Duct Tape and Windex

Duct tape can be used for almost everything. You can make a prom dress out of it (and enter a contest), if you're a criminal you can "tie" someone up, from hands together, to affixing them to a chair, or other such things as well as slapping a piece over your hostage. You can duct tape together two seemingly unrelated parts of almost anything. Duct tape can even be used for its original intention: working on duct work! I know, that's amazing, isn't it?

Windex can clean almost anything. How about cleaning your stove top? Or the counter tops in the kitchen? Yep, Windex can do the job. How about cleaning windows in the car? Cleaning the refrigerator? You can even use it, too, for its original intention: cleaning windows or mirrors.

When working on a novel or article, we often use duct tape to tie together two parts of the story that don't fit, kinda like the proverbial square peg in a round hole. And if we spray a little Windex in, we're hoping we can slide that reluctant square into the round hole.

But it doesn't work, does it? If you reread your story at the point where you applied duct tape, it becomes patently obvious that we didn't take the time to really revise right, instead of giving up and saying that it won't matter. Believe you me, if you can see this flaw in your writing, others will, too, so it behooves the writer to fix the problem with the right words, instead of trying to force something to work.

Writers also try and use Windex to clean up a problem area. Again, it is the lazy writer who does this to their own peril. Just like with the duct tape fix, savvy writers can spot the problem area in a second.

I know it is easy to want to use the duct tape or Windex solution in "fix" something in our writing, but we should really resist that, and take the time and effort to fix the problems with that section of your writing instead of hoping no one else sees the problem, too.

Toss out that duct tape and Windex...ah, unless you're using them for duct work and cleaning windows!