J is for Journey and K is Kryptonite

Journey: Middle English, from Old French journee meaning day's journey, from jour meaning day, from Late Latin diurnum, from Latin diurnus.

As I look back on my life I can clearly see how one choice lead to another and to another, until after a long winding and interesting journey I have arrived here, at this point.

There have been some wonderful turns in the road when I was near overwhelmed by the spectacular views. Likewise I have fallen into the La Brea Tar Pits and come close to not being able to get myself extracted. There have been lush valleys, an arid plain or two, oxygen poor peaks, placid rives, and rivers in flood. I have crossed oceans both literally and figuratively.

Mostly, though, my journey has been fairly easy, following the contours of the hills and mountains I have climbed over and around.

This is all very metaphorical and the language rather flowery. But there is a point and a lesson for us writers. In noticing how our lives go, in noticing the individual steps we have taken on our journey, in training ourselves to become observers, we will become better writers.

As for me, the journey will continue until the day I take my last breath.

Kryptonite: A fictional element from the Superman. However there is krypton, a relatively inert gaseous element found in air and used in elelctric lamps, from the Greek kryptos meaning hidden. There is more at crypt.

As we all know kryptonite can bring down the Man of Steel, leaving him weak as baby.

I have my own form of kryptonite. It's called sharing my ideas too soon. Say I tell my sweetie about an idea I have for a story or novel. He will, of course, have all these who, why, when, where, and how questions and even make suggestions about where the story should go or what I shouldn't do. Because it's just an idea, a barely sprouted seed, I have not answered the majority of those questions even for myself, let alone someone else. And all of the questions acts like kryptonite.

I have learned to guard, protect and nurture my tiny sprout from outside influence else it could become over fertilized or over watered or get too much sun all of which have the same consequence. My idea shrivels up and blows away.

In fact, I don't like sharing a first rough draft of something I've written because the same thing can happen. I mean I know a first rough draft is just that. I don't need to hear about the problems. So...I don't like to share anything until I've got a fairly clean copy.

What's your kryptonite?

Anyone remember The Spin Doctors?