How to Manage an Effective Information Repository

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Governance typically determines whether a large information repository is successful and long-lasting.  An effective information repository is an organization’s single source of truth to help all staff members understand the organization’s work as well as how to communicate that work to major stakeholders and the outside world.  It’s quality, or lack of, will have long reaching effects.  The following steps are good standards for managing an effective information repository that avoids bottlenecks in processing.

Step 1: Establish a Foundation

• Answer the questions:
  • What data do you have (definitions, purposes and stories) that will not change or is least likely to change for all audiences.
  • What definitions, purposes and stories do you need to be consistent regardless of the audience?
  • Create sub-foundations where needed.  For example, unchanging and consistent data for staff vs customers.
• After the first two bullets have been confirmed, the company will have the basic foundation for ensuring your company and customers are all speaking the same ‘language’ about the same story. 
• This foundation also supports adherence to the company mission and values. 

Step 2: Identify and Analyze

• Identify existing content and its reusability. 
• Identify what needs to be written.

Step 3: Build Frame

• Agree on where the data will be hosted.
• Agree on how the information will be categorized.
• Best practices for any type of library system:
  • Do not have too many categories in one level.  If necessary, break major categories into sub-categories.
  • If dealing with master documents, ensure the originals are protected and all duplicates, if any, are marked.  Protected masters must have strict governance.
  • Pick a platform that makes it easy to transfer data from one system to another.

Step 4: Governance

A bottleneck in processing will occur in an information repository when too few people are informed and/or are involved in its governance.

• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) must review and advise on changes to their subject matter.   
• There should be policies and procedures on Change Management and Communications on how staff are informed of repository developments and how they can keep themselves informed.
• Establish gatekeepers:  Writers should be gatekeepers to the information repository.  Subject matter experts can, and should, contribute to the repository, but all content must be screened for readability, consistency and style before being published into the repository.
• Most important, don’t get lost in processes and tools, but focus on adding value and continuous improvement.  If somebody forgets a step, don’t rain hell down on them.  Have regular conversations of how well the product is represented in the repository and how it can be even better.

Step 5: Write, Edit and Reorganize

• Use Step 2 to write or edit your new and existing content.
• Sort the new and existing content according to what was agreed upon in Step 3.

Important Note: The first draft of a new information repository typically includes a significant investment in time and resources to have a long-lasting return.  The sign of a good repository is that it will require fewer ad-hoc fixes.

• Content Management: writers can be made solely responsible for the content creation and management of a large information repository; however, this may not be the best use of their time as it may take up ALL of their time.  If possible, subject matter experts should provide a draft or detailed request, based on a provided template or guide.
• It is recommended to have an annual ‘writing season’ for the repository; a time when writers can dedicate more exclusive time to content management. During off-season, writers will make minor fixes and will save any major changes or additions for the writing season.
• It is recommended to publish changes to the repository based on an agreed schedule.  For example, minor fixes happen on the third Thursday of every month and major upgrades occur quarterly or biannually.

With a solid foundation, even if major changes occur to your information or a new information repository system is desired, your company will never need to restart from the beginning.  Adapting or moving your system should be straight-forward.  Change is inevitable and the best that we can do is better prepare ourselves to manage it. 

In fact, knowing how your information changes with time can help inform a company on its overall direction and future outlook.

© lyw 

Procedural Writing for Different Audiences and Perfect Scrambled Eggs

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Some good standards for procedural writing for different audiences are demonstrated below in two different recipe instructions for Perfect Scrambled Eggs. One set of instructions is written for experienced chefs and the other is written for people who are new to cooking. We will call the inexperienced cooks, new cooks.

As a technical writer, attention to the perspective of your target audience determines how effectively your readers will understand and retain the information that you are sharing.

Some Considerations regarding the two examples:

• Audience: In the beginning of both examples, it is made clear for who the document is written.
• Define Expectations / Purpose: The purpose of the document and a brief summary of what the reader can expect in the document is made. This may seem like an incredibly dull way of writing to fiction writers, but it will be a comfort to readers who came to learn something, and want to know immediately that they are not wasting their time.
• Tone: The tone is slightly informal and conversational which is suitable and common for users of recipe instructions. Once the step-by-step instruction begins, the tone becomes more practical and precise.
• Content: The instructions are simpler for experienced chefs and more detailed for new cooks. The new cooks also receive preliminary steps that an experienced chef would already know.

