anastasia.kirk's blog

It’s sad. In these times, in this culture, in a society that treats human beings as laborious robots with an endless capacity to work, is it any surprise that- in between juggling full-time school and two jobs- I’ve been deathly ill five times since September? And then, after overworking has made me sick, I am told I have no choice but to work my meaningless jobs because they are my responsibility and my bosses are sure that it is somehow my own fault that I am sick. So now I sit here feeling guilty- It must be my fault that I am sick.

I have a problem with this “favourite words” exercise. I don’t like words. I like the art of forming sentences out of words. Words alone are worth very little (unless you get a “Z” word in Scrabble). But when you put words together you paint a picture. Different words and synonyms work differently in different contexts and situations. Duh, right? While this may seem pretty straight-forward, many writers don’t get this. I like tools like hyperboles and alliteration (love, love, love understated alliteration), but the words themselves, when standing alone, do not have an effect on me.

“The boys came early to the hanging.”

• Ken Follet: “Pillars of the Earth”

This is by far and hands down my favourite sentence I have ever read in a book. It is the opening sentence in Pillars of the Earth, which, by the way, is an absolute must-read for anybody who enjoys reading or writing. As a writer, I am very picky about what I read. Bad writing is rampant and I’ve put down more books than I’ve ever read in entirety.