Writing Like a Will of the Wisp

Will o' the Wisp Like a Flower

Prelude to this Post

These posts are basically somewhat like wills of the wisp: something that is impossible to get or achieve.*  Or maybe a delusive or elusive goal.**    I particularly like the legend described below at part of MW's description of the terms origins.  ​

* ​https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/will-o-the-wisp
** ​https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/will-o%27-the-wisp
The will-o'-the-wisp is a flame-like phosphorescence caused by gases from decaying plants in marshy areas. In olden days, it was personified as "Will with the wisp," a sprite who carried a fleeting "wisp" of light. Foolish travelers were said to try to follow the light and were then led astray into the marsh. (An 18th-century fairy tale described Will as one "who bears the wispy fire to trail the swains among the mire.") The light was first known, and still also is, as ignis fatuus, which in Latin means "foolish fire." Eventually, the name will-o’-the-wisp was extended to any impractical or unattainable goal.

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I can admit to it: I might be lazy.  But in reality it is not just laziness, but I think my first draft should be it.  It should just be perfect and just what it is.  Editing? Bleh.  No stinking editing for me.  Publish and let the chips fall where they may...even if it is cliche riddled.  When I "save" it and close it and add a picture or catchy title, I'm done.  I don't want to think about it again.  I lose interest.  What's next?  Good enough is good enough.  

So I would like to think.  I do to my chagrin still believe in magic.  

Inevitably, though, I ask someone's opinion.  Oh, dear, that can be the kiss of death or you might think so as I recoil and am devastated when the reader or reviewer says something like, "With some work, you might have something."  I sigh, (to myself of course), and wish I hadn't asked.  Oh that they could just say,  "That is was good and they enjoyed it and they wouldn't change a thing?"  Magical thinking again.

Dreamer.  Lazy me.  What, me work on it some more?  Sigh.  They're right of course.  No first draft is ever perfect.  This is a only first draft, far from perfect.  

I like to think of myself as speaking from the heart, a free-spirited whimsical storyteller.  After all, these things are basically ephemeral moments in the lives of the reader...aren't they?  Great literature?  I think not.

Quirky thoughts and musings come to mind. I write them down.  I'm do that now.  But I think often amusing and maybe even thought provoking.  

Anyway, and that is my go to shrug off, whatever expression.  I know really I do have some work to do.  I might have something.  I am not really lazy, just reluctant to wait.  That bedeviling urge called "instant gratification" gets me every time.   Like now.  Like when I hit save and send this out.  Most likely unproofed.  

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