I finished going through another edit on the second part of my piece about grief. The one about seagulls. It was meant to be something brief but it 658 words. That is a lot for me lately. It felt like a slab of meat in front of me. It leans on the fantastical, a fairytale of sorts. I am sure I mentioned before my love for the surreal the problem for me at times is that I tend to overwrite, I blame it on my sometimes overactive imagination. Well, I suppose when you tap into something deep, everything tends to run out? This piece began with single seagull, a sound, an idea, and then thoughts about different types of loss. Mine and others. It is also about love and healing. All things are surreal in themselves because they manifest so differently that it sometimes can be astounding or horrifying or comforting.
But back to the edit. I split the piece at its weakest spot. The spot where when reading aloud, I stumbled over it. Tongue, twisted. The second part was where it became more fantastical, so it was good that I’d split it because I could really focus on it. Tighten up and take out any fluff, no matter how well written.
maudlin (adj.)
c. 1600, "tearful, weeping" (a sense now obsolete), from Middle English fem. proper name Maudelen (early 14c.), from Magdalene (Old French Madelaine), woman's name, who in the Middle Ages was believed to be identical with the repentant sinner forgiven by Jesus in Luke vii.37 (see Magdalene). Thus in paintings, she often was shown weeping as a sign of repentance. Meaning "characterized by tearful sentimentality, over-emotional" is recorded by 1630s. Also in old slang "tipsy, foolish from drink" (by 1700), from maudlin-drunk (1610s) "in the sentimental and tearful stage of intoxication."
also from c. 1600