Saturday, February 2, 2013

Idle Words

Wally had too many words. He stored excess ones in a Tupperware container. Basically, he stuck with the same army of words in all his writing. When he occasionally opened the container looking for a new one, they all vied for his attention.
One time he left the cover ajar and some sneaked out, wandering around the neighborhood, inserting themselves into strangers' conversations. Words like coagulate and occipital.
One day, when Wally hit a wall and couldn't write, he retreated to his stash of ignored words, seeking assistance. To his surprise they refused to participate. They had unionized. Demanded at least 60 days of use during the year, especially the multi-syllable ones.
Wally gave in. His vocabulary increased, his sentences became longer, more elegant. Reviews of his work were glowing.
Unfortunately, his old words that got him his start, felt neglected. They became disconsolate, idly hanging around street corners, drunk, slovenly, useless. If you want to be a writer and need some words, go outside and look around. It won't take long to find them.

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