting on them from time to time 😊

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                • we have similar tastes although we write very differently.

                  But there are all sorts of little pointers. Say someone writes a 100-word flash. I’ve written them, and there is contention for every single word, because you have so few to play with. When you come up with something, whatever else, it is really tight.

                  So you see a hundred-word flash, and straight away in the first sentence you see words used inefficiently. What are you supposed to think? I usually give up.

                  Another gotcha is the word “said”. There are a million different ways somebody can say something, and with a good choice of word, we can not just convey that they spoke, but how they spoke. Whisper, hiss, chide, blubb etc. “Said” just tells us that words came out of their mouth.

                  Same with something like “go”. Don’t just tell us they went, but how they went. There really are a few dozen words which should be avoided at all costs. My spellchecker is configured to flag them as spelling mistakes.

                  You know, good writing is good writing, the world over.

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                    • Probably. I certainly am. That’s why I use tools to tell me I fell into the trap, and I can fix it before anybody sees it. The only time these words are acceptable, reaslly, is in speech, because someone is going to talk directly, they’re not going to wander round the houses. But you know, all these “rules” could be written into a standard definition of good writing. You might not be able to teach a good plot, but you can certainly teach this technical stuff.

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