What used to come easily now takes a moment or two of concentration. Honestly, I try to stay out of the exposition trap, but sometimes the story needs a bit of placement for it to get out of the starting gate. For dramatic effect it’s far better to jump right in and let the characters run with the plot, but this new story needs a bit of exposition to get moving. It’s good to know I have a starting point, though it is 858 words in and an end point when a potential might have been is turned into a definite it’s not time, yet.

I guess it comes from a playwriting class I took back in the late Eighties and learned the lesson of having the characters run the show.

Have you ever thought about the word “behead”? Why isn’t it “dehead” or “unhead.” There is decapitate though, if you’re looking to “de” someone’s head without resorting to a word that came into use before the Thirteenth Century. And, whatever happened to beheading as a means of execution? Did America ever delve into the realm of deheading before settling on a short rope slung over a stout limb? I don’t know, but it’s one of those things that bug me.