Derogatory and Arbitrary - 10 Minute Free Write

As I've been struggling to come up with fresh, new material for my daily posts, I've decided to enlist the help of a writing prompt. I expect I won't do it every day, as there may be days where I actually have something I'd like to say. But for today, I am using the prompt on http://dailypost.wordpress.com, which is, today, "Ready, Set, Done: A Ten Minute Free Write."

So, you know. That's helpful. Okay, with that introduction done, I'm starting my ten minutes...now.


Oh good. The first thing that comes to mind is blankness. It's a bit ironic that the day I go looking for inspiration is the day-- apparently they do the free-write weekly-- where there IS no real prompt. But, okay, fine. The time limit will help me.

Dan and I had this whole conversation the other night...okay, it was really just an exchange-- where we we talking about how long my posts take me. I was, yet again, complaining about how overwhelmed I am by the many things I have to get done. He made the point that it's not like I can just pump out one of these long-ass posts in 10-15 minutes. I told him, yeah, actually, I'm pretty sure that's how long it takes me. Somewhere between 15-30 minutes, anyway. He seemed a bit flabbergasted by that.

(I want to take a moment here to point out that I'm pretty sure part of the idea of a free write is "free association-style" writing. As in, I am going faster and less methodically than normal, and it's probably coming out sounding somewhat...god, what's the word? There's a word. And here's where I would normally take like a twenty minute break to look up the word.

Frenetic! That's what I'm looking for! Man, maybe this free write helps my brain work better. It would normally take me a really long time to find a word I was looking for. I should escape the parenthetical now.)

There are a couple (several?) words that I have that trouble with over and over again. I've thought about carrying them around on a little list, it happens to me so often. (I know I'm referencing something that was previously in the parenthetical, which is a no-no for a parenthetical, and totally defeats the purpose of the parenthetical. Just go with it.) One of them, I know, is....derogatory. Which, okay, the way that happened right now. I was thinking that I could only ever remember one of them when I go to remember it-- not just the word itself, but, like, what the word it is I tend to forget...I'm not making since. I want to slow this down and make it make sense.

I know there are two words, at least, that I can never remember. But as a general rule, when I go list them, I can only think of THE CONTEXT and DEFINITION of ONE OF THEM. (Those should have been italicized. I don't like this free write stuff. It's stressful.) Whether or not I can actually remember the word itself is a whole separate matter, but I can only remember the surrounding information of the words I struggle to remember one at a time. So I was pretty sure that the word I was going to remember this time was...the one in Good Will Hunting. The one where he says "Drinking coffee is as _____ as eating caramels." Arbitrary. It's arbitrary.

But, just now, I was certain I was going to be able to remember that arbitrary was the word I usually forget, but as I was trying to think of the actual word, the OTHER word came to mind. It didn't even come to mind, it came to fingers. It's almost like I've typed that sentence too many times before: I always forget the word derogatory.

So, there you have it. Derogatory and Arbitrary.

Hey! There's my timer!.

--

Goddamn. That was awful. I mean, I'm sure it got some cobwebs out or whatever, but I got really hung up on trying to explain that whole "remembering what words I forgot" thing. I have no idea if I did it well...I suspect not. I'm not going to go back and re-read now, I suspect the urge to edit would be overwhelming. And I was supposed to be "ready, set, done." The done thing being the important piece.

I will spellcheck it, though, as it became clear to me during that that I'm not at all sure what the correct way to spell "derogatory" is. Oh, look at that. I got it write every time. Not so lucky with "parenthetical" though.

Day...10? I think 10. On with it.