Welcome to the website of writer Erin Boatkicker

Erin Boatkicker is a young writer with grand fantasies of using a handful of words to change someone’s life. She’s constantly busy and sometimes even surprises herself by how much time she can find to write. She’s a university student majoring, unsurprisingly, in creative writing, as well as working two jobs, learning to drive a car, planning a wedding, and dealing with her crazy but mostly lovable family. Right now, she's put all her other writing projects on hold and is focusing entirely on Only Make Believe, a novel she started for NaNoWriMo 2010. She hopes to have the first draft finished before November 2011.

Friday, April 29, 2011

"Fucking idiots" or watching out for dual meanings.

Oops, I probably should have warned you, this post contains profanity, that is used purely for profanities sake, rather than for any deep literary purpose.

Well.... sort of. If it didn't have SOME purpose I wouldn't be posting it but.... now I'm just babbling.

Last night a friend of mine tweeted (I'm still no good with twitter, btw. Irrelevant, but if you want to help, that'd be great!) something about "when boys are fucking idiots."

My first thought in response was "I wonder who [the object of her affection] is having sex with." It took me a good minute and a half to realize that wasn't at all what she meant, and even then, I had to text her to be sure. What she had intended it to mean was "when boys are really dumb."

I learned two things, from that little tweet.
1) I'm apparently the type whose first thoughts jump to sex.
2) I need to be really careful when I write not to use words that could even vaguely be understood in any way other than what I want.

Now, I know, I know, that's the first thing anyone will tell you. Anyone who writes regularly, a fiction author, a journalist, a professor, and even a second grader. But sometimes, we need that spark. Ther moment of misunderstanding to open up our eyes. To remind us why that's important. Because I would be angry if my fiance was fucking an idiot. But if my fiance was acting like a fucking idiot, I'd get over it pretty quick.

In the same vein A+ for people who can successfully use duel meanings in their stories. They never come naturally to me, unless they aren't supposed to. I can never write them perfectly, without careful planning. I can never work them into my stories easily.

And now that I've babbled enough, I'm done.

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