Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Paul's Ten or So Commandments for Writing

1. You shall always remember: only Scripture is inspired.

2. Honor your readers with grace and clarity.

3. Excellent writing shall be evident; your effort to make is so shall not be.

4. You shall write the truth; especially in fiction.

5. You shall frolic with playful words and sentences.

6. You shall delight.

7. You shall not plagiarize. (I wanted to write "You shall not steal," but that would be plagiarism.)

8. You shall accept criticism graciously.

9. You shall relax, man.

10. It is written, "In the beginning God created...;" therefore, as it is written, you shall "Go and do likewise."

©2004 by Paul Nichols

Friday, December 10, 2004

Delightful Things That Don't Make a Bit of Sense


In alphabetical order...

Baked Alaska.

Blogs. Web logs. Web journals.

Chops sticks. How on earth do little Chinese children learn to use chop sticks? And why? They eat tiny grains of rice and bamboo shoots the size of needles. Oh, by the way: if you don’t want to destroy a bamboo forest by eating with those kind of chop sticks, you can get some nice ivory ones at most fine gift shops.


Chocolate! In Spanish it's pronounced ¡chocolate!

Christmas Eve. It's always the holiest night of the year. We celebrate Jesus' birthday that night, even though he was born Christmas night—24 hours later. How does that work? And did you ever wonder what Jesus got for his other birthdays?

Fast Cars. Yee-Haw!

Getting Even. I know the nastiest responses. I can conjure up the cruelest curses. I can offend you in front of your family. I can publicly embarrass you. My sharp, creative retorts will leave you stiff as week-old pasta. It never fails: about ten minutes after we leave each other, it will all come to me.


Hugging someone outside your normal circle of friends and family.

Jack Lynch’s Guide to Grammar and Style. This place does make sense. Every writer and reader on the planet should bookmark his page. He’s entertaining, too. This is probably my favorite Web site. (Don't roll your eyes...)

Memory. Oh, the things we remember. Oh, the things we don’t remember. Oh, the things we can’t remember.

Rainbows. We can only see a rainbow from this side of it.

Spinning Hubcaps. These things are flat-out pure fun to watch!

Teenagers.

Wedding Receptions. Those really expensive kind with open bars, dance bands and full-blown meals at the swankiest joint in town. Oh, and if they serve Baked Alaska for dessert...



©2004-2009 by Paul Nichols