November 20, 2011

Chaos and Creative Delight: ROW 80 Check In

The maker of a sentence launches out into the infinite and builds a road into Chaos and old Night, and is followed by those who hear him with something of wild, creative delight.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love everything about manipulating words. I enjoy crafting a story, but I also love taking words and reworking them until they sing. Or at least hum a nice tune.

I greatly appreciate words and their meanings. I've always found it odd that people say they love a hamburger and love a person. Shouldn't there be a different word for each? Shouldn't the love for food be expressed differently than the love you feel for your husband, children, or family?

The Emerson poem above caught my eye, and I was intrigued by the use of chaos and old night. Off I went in search of answers. Thanks to John Meade's Chaos and Old Night blog, I found this:

"The phrase 'Chaos and old Night' originated with John Milton in his epic poem Paradise Lost.
Sonorous mettal blowing Martial sounds:
At which the universal Host upsent
A shout that tore Hells Concave, and beyond
Frighted the Reign of Chaos and old Night (Book I; line 540-544).
Milton uses the phrase, to refer to the 'stuff' out of which God ordered and created the world."

Wow, I knew I liked this Emerson quote for good reason. Writers do take simple things and create works that can touch people or inspire.

I hope my fellow NaNoers are building something they will be proud of down the road.

My A Round of Words in 80 Days Update

Writing: Thanks to my first #ROW80 #wordsprint and the 1,065 words I wrote in that hour, I totaled 2,456 words since Wednesday's check in. Imagine if I could have fit in a couple of word sprints. Want to join? Hit Twitter Monday through Friday at 2:00pm EST and check in at #ROW80. Halfway through people update wordcounts and again at the end of the hour.

Blogging: Every day here and three times at Mom in Love with Fiction.

Miscellaneous: I need to catch up on my blog reading and NaNo ROW80 cheerleading. Hoping I can do that this week.

Exercise: I'm eating well and exercising knowing the feast is coming on Thursday! ;-)

I'm going to try to hit the writing hard this week so I can relax and have fun Thursday through Saturday for Thanksgiving. Hope all my NaNoers get far enough ahead to enjoy time with friends and family on Thanksgiving.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Way to go on the word count!

I've always thought it was strange that we use this word "love" to mean so many different things. In the Bible, there are three or four different words for love in the original Greek, but they're all translated as "love" in English. Let's make up some words! LOL

amy kennedy said...

Couldn't agree more. When I was in 10th grade and very dramatic (I might still be...) my boyfriend and I thought our love so great we should make up a new phrase other than "I love you." I know, I know. We never came up with anything and parted ways by the end of 10th grade...Still, we should have different words.

And the Emerson poem and Milton's love the words -- love that you went in search of their meaning. Your goals look great btw, and I'm going to try to do the writing sprint -- can't today, I start work at 11:45 central -- don't think they'd like me writing for an hour. But definately the rest of the week.

Tia Bach said...

Ladies, Thanks so much for the comment love. Oops, there's that darned word again. ;-) We do need to make up some love variations.

Julie Glover said...

I'm a word girl myself! I have long thought that we need about eight words for love. I love my hamburger, I love my pet, I love my husband...these are not the same things. Great progress, Tia! I need to jump into one of those word sprints.

Tia Bach said...

We are heading to Mom's for Thanksgiving this year, so word sprints will have to wait until next week for me, sadly. They really help me focus, and I need constant help with that.

I'm getting up at 4am to head to NC with three children (and avoid traffic)... wish me luck! ;-)

Thanks, Julie, for always being such a great blog friend!

alberta ross said...

been one of my many rants for years now - hate the way english is closing in on itself - and evenj when love is used for emotions as apart from a bar of chocolate! it can only be used for parents v children and /sexual love between consenting adults - love between to friends - maybe if they are not the same sex:( its a sadness

Like Milton very much had completly forgotten that quote thanks for searching it out

all the best for coming week

Tia Bach said...

Alberta, I always love it when you stop by. One of these days soon I'm going to do a post about other words for love. We need to start a new-love-word revolution!

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving.