JB's June Writing Challenge: E is for ... Entertainment

Today's topic suggestion came courtesy of my sister from another mister, the incomparable J.T. Ellison, thus proving yet again that she can read my mind.

Yesterday I was tickled by this wild hair to "organize" my Internet Favorites into some semblance of order. I have a lot of sites and pages "favorited," ones that I like to visit often, for research or relaxation or whatever. I created a few new folders in which to group my favorite sites so they would be easier for me to find without having to scroll down through the rather lengthy list--alphabetic or not, if I think categorically things are much simpler in my mind. (Which reminds me that the WMVR always said I had a mental Rolodex--totally off topic, but related in an abstract way.) One of the new folders I created yesterday is called "Distractions & Entertainment." Ha! J.T. hit my Facebook page this morning with the "Entertainment" topic suggestion, not knowing, of course, what I had done yesterday with my web pages. Coincidence? I think not. She knows me so well.

For giggles, I look up the word "entertainment" online at Dictionary.com (one of my favorites, of course, categorized under "Writing Stuff"), and two of the five listed definitions jump out at me as relevant to my current train of thought. To wit:

entertainment: n."1. agreeable occupation for the mind; diversion; amusement;" and "2. a divertingly adventurous, comic, or picaresque novel."

Then I look up picaresque and find this definition: "Pertaining to, characteristic of, or characterized by a form of prose fiction, originally developed in Spain, in which the adventures of an engagingly roguish hero are described in a series of usually humorous or satiric episodes that often depict, in realistic detail, the everyday life of the common people."

This is brain food, people. Entertainment at its level best.

What's really funny about all this (between yesterday's topic and today's) is that as a writer, I often equate the two: entertainment = distraction. My favorite forms of entertainment (books, movies, puzzles, word games) are usually the ones that distract me from the writing. See yesterday's post for further details.

So, writers, are these terms synonymous for you, too? If so, what kind of limits do you try to place on yourself when indulging in your distractions?

Until tomorrow, when I shall attempt to wax poetic on some random (and clean, ahem) topic that starts with "F", read a book. It's good for you.