The Department of Redundancy Department

When I was still a teacher (which seems a million years ago now), I was obsessed with creating good writers out of my students; not just that they would be capable of putting a sentence together (or something that was actually a sentence), or being grammatically correct in what they wrote, but that they would express something in the best way possible. One can only imagine in this world of STEM courses and technology based literacy what I was up against. Why on earth (the expression on their faces seemed to inquire) would I want to express myself any more eloquently? Use metaphors, similes, descriptive prose, and effective verbs and adjectives, when I can simply state what it is I have to say in the briefest, most straight-forward way possible? Okay then, how about I circle (in red ink), the words and phrases that seem to me to be the greatest mutilation of English language expression (but just put AWK for awkward in the margin, so no one will be forever emotionally scarred).

Redundancy was among the language mangling that bugged me the most back then: like “reflected back,” which means looked back back. Then there’s “completely destroyed;” either it was or it wasn’t. Another favorite of mine when a student wrote about something that was “left behind;” of course, it was. How could you leave something “ahead?” That would be like “forever gone;” because if it was truly gone, wouldn’t that be forever? Gone is gone, right?

So, when I started this blog, it was intended to be about the writing process…so, I would be writing about writing. It might be the only redundant thing that one can actually do (other than, perhaps, blogging about blogging); for example, you can’t eat about eating, or sleep about sleeping, or exercise about exercising. But one can write about writing, or at least about the joys and frustrations of the process.

But then I found out there are actually “rules” for writing a blog. Okay, maybe not rules, but “recommendations,” which is another use of normally fine vocabulary that I really don’t understand. It was “recommended” for example that as teachers, we stop using red pens and use purple or green instead…like the kids are not going to quickly develop the same aversion to these colors? Or as one of my students once said, “why did all the teachers stop using red pen? How do I know if I’m doing something wrong?” Right, how does one?

Anyhow, if you’re a writer and you are writing about writing in your blog, the first thing that is “recommended” you don’t do, is promote your own work. So how does that work? First, the primary “recommendation” is that you develop an “online presence,” so people will know you are out there; then, in your “online presence,” you’re not supposed to promote the novels you wrote. Instead (second recommendation), you’re supposed to write about other author’s works…in the best possible context. My first reaction to this was to find myself stamping my proverbial feet and saying, when is it my turn?

But of course, I didn’t. Because, honestly, I’m as big a fan of reading as I am of writing, and the more novels I read, the more I find myself saying, wow! How do they write like that? I want to do this. Someone should just let me. Uh-oh, recommendation #3, don’t whine about how no one is reading/has noticed/is interested in what you write. Really? You can’t do that either? Sigh.

So maybe what I need to do, before I (and my novels) am gone forever, is to reflect back on the reason I started doing this in the first place; why I didn’t just leave the whole thing behind when the underwhelming response to my first novels almost completely destroyed my enthusiasm. The bottom line is that I love to write, and quite honestly, it is an innate and essential part of who I am, so I guess I’m stuck with it, even though I ask myself the same thing day after day after day after day….