Let’s make writing harder

I subscribe to Word.A.Day for a daily dose of a new, maybe useful word. Today the feature was the book Never Again, about a gambler who yearns to correct the mistakes of his past by not doing (or saying) anything again. Interesting premise, but the writer set himself the task of repeating no word, ever. So we begin: “”When the racetrack closed forever I had to get a job.”
Fair enough. Soon we come to: “Environmental breakdown hillsides, counterpotentially, demonstrate stumps bristling clear-cut floodplain backdrop.” Or: “Juicier diversions’re proposed.” And writing’s not hard enough? The mind reels. Although thinking of ways to make writing harder is (yet another) delicious diversion from the writing process.

About Pamela Schoenewaldt

Pamela Schoenewaldt, historical novels of immigration and the search for self in new worlds: WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS, SWIMMING IN THE MOON, and UNDER THE SAME BLUE SKY (all HarperCollins).