humor | Cathy C. Hall Writes

Oh, dear. It’s that time of year again when the days grow warmer and the honeysuckle’s on the breeze and my little toesies wiggle in flip flops. And I have a terrible time, sitting inside at my laptop, writing, when what I really want to do is go outside and play.

Maybe if I had this awesome blog planner, courtesy of Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler, it would help. Of course, I’d still have to write everything down on the pages to get myself organized which would involve…oh, dear. More writing.

But at least I came across this delightful blog post about dialogue tags from Dottie over at Trust Me…I’m a Writer for when I absolutely have to get some work done on the novel manuscript.

I have to admit that “said” is my go to dialogue tag, but I’ll occasionally throw in a “grunted” or “snarled.” And I’m a big fan of “whispered.” Oh! And yelled. As in “Hold your horses,” she yelled. “I just have one more sentence to write.”

As I was saying, I spent a day, going through pics (like this one) and racking my brain, trying to come up with ideas for the Hallmark Card Competition. The theme, I should mention, was teens and birthdays and teens and Valentine’s Day. Piece ‘o cake, right?

Um…birthdays, fine. Valentine’s Day, not so much. Because eventually, I realized that it was supposed to be cards from adults to teens, not teens to teens. All I’m saying is that if you start thinking about Valentine’s cards from an adult to a teen, your brain strays into a very weird, pretty awkward place. Or maybe that’s just me.

The point is, all that awkwardness reminded me of Awkward Family Photos. Which has very little, if anything, to do with writing–or even a card competition (because you can’t use other people’s photos without permission). But it has a lot to do with awkward hilarity. And made me feel a whole lot better about the hours I spent, trying to write a funny Valentine’s card from an adult to a teen.

(And made me wonder about this: if you know enough to send your pic into Awkward Family Photos, why would you have that pic in the first place? Or is that just me?)