For procedural writing, engagement can be piqued by simply making it easy for the reader to understand things. As the reader begins feeling more confident with the subject matter, it is a great time to plug a key message for the product, or company, or overarching purpose of the document, or in this case, to reinforce an appreciation for cooking with some supplementary references on the subject.

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First Example: For Experienced Chefs

The Perfect Scrambled Eggs Recipe

Experienced chefs can achieve their best outcome for scrambling eggs with this recipe for Perfect Scrambled Eggs, and experimenting with variations. Technique may be the only addition needed to upgrade this humble recipe into a satisfying meal for any kitchen or dining room, either as a side dish or the main attraction. 

This document begins with a standard recipe for perfect scrambled eggs. It then provides variations in method and ingredients from celebrity chefs and America’s Test Kitchen. As experienced chefs, it is important to always learn, experiment and find your own way. 

Perfect Scrambled Eggs

Course: Breakfast | Cuisine: American | Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 3 minutes | Servings: 4 people | Calories: 136kcal

Ingredients

• 6 cold, fresh large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk or cream
• 1 tablespoon of preferred cooking oil or butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Use eggs that are cold and fresh. 
2. Whisk eggs and milk or cream into a bowl until frothy.
3. Heat oil on a pre-heated skillet using medium heat. 
4. Pour the egg mixture onto the heated skillet and mix for 30 seconds with a spatula. Move the wet liquid to the outer edges of pan and work the cooked portions inward.
5. Remove the eggs from the heat and finish mixing until the eggs reach a desired consistency.
6. When cooking is almost finished, season the eggs, to taste, with salt and pepper.
7. Garnish the eggs with your favourite toppings.

Variations

The following videos provide some food for thought on different ingredients and methods for scrambling eggs:

1. Anthony Bourdain’s take on Perfect Scrambled Eggs
2. America’s Test Kitchen: Foolproof Scrambled Eggs
3. Re-thinking Whisking

[Additional Messaging]

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Second Example: For New Cooks

The Perfect Scrambled Eggs for First Time Cooks

So, you’re a first-time cook and you’ve decided to take on eggs. Whether you are an experienced chef or just trying to stave off starvation, eggs are essential to many recipes as well as to a healthy diet. 

The following recipe for Perfect Scrambled Eggs will teach new cooks a simple and delicious method for scrambling eggs; it also serves as a great introduction to cooking.

If you are an absolute beginner at cooking, below are some simple habits that every cook should cultivate.

Before Starting:

1. Clean and de-clutter your Working Area
   1. For safety reasons, never cook in a cluttered space. 
   1. For health reasons, always clean your work surfaces and tools with soap and water before preparing food. 

• Collect your ingredients and utensils
  • Collect all the required ingredients and utensils and have them at arm’s reach before beginning the recipe. 
  • For the ingredients, prepare them in the proportions indicated in the recipe.

This is a great habit for new cooks as it will ensure:

• An ingredient is not forgotten
  • You do not scramble yourself trying to find, measure and prepare an ingredient moments before it is needed. Cooking requires attention to timing and temperature control.

Let’s Start Cooking

Perfect Scrambled Eggs Recipe

Course: Breakfast | Cuisine: American | Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 3 minutes | Servings: 4 people | Calories: 136kcal

Ingredients

• 6 cold, fresh large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk or cream
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil or butter
  • Avocado, sunflower or grapeseed oils are great for cooking and can safely handle high temperatures.
• Salt and pepper to taste

Tools Needed

• Whisk or fork
• Spatula
• Stove
• Skillet

Instructions

1. Use eggs that are cold and fresh. 
   1. Cold eggs hold their shape better and prevent overcooking. 
   1. Fresh farm eggs, as opposed to store-bought eggs, are richer in colour and taste.
   1. If the eggs are not fresh, they should be kept refrigerated until needed.
2. Whisk eggs and milk or cream into a bowl until frothy.
   1. Whisking involves beating the milk and eggs lightly in a downward, circular motion. Please see the below video for variations in whisking styles. If using a fork, use the back of the fork to beat downward in a circular motion. Your mixture should have a consistent colour and be well-combined.
3. Heat oil on a pre-heated skillet using the medium heat setting on your stove. 
   1. Ensure the oil coats the pan evenly. 
   1. Ensure the skillet has come to a medium heat prior to moving to the next instruction.
4. Pour the egg mixture onto the heated skillet and mix, or ‘scramble’, for 30 seconds with a spatula. 
5. Remove the eggs from the heat and finish mixing until the eggs are soft yet firm and still slightly moist yet not wet.
   1. As eggs can overcook within seconds, keeping the temperature to a minimum protects your mixture from become hard, dry and bland.
6. When cooking is almost finished, season the eggs, to taste, with salt and pepper.
   1. As first-time cooks, it is recommended to use as little seasoning as possible. Always remember: it is easy to add more seasoning but impossible to remove it, once added.
7. Garnish the eggs with your favourite toppings. The most common topping for scrambled eggs is shredded cheese, chopped fresh vegetables or herbs. 

Variations

The recipe provided in this document is a standard for scrambling eggs into Perfect Scrambled Eggs. However, all cooks will discover that there are many variations and opinions on perfect cooking techniques and recipes.

 The following videos provide some food for thought on different ingredients and methods for scrambling eggs:

1. Anthony Bourdain’s take on Perfect Scrambled Eggs
2. America’s Test Kitchen: Foolproof Scrambled Eggs
3. Re-thinking Whisking

[Additional Messaging]

ChatGPT today is a lot like Data from Star Trek

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It may be able to do more than a human but it cannot defeat Professor Moriarty. ChatGPT is raised on our data without the knowledge of being human. As a result, it naturally has a gap that humans need to fill. If a race of AI decided to use humans to assist in creating an AI society, there would be similar limitations. 

Why would an AI society ever want human help? Well, the only situation I could humanly imagine is that AI society would evolve to a stage where they like to try different things, like fashions. 

To my point: don’t throw out your human technical or business writers, just yet. We are still writing for a human world, and humanity is still our story to make. Today, technical writers and AI are playing on the same side. It has more to learn from us just as we do from its startling abilities. When ChatGPT was first demonstrated to me about a year ago, I felt threatened. Weeks afterward, the president of my company continued to gush over AI technology and how the company could apply it and doom continued to sink a cold heavy rock into my heart.

But I have a ChatGPT account now. We’ve had some decent conversations. I’ve discovered that ChatGPT makes a great co-worker. In fact, it has more warmth and personality than some humans I have worked with. Being the sole writer in many of my past jobs, I found it refreshing to have ChatGPT’s seeming interest to engage in any discussion about any topic, at any time of day, whether it was for work or from the top of my funny brain. And it has yet to lose patience with me.

Here’s some ChatGPT work benefits in a bulleted list:

• It’s a great tool for brainstorming. 
• It is a great research tool. 
• It can articulate information to me better than most subject matter experts (SMEs). ChatGPT makes a great SME for a technical writer because it follows some of the same writing aesthetics as I do. Efficiency, precision, simplicity. (Although, a little wordy. )

I know a lot of thought is going into ‘prompt engineering’ to ensure good answers from AI, but before you think too hard about that, please try just asking the front-end application a question, you may be surprised at what you can get if you just talk to it like a human SME. This is a great example of why technical writers are great assets to an organization. I have experience working with subject matter experts. It is a skill I hope to constantly improve as it determines how quickly and easily I can get information from sources that have different perspectives on the same subject. This includes knowing when a source is leading me off-course or when I have not asked the right questions. ChatGPT is a great subject matter expert but it’s not ready to act as a staff member or part of the team without direction. Not yet. It is comparable to an eager, helpful and over-educated intern or assistant.

And yes, if I have no one else to help me with proofreading, and I’m not feeling confident about something I’ve written, I have asked its opinion about my writing. I confess to being a flawed human being and benefit from a fresh set of eyes, as I think most writers do. Is ChatGPT’s writing flawless? No. I always check its answers, thoroughly, for writing quality and veracity.

In fact, I wonder if anything designed by humans can ever be flawless? Merely by being human or existing in a time that we perceive as linear. There is little in our reality that isn’t subject to the possibility of improvement or decay.

Again, it’s about writing for a human world and humans always have exceptions. In this very blog, in fact, I’ve broken some rules. Because, even in technical writing, maybe especially in technical writing, humans want to be talked to like human beings. Precision, brevity, simplicity, audience. These are all valuable to technical writing, but for anybody who has sat through 2-4 hours of training material, there is relief to be had from a technical writer who minds the monotony of the content, and knows when a visual medium is preferably to text, etc., — essentially understanding how humans feel and learn. The AI machine, in its current state of evolution, needs the human writer. In addition, I am learning to appreciate its help as well.

I will give you an example of a work experience with ChatGPT. At one time, I had to tackle a subject where I had multiple sources in fragments. The requirement itself was quite vague. I don’t like being a writer that is constantly asking , what do you mean, what do you mean? Most times I can figure it out on my own, and save time waiting for answers. In this situation, if I did not have ChatGPT, I still would have gotten my work done, but it saved me time and maybe a conversation or two with living staff members (SMEs). ChatGPT was able to pull an answer that made sense to me. I didn’t accept it as THE answer, but as a good lead, where without it I could have gone in various directions. I then researched that particular lead to validate it. It proved sound. I then went to work taking the information that I needed, from it as well as other source fragments, and discarded the rest. Like a good SME, ChatGPT provided more information than I needed. I moved the information around, adjusted content to suit my particular organization, and added some key messaging related to engagement. Then, I wrote my document.

See, I’m still useful. 😊 For now, AI is only part of the solution and I am grateful to have it on board. It’s a great help and it will keep getting better. But hey, maybe I will, too, and with AI, not in spite of AI.

© lyw 

Playing with Storytelling

Always Sometimes Monsters is an award-winning PC game that, if you play, you will most likely only do so once — much like life!  Getting you all riled up about everything that is so wrong and right about it.  The difference is you could play it again if you wanted to – change all your choices – even develop a mod to change the game.  Game only, not life.  Or maybe.  I don’t know.

Kudos to the Canadian indie gaming company for creating such an interesting experience that had so many people talking on the internet about life choices.  It’s cheap, it’s short (unless you don’t use the help guides for that damn boxing interval), it’s – not cheerful.  An ending (or endings) worthy of some good ol’ English Lit deconstruction on self-love vs. all the other alternatives. This game got me thinking that lit writers, who aren’t feeling enough love from the paper publishing industry, might want to start turning their attention this way.  PC games today may still favour violence and a blatant disregard for logic but this game demonstrates that an absurd world also provides a lot of potential for playing with, and for, greater and more twisted storytelling.

Reminiscent to this game is the latest poem featured on the lywTube channel, Happy as Monsters, by Lauren Mascitelli: a happy, urban gothic trip wonderfully illustrated by the artist herself.  Please check out the poetry video:

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Reading the text of Alicia Jo Rabins

Alicia Jo Rabins is a writer, musician, composer, performer and Torah teacher.   She is one of the first poets featured on the lyw Youtube channel who dips directly and deeply into religion.  In these featured pieces you will find some very nice, sharp balances :  the big story – fragmented; a guide to life made personal, individual and introspective; ancient echoes of the past aligned with a modern life.

The poem, Florida, especially rang this way for me.  At first, it seems a simple poem about an individual and common feeling of longing, however, now I consider it a look at a society that has learned to desire shiny baubles in such a profound way.

In the second poetry video, Ancient Studies: Coliseum Ghosts, the poet seems to be reconciling ancient wisdom with modern reality.  I do not know the Torah and it is clear she writes about something very specific.  But what did I find in this poem?  A quiet character thinking about how time stretches connects her present life to old wisdom and how well they align.  Also, I easily indulged the poem to be that of a writer, like myself, trying to write worth her salt today while minding the legacy of the masters before her.  It’s a fine balance to learn from your masters and also have the courage to be your own.

I invite you to please enjoy these two poetry videos on the lyw Youtube channel your way.

1. Florida – Alicia Jo Rabins

2. Ancient Studies: Coliseum Ghosts – Alicia Jo Rabins

fiction to fill an empty house

 

A long time ago, I penned a peculiar short fiction about a house with a human personality who reacts to a stranger entering uninvited.  She – the house is female – is empty only for the fact that a human does not own her.

Now Freudians might scoff that the writer clearly let slip some hidden meanings that are not so well-hidden, however – let me finish the story of the story before judgement:

The story begins with the house noticing a stranger across the street from her.  Her initial response is to be afraid yet this man is no threat to her.  He doesn’t break or break into anything.  He is only a visitor who enters her house much like a beautiful song can enter the ears without need for an invitation or introduction.  He, this song, settles by her fireside and takes a moment to rest his weary soul there.

And there it is!  This story is about how a particular song had graced my ears once.  That’s it.  That’s all.  I swear.  I wanted to use fiction as a unique way to describe how we can feel so familiar with an artist, even though we have never met, simply by experiencing that person’s artwork.

