Q. Ms Browning, why are you a writer?
A. It's how I earn a living. I'm lucky enough to get paid for it. In fact, I think of my work as a sort of assembly line.
Q. Ummm.....how's that?
A. This was one of Henry Ford's brilliant ideas. The parts ride past on a conveyor belt, and someone picks them up and bolts them onto the car. Everything has to be stuck on in the right place or the car is going to come out all cattywampus and no one will buy it. A good example of such a product is a camel. When is the last time you bought one of those?
Q. Not lately, but exactly how does this relate to writing?
A. Motorcycle of partway he considerable to flash sliding said and look will off dinner you me neon for join charm he the switching half turned his her as on blinking at in the the red lights.
Q. (Looking perplexed.) Alice, wait up! I was right behind you as you fell down the rabbit hole!
A. You can see how words all scrambled up don't create even a sentence, much less a story.
Q. Right.
A. Now if I, the storyteller, were to assemble those words in a different sequence, we'd have this passage from one of my books: Will you join me for dinner he said sliding partway off the motorcycle and switching on his considerable charm as he half turned to look at her in the flash of the blinking red neon lights. (From Beach Bachelors Book 5, CHERISHED BEGINNINGS.)
Q. With no punctuation.
A. That costs extra. The point is that if the writer doesn't grab the right words and arrange them coherently, there's no story. What would life be like without stories and someone to tell them? Without people to read them?
Q. It's bog-mindling. Do you think I can ever learn to write a book?
A. We'll talk about that as soon as you escape the rabbit hole, my friend. More about the wondrousness of writing later.
Pamela Browning
P.S. Please take a look at the video I created for my Keeping Secrets Series! Click on the link in the column on the left.
Enjoy!