SDF

Those are the three letters I’ve been tagging onto the end of each writing session since forever. Everybody do this? I can’t not do it. Just a way a laying claim to the blank page, like. Same way you leave your jacket on the seat in the theater, saying you’ll be right back, that this stands for you, that you’re not leaving, you’re going to finish this thing. However, after a while I did learn to teach each of my Pages or Words or WordPerfects or whatever to ‘learn’ this spelling—to please not put a squiggly line under it.

As for why those three letters, it’s just that that’s where the fingers of my left hand sit, and kind of like when a pianist (or, anybody, I guess) does that ‘trill’ down the keys, where they just swipe left to write, hitting them all? That’s what starting at the left is for me: it suggests that things are about to rise, and quickly, loudly. And, though I’m all the way against ritualizing writing, still, guess I’ve fallen into it some as well, in that, if I accidentally tag an ‘sdfs” at the front of the chapter, to erase the next day, replace with ‘real’ story, well, I have to go back, kill that extra ‘s.’ Not just because spellcheck doesn’t know the plural form, but because I try to be a decent person, and, while decent people CAN ‘sdf’ to their heart’s content, ‘sdfs’ or anything further down the qwerty, that’s dangerous territory. For me at least.

And the placement of the blinking cursor is of absolutely paramount importance. Obviously.