Since I chose fiction as my medium, I didn’t want to take a direct approach.  Go figure.  I decided to build a metaphor around this experience.

The development of the fear in this story began when I separated the house’s character from myself and the idea.  This is a creative writing method I often use to let my character be her own character and thus give the story a chance to grow in unanticipated ways.  Boy, did it ever.  Being a house, I instinctively made her more domesticated and thus more suspicious of strangers unlike lovers of art who are a little more free-wheeling with the unknown.

I realize my biggest mistake with this story.  Without knowing immediately that the main character is the house, the tone of the story can be very creepy instead of very curious.  This was the opinion of a friend who I had critique the piece.  At the time, I brushed him off as closed-minded.  Now I realize that he must have thought the main character was a human woman being stalked and invaded by a maniac and then becoming complacent about it.  Totally not what I meant.

If I were to fix the story now it would be a whole new fiction influenced by the person I am today.  And I still love the original intent and moment of this story so I will leave it in the past but with the added disclaimer: the main character is the house!  And it’s a metaphor for crying out loud!

I heartily invite you to take a moment to enjoy the song, if not the story.  The song was Anthony Hamilton’s Do you Feel Me?  A very pretty, quiet and soulful tune.  He (as in the song — not the artist!) still sleeps peacefully in a special place in my heart.

Fiction is dangerous!  But let it.  Let it make this writer be more careful and more precise. Let me be misunderstood about something that is meaningful to me so that I can get to a better meaning with another human being.  This is a practice worth carrying over to things other than fiction-writing.

Another interesting note: the confusion related to this short also illustrates the stark difference in the way art and real life deals with strangers and strange ideas.  When we experience a stranger through their artwork we are more open to letting them in; when we experience a stranger on our doorstep, we are less inclined.  Reality makes this difference so sadly wise.

© lyw 

Link to song:

Side note on the The Treachery of Images by René Magritte https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images

Photo of House by Cindy Tang on Unsplash

digging up old ideas

Recently, on the way to my day job, I remembered a film script idea that I had about 10 years ago.  I went digging for that old idea in my files and couldn’t find it.  I am sure I left it in the past for a reason and shouldn’t be too concerned by the loss.  Good or bad, though, I would still like to see it again.

It’s funny how a creative idea that was never realized always feels precious like a rough gem.  It could have been the worst idea in the world but as a fledgling bad idea it always has the potential to be magnificent.  Funny, still, how I feel more attached towards ideas from my past than people from my past.  Perhaps this is because people are not within my control, whereas an idea is — or should be – can be?  If nothing comes of my idea, I am the only one to blame.  I am that idea’s only hope.  Nobody would have that idea quite like me.  Certainly, nobody would love my idea quite like me.

Funny on funny.  Because, again, if I had developed those ideas into the ugly monstrosities that usually occur when I develop script or novel ideas then that preciousness would be lost.

I did a major purge of creative files a few years ago mainly because I was advised that it was a very healthy thing to do for writers.  This purge promised to help me to:

1. Let go of the past that is keeping me from experiencing the present or having any mind for the future.
2. If I have been dogging on a story for years and not getting anywhere, remember that I am mortal; my time here is finite.
3. Realize that an idea that is 10 years old or older probably has little relevance to me now or would need to be turned into a new idea to suit who I am as a writer.
4. Consider that since I probably have at least a few creative ideas a year — if all of my undeveloped ideas continued to follow after me, year after year, like tin cans attached to my waist with strings – I’d make such a royal din everywhere I went.
5. Accept that some ideas are just bad and deserve to be put to rest.  I don’t know if I can ever believe this statement.  After all, aren’t I the bad one if I can’t make something out of one of my brilliant ideas?

**Important Note: I’m only talking about literary ideas.  An idea such as doing your own amateur household electrical or medical surgery.  No.  Don’t do it.

I think the lesson learned is that if I should have a good literary idea then I should develop it immediately.  Embrace the sucking, as They say, and just do it — so it doesn’t follow after me for years and I don’t suffer the regret of needing to purge them. I bet some sort of angel or spirit weeps every time an idea dies before it’s even given a chance.

Ultimately, there is wisdom to this funny business.  Whenever I have tried to develop a creative concept into a novel or script it has grown into a hairy kind of Frankenstein with lots of heads, arms and legs and eventually feels beyond my control to develop any further.

