Jillian Chantal

Let’s chat a bit about that pesky word “Never”-  I’m not a fan of the word. It’s such a harsh word and there are really only a few times that it’s even appropriate to use. There are not many things that “never” happen or “never” occur. Even a particular statement that I’ve probably made a hundred times could actually turn out not to be true. I don’t like hot dogs. Abhor them, hate them, can’t abide the taste of them. Many times, I’ve said, “I’ll never eat a hot dog.” Or “Hot dogs will never pass these lips.”  Well, the truth of the matter is, if I was dying of starvation (literally- not just hungry),  and a hot dog was all that was available, I would most likely eat it. I know we’ve all heard of the Donner party in the 1840s in California. They got stuck on their trek across the mountains for the winter and many died. The survivors ate the dead to stay alive. I can betcha that before they set off, they would have said they would “never” eat a fellow human being.

So, you may be asking, what has got Jillian in a storm over this word, this week?  I’ll tell you. It’s this whole obsession with the word “never” in the fiction world. It gripes my soul when contest judges/editors/or even readers make statements that something in a book would “never” happen. First, of all, the world that is created is FICTION, baby! And second, even if the story is historical, some artistic license CAN be taken (other than, for example, having your Regency heroine in a red convertible BMW sports car instead of a barouche).  The really funny thing to me sometimes is the very thing that someone may say would “never” happen, may be the very thing that is either autobiographical in the story or that actually did happen to someone the writer knows.

Several years ago, I was in NYC walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and saw a guy from high school coming toward me. I hadn’t seen the guy in 25 years, yet here he was on the Brooklyn Bridge at the same time as me, many miles from the Florida town where I knew him all those years prior. That was weird, but I can bet if I put that in a book, someone would say that would “never” happen.  One of my friends, Romancemama, ran into the man that performed her sister in law’s wedding- on the street in JERUSALEM.  Bet she’d get that “never” word if she slid that in a story.

In short, to quote Sean Connery when he said he’d never play James Bond again and then came back to play the character in Never Say Never Again, “I’ll never say never again.” They actually named the movie that because of him.

So, promise me, dear readers of this blog, to endeavor not to attach the word “never” to someone’s work of fiction.