'Twas brillig

I am the proud possessor of a double degree from my undergraduate college. The first is in Biology (hence my current pursuit), and the second is in English. I love English. I love reading, I like writing, and it has always come easily to me. But, because I was fairly certain I wasn't disciplined enough to pound away at the keyboard (or typewriter or page) even when I wasn't feeling inspired, I never indulged in the fantasy that I would ever pursue a higher degree in it.

Turns out the joke is on me, though, because writing is an integral part of science too... just as tedious but without all the lovely turns of phrase, similes, and metaphors.  Turns out that, even when you're not feeling inspired, manuscripts still need to be written. Alas.

Anyway, I've decided to try and write a poem a day in October. Rough, right? It doesn't have to be anything decent (and no, I'm not going to post them all here), and I'm sure I'll be relying on word prompts as the month progresses... I'm still trying to decide if haiku is an acceptable option.

I'd still consider myself to fall under the umbrella of "novice writer" -- someone who still feels like they shouldn't have to work at writing if they have some innate sense of it being fun. Which, of course, ties directly back into why it is highly unlikely I could ever be an actual writer of fictional things. BUT, if I could, how lovely would it be to have a word I created become absorbed into the vernacular? Lewis Carroll, one of my favorite authors, did it (chortle? One of my favorite words!), along with Shakespeare (of course)... and, I believe, more recently, Mark Twain? 

In the current day it's a bit harder to get made-up words entrenched enough via societal use to get them into the dictionary, but it sure would be fun. Hell, it would be super fun to somehow transport back to when our language did exhibit that sort of plasticity and see what sorts of words I could get into circulation.  Or, perhaps, what sort of words I could remake to have different meanings. Spam? No longer a questionable meat mish-mash. Instead, it refers to the a type of weed with a yellow flower that pops up in springtime.... used in the following way; "I didn't spread the weedkiller, so my lawn is full of spam." (singular = spam; plural= spam).