Sing for poetry!

2 Words Forward

Singalong!

I was inspired by this article to look again at the place of music in the writing process. It's not the first time I've done it - one of my first short stories was written with my ipod on shuffle and the rule that I had to include something from each song in the text (The storyline was based on the first two songs I heard - Elvis Costello's 'Poor Fractured Atlas' and REM's 'Talk About The Passion'). In more recent times music has taken a bit of a back seat to my writing - I drive better now that I have a better idea of how to write and a better understanding of my plot-line at the outset. Yet, music is and I believe will always be a great way to kick yourself out of a rut. Stuck for the next twist? Put on music and mull on the ideas that come with the songs. Need a character name? Behind every song is a musician and some songs even have central characters. There's always a place for music and writing to coexist. What are we writing but a spoken song? What are they singing but a story?

1 Word Back

The poetry of language

I also came across this article (thanks to Ray Duell for posting it on facebook). Go ahead, read it. It will probably take some time as it's long and built to trip you up. I'll just go make a cuppa and come back when you're done ...
Done? Good.
Don't you hate the English language right now? How could it be so cruel as to spell the same sounds in so many different ways or to spell different sounds the same?
So, on behalf of the entire English speaking world I'm sorry. I'm sorry to everyone who tries to learn this as their second language because there is so much of it that doesn't make sense. I'm sorry to anyone trying to teach it because the rules have so many exceptions they can barely be called rules at all. I'm sorry to anyone whose first language is English and are trying to learn a second language: many of our rules don't apply anywhere else so you probably have the worst possible foundation for learning another language. I'm sorry to all of my fellow editors - I know how hard it is to remember all of those little twists and turns of our language and how many hours you spend sifting them out of a large document.
World, I'm just sorry about the whole thing. It's beautiful and magical but it's illogical and screwed up. Anyone for Esperanto?