The Internet is too Shiny for my Brain

Every writer approaches editing differently. When you are a writer with an overly active distractibility gene it goes a little like this:

Editor: Can you check that you have quoted the "Let the wild rumpus begin" correctly from, Where the Wild Things Are? Pretty sure it is "start," not "begin."

Me: No problemo. I am on it.

And I was. I raced to the kids' book case to search for Maurice Sendak's masterpiece. I stood there, staring at what looked like books exploding from the shelves.

"Who's got time for this?" I muttered, knowing the book may not even be in that chaos.

Fueled by edit fever, I charged to my computer.

"Google. Google shall save the day!" I cheered. Well, I didn't really cheer that. It was more a loud muttering about the state of the girls' rooms and how I was so going to get on them about that. Later.

I typed in the line of text I needed to verify and all sorts of results popped up, including this delightful video of 

Christopher Walken reading Where the Wild Things Are:

Which of course I had to share on Facebook. I then continued to watch every video that subsequently popped up along the sidebar. 

Like, Mr. Walken reading The Three Little Pigs:

And do you need to ask if I watched the entire Top 10 Saturday Night Live Skits?

Watch to the final sketch. You won't be disappointed.

45 minutes later I awoke from my Googling haze, cursed it for my lost time, and replaced "begin" with "start." I then logged off the internet. 

It is too shiny for my brain.

Zero Purple Chickens

Recently, I posted a link to my lesson plans and was surprised to see a purple chicken attached to my link. 

Why does the vast and powerful internet do weird things like this? 

Since the Great Googler has not given me any deep insight into this phenomenon I decided to share it with you here. 

Any thoughts?

Jodi Carmichael shared a link.

7 minutes ago · Edited

For my teaching pals. This is where you can download Spaghetti lesson plans . Not sure why a purple chicken displays in this link. There are exactly zero purple chickens in my book. There is one green gecko and one brown dog, but I passed on poultry. I mean, who can compete with Mo Willems' Pigeon? He's got birds covered.

Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food Lesson Plans - Little Pickle Press

www.littlepicklepress.com

Spaghetti is NOT a Finger Food Lesson Plans, based of the award-winning chapter book written by Jodi Carmichael and illustrated by Sarah Ackerley, will provide children with an...

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Writing in the Shower - Good Time Management or Loony Toons?

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There is something I’ve just been itching to blog about, but wasn’t  sure how to begin.

It’s about this compulsion - this "need" to write. A writing addiction, so to speak. I have just learnt that there exists a little something called - Hypergraphia. It's an overwhelming urge to write.

I kid you not. This is an actual "thing." Before you get in a huff, muttering, “There you go again Jodi, just making stuff up and claiming it as truth,” I Googled it.

What can I say, I aced Google Research 101.

And according to the, always 100% correct Wikipedia, Hypergraphia, "… is also associated with bipolar disorder. Manic and depressive episodes have been reported to intensify hypergraphia symptoms. Additionally schizophrenics and people with frontotemporal dementia can also experience a compulsive drive to write."

So, that's great news, said no writer ever.

I began to dwell on this whole manic, depressive, schizophrenic “issue.” And yes, I finished top of my class in Dwelling, Stressing , and Awfulizing. Don’t mean to brag, but those are the facts, folks.  Just the facts.

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Another fact: I “hear” voices.

My characters often wake me up, interrupt my shower, and yell at each other whenever they feel the spirit moves them. That’s when I run frantically, grab any scrap of paper, and WRITE it all down. Hypergraphia?  Schizophrenia? Or just plain, old being a writer?

My very helpful pal, Heather Witherden, full-time mom, part-time comic  (again not joking, she’s hilarious), sent me a note on facebook sharing with me a story of a Hypergraphic woman who took wax pens into the shower so she could write while sudsing.

Part of me was shocked. "What a nut," I thought quietly so no one would hear.

But another part, the mom/writer/multi-tasker thought loudly and with verve, “What a frickin’ genius idea!”

Yes, this blog is mostly G-rated, people. Feel free to replace my family friendly expletives with racier PG14 curses. What’s that you say? No one says “racy” anymore? Well, I just did. So that’s…1!

At the end of the day, I’m comfortable with all my urges; to write, to eat copious amounts of chocolate, and to dance whenever I hear a great song.  Perhaps I could rid myself of the urge to clean incessantly, though. Woops. My mistake, I’ve seldom had an urge to clean, let alone incessantly.

Now, I must run. The voices are shouting again. Someone’s fallen into a well and needs to be “written” to safety. And no, there’s no Lassie dog ready to pull her out.

Write On, Hypergrahic Friends! Write On!
(You know you want need to!)

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