Sorry loyal ones, I've been MIA again ... got back from my holiday and went smack into full-throttle life and couldn't seem to catch my breath or sit still long enough to post. But the call of the blog has been big, and for those still with me (you crazy, wonderful, loyal peeps), I promise to reward your loyalty with more schtuff.
And today (a few days late, but still here ...) another offering of The Writing Thing.
I recently uncovered the fabulous Wordle website and decided it was the perfect place for writers to play.
Wordle's a cool application that takes whatever words you throw at it and magically makes them into what they call "word clouds." (kinda like a visual poem). What makes them so fabulous for The Writing Thing, is that you just write a bunch of words - no sense needed - into their "Paste in a bunch of text" box, and then you hit the "go" button, and voila, you've got yourself a visual poem. (yours to futz with in multi colors and layouts to your obsessed hearts content) (not that i'd know anything about 'obsessed' ...)
Here's a sample using lyrics from Van-the-Man's Into the Mystic:
What I love about wordling your words is that it helps to remove your editor. Since it's just a bunch of words randomly tossed, you can simply spill out with whatever wants to come out (it doesn't have to mean anything in particular), and it still winds up feeling pretty brilliant. (a fabulous exercise for the too-attached-to-having-to-make-it-perfect sorta writer)
You can save your brilliance on Wordle's Gallery, or take a screenshot and save it for yourself/your blog (what, you think i knew how to do that w/out the help of the fabulous wiki-how?)
Give it a go yourself and then head to the comments section and leave a link to your work on the Wordle Gallery, or your blog.
If you need help getting started, pick out a word from my wordle (or van's ...), and use that as your jumping-off place.