Always Scrub with Lye

Whether you choose to deem it stupidity or blaring self-awareness, I no longer sweep bad moments like yesterday’s embarrassing trip to anguish-land under the rug.

Nope, unlike in years past, I don’t try to forget the emotional clusterf**k. (I was always tripping over the giant lump of pity under the rug, anyway, so why bother?)

Instead I plop the messy experience down upon my kitchen table and with a fine tooth comb examine its corpse closely for any hidden gems of literary wisdom.

Mining the remains of gory, personal clusterf**ks, I feel, is immensely important for a writer. Pardoning the tried but true expression, it can truly be a gold mine of goodies for us prospectors of character insight.

Of course some cleaning up will be necessary.

A hardy scrubbing with lye is encouraged.

In the end, however, you just might find yourself holding the roughly hewn heart of a character right there in the palm of your hand…

But, please, remember to wear gloves. Emotional clusterf**ks always burn.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe