No, not a post about swearing, though it has been tempting today. It’s the Stephen King, or Ray Bradbury quote about having to write a million bad words before you can get to the good stuff. I just checked. I’ve written just over 1,200,000 words, To be fair, they probably mean a million considered words, rather than a million knocked out on WordPress and then posted with typos, repetition and little concern for quality. I am going to call it a good start and stop procrastinating. It’s time to get serious. However, that’s for tomorrow.
Of course, I had to waste time by checking the source of the million word idea, though the various writers may all hve come up with it individually. David Eddings, Jerry Pournelle, John D. McDonald and Marion Zimmer Bradley have all said something similar. The link takes, you to an article about it, in case you have time to waste. Stephen king isn’t mentioned in the article, he crops up on the internet. He’s a sort of modern Churchill or Oscar Wilde. People just love attributing quotes on writing to Stephen King.
Most of today has been taken up with writing to banks and building societies and the Land Registry. It should be a simple enough job. Experience suggests it isn’t going to be as simple as I think. It never is.
The University of Wolverhampton has already written back, they want to see my Diploma to prove I have the qualification I claim. Apart from the annoyance that they have basically accused me of being a liar, and that they didn’t ask me before I applied, we have the problem of remembering where I had it last. I remember it being in a board backed envelope and I remember saying “I’d better put that somewhere safe.” I just don’t remember where I put it. To make things worse, they have only given me seven days to send it. I’m beginning to think that they don’t want me. I’m also beginning to think that, seeing as I have told them I merely want to establish that my educational credentials will suffice at this point, and am in the middle of moving house, that they don’t read things you send them.
My Orange Parker Pen
Putting things in a safe place is a very dangerous thing to do. Even more dangerous is (when one has eventually found the thing in its safe place) deciding on a better place for it and believing it is a more memorable hidey-hole. I hope you find the diploma in time.
I have twelve months, as I don’t intend starting until we have completed the move. Still annoying though. Completely exhausted my ideas and am going to sleep on it. 🙂
That last remark is almost certainly true.
🙂
Keeping old records of any kind has proven useful to me over the years. One never knows what one will be asked for.
True, and I do keep them. I just don’t always remember where I keep them. 🙂
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Good luck!
You have made me wonder how many words I have written, bad or otherwise.
It’s easy to count the WP score, but the WP discards and all the rest is incalculable. Trying to work it out would be an exercise in madness.
Ugh
AT least yours are planned and structured – mine are the ramblings of a man with technology and time on his hands. 🙂
😉
🙂
Gggrrrr
Your total must be huge- you blog more and generally write more when you do. 🙂