Do You Have Impossibilities in Your Writing?

sheep and lamb

The poem below reminds me of some goofs I’ve read while perusing early writings of budding authors. The ones I’ve come across may not contrast as vividly as the lines in the poem below, but they do make the reader pause long enough to draw them out of the story. That’s something we all need to avoid.

One of my own goofs at school, was when I mentioned some mother lambs in a creative story I had to write. I still have that piece and my husband laughs when he thinks of it. Of course, there’s no such thing as a mother lamb. Funnily enough though, the teacher never corrected it at all.

Do you have an example of this?  What about He dived into his pocket? Is this acceptable? Please do let me know your favourite or most irritating example.

Read and enjoy the poem below, but be on your guard not to create similar impossibilities when writing.

A poem, author unknown.

One fine day in the middle of the night

Two dead boys got up to fight,

They lived on the corner, in the middle of a block,

On the second floor of a vacant lot,

One was blind and the other couldn’t see,

So they chose a dummy for their referee.

A blind man went to see fair play,

A dumb man went to shout, “Hooray!”

Back to back they faces each other,

Drew their swords and shot each other.

A deaf policeman heard the noise, and came to arrest the two dead boys.

A paralyzed donkey passing by

Kicked the blind man in the eye,

Knocked him through a nine inch wall

Into a dry ditch and drowned them all.

A mute onlooker shrieked in fright

And a lame man danced at the ghastly sight.

If you don’t believe this story’s true,

Ask the blind man he saw it too.