Writing

Sort of like my father has his Old Guy and the Demon, now I'm stuck with an angel talking to a cop in a bar. Only it's nowhere near as interesting. The cop (and the reader) needs some exposition, and the angel wants to provide it, but it's still a big ol' chunk of history/mythology. I'm left looking at it going "What if anything can I make another home for? Does it really all have to be right here?" I mean, we're dealing with a recounting of the "real" story of the fall of man, and the reasons why the mean nasties are doing mean and nasty things. The cop needs it in order to go left when he would have otherwise gone right, but it's still slow and rather dry. Maybe I'll try shuffling things around and see if there's anywhere between point A, where the cop exits a preceding scene at the end of his workday, and point C, where he turns left instead of right, that a lull would fit better.

Heinlein on my mind

My previous post reminded me of one of Heinlein's of hand remarks. He once said, in response to the idea of him releasing his memoirs, that the life of a writer is a dull one and in order to make such a book interesting you either need to resort to talking about what this scrivener was doing when he wasn't writing or lie, or both. I just realized that technology has made that idea obsolete and author's livejournals don't follow that maxim (although I have no knowledge on the truthfulness aspect thereof :)

Sure there's a fair amount of talk about what this person gets up to when they are away from their desk, but let's face it, that's because there is a feeling that if one is writing about writing, why aren't they writing instead. However, the immediacy of the internet, as opposed to a retrospectively published book, allows the writing process to be entertaining as well. You can get segments like "words Word doesn't know", discussions of problem scenes, and even snipits of text from the rough draft that may or may not still exist in the final product. This all serves to pique the interest of readers towards the book, but can also be entertaining in it's own right. Most of those interested in reading about the lives of writers are interested in the writing process as well, and guides on writing never quite convey the reality the way these blogs do.

Questions

Is it normal for me to be able to identify that a product contains Splenda (sucralose) by scent alone? As in, before I even taste it? Any guesses as to why someone would put that crap in strawberry jelly?!? And any suggestions On what I should do with a just barely started jar of same?

I tried spreading it really thin in hopes that the smell of peanut butter would overpower the scent, and that the taste would be fine, but either that didn't work, or my mind overrode my tastebuds because I know that stuff is in there. Ugh, even saccharin and aspartame taste better in my opinion.