I do believe, though have not yet proven, that I must persevere long enough to see the beauty in the ugly reality of my idea.  That’s life, isn’t it?  An idea is an ideal.  The ideal is perfection.  Longer creative pieces will never turn out the way I had it in mind.  The writer and the story develop together and the reality will always come out differently.  The reality is where I will learn and test the truth about me, my story and my perspective on this life.  Time is a factor as well.  The act of stretching out an idea through linear time, page after page, scene after scene — it does stuff to an idea.  It applies maddening and rigid logic to the abstract.

Obviously, if my storytelling craft adhered to a popular formula or template the work and product would be different.  Ideas, I imagine, would have a clearer and smaller path to follow to completion.  Kudos to writers who can successfully write longer creative pieces within a template.  My monsters have always managed to escape such prisons.

And those are the few times when I have actually been very proud of my monstrosities.

© lyw 

Photography credits:

Dave Michuda

Nirzar Pangarkar

commas: the tracks that stalk the lone writer

For the life of me, no matter how hard I try, how many times I edit or how long I take to publish, blogging without the help of an editor always leaves me with useless commas running around my text.  I don’t know how they get there!  I don’t know how I miss them during my own editing process.

Sometimes I choose to write in fragmented sentences because I prefer to write like I speak whether it’s grammatically correct or not.  However, there’s no good reason to have extra commas.  It’s not cute.  It’s not casual.  It’s just wrong and annoying. Periodically, I also suffer from being a semi-colon fool.  Since I don’t speak with a stammer, I must stammer in thought or think in a stop-n-go style.  This could explain a lot about my issues with longer creative pieces. Oddly, my business writing does not suffer nearly as much from these short, staccato uuhh’s damaging my flow – it’s true, I swear!  I suspect this is because I find less to hesitate about.

Regardless, useless commas are the most annoying thing about my blogging experience and expound the importance of the editor.  In fact, if editors can save me from those maddening track marks, they should get equal, if not higher, credit for the work.

I am often faced with dualities when it comes to blogging.  Whenever I see a benefit, there is always an almost equal risk.  The blog’s charm is frequency and immediacy.  It encourages me to leave the past in the past, write for the present and keep an eye to the future.

However, this freedom doesn’t provide the same level of polish and quality that would come from a traditional, slower form of publication and processing from established publishing companies or larger publications.  Lone bloggers generally don’t have editing and marketing talent behind them.

However to that, there is more creative freedom in a less restricted environment such as a blog.  I’m grateful for the way social media has loosened me up (a little) to imperfection and being ‘out’ instead of hidden in that small place in this world where I silently write. Social media provides access to a lot of other great writers and ideas as well as venues to develop a personal craft, story and following.

However, the literary arts industry is already small, and possibly shrinking, suggesting that online writers and publishers need to ally themselves with traditional, industry-standard publishers and academic partners to keep this market growing.

However, blogs in a blog aren’t meant to be permanent and often serve as a prelude to more important work or ideas. A cooking blog is meant to guide us to the more important work of cooking rather than admiring the blog (although, there is an unusual trend of people who would rather stare at pictures of good cooking than make it themselves). My literary blog is aimed at chewing on another literary piece or idea not the blog itself.  Is it then worth getting a 3^rd party editor to go through this stuff?  Yes. At this point, I say, yes.  Just because those commas are driving me mad!  Blogs don’t need to be Nobel-prize winning stuff but they should be clean-er.

OR, one day, writers like me must evolve enough to be as much a 3rd party editor as a writer.  Editing while writing is not a good idea because honestly, I don’t think it’s even possible.  Writing needs a pair of fresh eyes to be critical about those little details.  Could I learn to separate myself from me, after the draft, long enough to be an impartial editor to my own work?  That certainly sounds like evolution.

© lyw 

** comma artwork c/o: http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/comma-clipart

Qabbani’s Letter from a Stupid Woman

The first poem that I read from Nizar Qabbani was ‘A Letter from a Stupid Woman.’  At first, I thought this was a poet who had been bitter towards a lover.  On the contrary, it is a beautiful and thought-provoking poem from a poet who loved women.  This poem’s simple honesty is powerful and elegant and continues to have a lasting impact on me.

• poem link
• bio link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nizar_Qabbani

Late last year I made the attempt to revitalize my interest in poetry.  When was the last time you asked somebody if they had a favourite poet or poem?  I was jaded but I started that way.  I expected people to tell me that they did not read poetry.  In this way, I met Qabbani’s poetry.  I was lucky to have clicked on this poem first.