Exuberant Imperfection (Time to Talk)

Exuberant imperfection is like going to Charlie Wonka's Chocolate Factory for me. I taught English for 38 years and carried a very feisty monkey on my back. English teacher's mistakes never go undetected by the public.

This monkey when coupled the six- ton elephant in my mind, made for a miserable life. Momma taught me to strive to be perfect and then pointed out repeatedly why I was not perfect. As an example, the first time in my life I made straight A's, I was so happy I couldn't wait to show Momma. She took the card, looked it over, and said," What's the minus in history for?"

Exuberant imperfection forged the path for me in accepting the novel challenge. It wasn't just that the rules stated not to worry about mistakes, redundancy, use of passive verbs, misplaced modifiers, and any other bug-a-boos. It was the rules stating exuberantly and emphatically that I couldn't go back to re-read or change anything until the 50,000th word was written. Chris Baty told me I could make all the boo-boos I wanted and they would not publicly humiliate me. Instead, hundreds of people would cheer me on. He was absolutely correct.

The biggest payoff was that my supporters were not interested in anything but my reaching the 50,000 words in 30 days. Nothing else occurred to them. Now all my former students and friends on Facebook think I am some kind of Hero. They think I have a book ready for the printing presses. I accept all their adoration while smiling mischievously and feeling great about myself.

Give me an F!
Give me an R!
Give me an E!
Give me another E!
Give me an D!
Give me an O!
Give me an M
What do ya' got?
Exuberant imperfection!
Go Team NaNo!