Shouts From Down Under

Electrolytes make Lots' pillars of the earth

Novelists, rain and Lot's wife.

I've come to a startling conclusion. One that is oh so surprising. So new. So...original.

Ok. No it's not really. It's quite obvious, but I do wonder how important we think it is, and if I need reminding about it while editing my novel.

As we write the story, we must be as immersed in it ourselves, as we want our readers.

We must have an excited feeling as we manipulate the sentences, the paragraphs, replace words and fiddle punctuation until it's like teeth on a cog. Yes! Slipping into place with a certainty that brings out goosebumps.

It HAS to be like this, if we are serious about the effect on others.
I've had that feeling with both of my novels. Some parts of it I've had to revisit to push parts of it, sections improved until those weak spots feel that surge of "rightness".

Do you know about this feeling as you watch a movie? As you see a boxing match? As you attend a flower show, custom hot rod meet, healthfood workshop, knitting group, African safari.

It's the feeling you have, when you experience immersion in whatever it is that has been crafted, and there comes an importance, priority, with it, "cool", cutting edge, trendy, I'm da man, unputdownable, must read, must keep reading, newsworthy, tough, everyone has noticed this, spellbound, total gotcha thing about it.

We had some rain here.

Just a storm, but very welcome after 2 years with none. But we need more. Lots more. Lots.

Lot's wife. She turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back at Sodom and Gomorrah after being told not to look back. This is an example of being captivated by regrets, or wanting stuff in your past that has been and will be demonstrated clearly to be unhealthy for your future endeavors.

If you add to this image of Lot's wife being a such a svelte - or solid - Sodium Chloride spouse, then the situation would seem so much more serious if she suddenly sustained a shower of solution that would melt her form until it was dissolved away, watered down into something unpalatable, something no one would notice or take seriously anymore, and eventually lose all sense of personality and purpose.
Eventually she would disappear altogether.

And that's just what did happen. I mean, there's no pillar there now, is there? It must have rained at some point, even if it was a desert climate.

If we are writing watered down narrative, with drivel for dialogue, soluble solution for syntax, slobber for sentence structure and pale poppycock for paragraphs then the same fate as Lot's wife will befall our novels.

We'll turn invisible and weep salty tears and know the feeling of even a refreshing shower being unable to quench the thirst of our unfulfilled life dream.

But that's not what we'll do will we? Oh no! We'll make sure that what we write will titivate, tantalise and terrorize our readers into enjoyable oblivion.

Better them than us, that's what I say. Better that they bear the brunt of our passionate unloading than we fall through the cracks of failure.

Water.

Word Origin & History
water O.E. wæter, from P.Gmc. *watar (cf. O.S. watar, O.Fris. wetir, Du. water, O.H.G. wazzar, Ger. Wasser, O.N. vatn, Goth. wato "water"), from PIE *wodor/*wedor/*uder-, from root *wed- (cf. Hittite watar, Skt. udnah, Gk. hydor, O.C.S., Rus. voda, Lith. vanduo, O.Prus. wundan, Gael. uisge "water;" L. unda "wave"). Linguists believe PIE had two root words for water: *ap- and *wed-. The first (preserved in Skt. apah) was "animate," referring to water as a living force; the latter referred to it as an inanimate substance. The same was probably true of fire (n.). To keep (one's) head above water in the fig. sense is recorded from 1742. Water cooler is recorded from 1846; water polo from 1884; water torture from 1928. First record of water-closet is from 1755. Water-ice as a confection is from 1818. Watering-place is 1440, of animals, 1757, of persons. Water-lily first attested 1549. Waterfront is attested from 1856.

Information courtesy of www.dictionary.com (The Thesaurus feature of this site is most helpful. I use it all the time)

Sparky