Sell or Cell? That is the question: whether it’s nobler to
strike out into the world to market words, risking rejection, or to rest
content within self-defined bars of a cell, risking nothing and gaining the
same. Wordsmith wanted rest but wasn’t content with nothing so he arranged
selected words in boxes of meaning called chapters inside a case called “novel”
then set out.
At the first house, he proclaimed: “Here’s something new.” A
haggard man with dark circles under his eyes pointed to a sign, “No Unsolicited
Words,” and closed the door. At the next house, a pert young woman pointed to
her sign, “Queries Only.” He had no query and that door closed too. At the end
of the day, he was exhausted from lugging words and discouraged by all the
closed doors.
Back in the cell, he rearranged words he already had into
one-page containers that briefly described the novel, who he was and the
location of his cell. Based on his previous exploration, he tailored
salutations to “Dear Blue House” or “Dear Red House.” Wordsmith set out the
next day and found queries much easier to carry.
One day, a house asked to see his words and later deemed
them “good” but surprised him with a list of revisions. So he remained in his
cell rearranging the original words. It was sell and cell, both.
