The Random Crap Thread 2: It Hits the Fan.
- Thread starter North_Ranger
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GasBandit
Staff member
I noticed that about me, but with sentence structures. I find that my sentences are often really rigid, subject-verb-object, with minimal flair. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I'm trying to diversify.
Also, uh... pet peeve, but... ahem... poring.
I deliberately try to avoid that sort of thing by rotating vocabulary. That is, if I have to say the same thing repeatedly, the repeats will be synonyms until enough prose has passed that I can reuse the original word again.
--Patrick
Heh, this reminds me of a translator I got recently who did this, presumably to avoid sounded repetitive.
The problem? He was translating a legal document. I'm all like, "Dude, a contract needs to be called a contract. Stop calling it an agreement, or a document, or a text, or a paper, or a memorandum, or a..."
Oh, I'll admit there are times when it's not the right thing to do (for instance, when specific terms are required), but for prose it's good to mix it up a bit. Contracts and legal stuff might as well be programming, as much as the syntax matters, but general prose shouldn't be a checkerboard mosaic, it should be Penrose tiles.
--Patrick
--Patrick
fade
Staff member
Rotating vocabulary deliberately in fiction writing can be very off-putting, too, though. Look at e.g. Maguire's Wicked series. It's clear he intentionally mixes his vocabulary (probably with a thesaurus), and it's uncomfortable. Archaic words upon which your prose depends to move forward make for irritated readers.
"Actually" and "generally" are my words. Especially when lecturing.[DOUBLEPOST=1423232009,1423231901][/DOUBLEPOST]“One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
"Actually" and "generally" are my words. Especially when lecturing.[DOUBLEPOST=1423232009,1423231901][/DOUBLEPOST]“One of the really bad things you can do to your writing is to dress up the vocabulary, looking for long words because you're maybe a little bit ashamed of your short ones. This is like dressing up a household pet in evening clothes. The pet is embarrassed and the person who committed this act of premeditated cuteness should be even more embarrassed.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
"Apparently" is the one of mine that comes to mind at the moment.
It's a style. Theodore Geisel made a career out of reusing words and homonyms to great effect. It's a thing that has plenty of valid applications ("Moses supposes his toeses are roses..."), but when this repetition is done thoughtlessly/carelessly, it can be the prose/auditory equivalent of a typographical river. During the creative process, which is much slower, it might go unnoticed, but when performing a second verification pass through completed material (to check context and flow), the proximity of the similarities becomes more obvious.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
People on this very board used to routinely (and egregiously, if you ask me) accuse me of intentionally sesquipedalianizing my posts, as if I was typing with one hand and flipping through a thesaurus with the other. This is simply the manner in which I write naturally.
fade
Staff member
I use "apparently" a lot on this forum intentionally. Because I learned long ago some people are very touchy and argumentative if anyone says anything that sounds absolute.
We are not touchy and argumentative!
Especially about absolutes!
I find when I'm typing I either write in pseudo point form (see above), or I have caveats in the middle of sentences (see previous).
On here, I am an abuser of parenthesese (how do you spell that?), and commas. ... Oh! and elipses. Horrible habits, particularly the later two.
Everywhere else, the vast majority of what I write is for oral presentation, so punctuation markings are used as visual cues for vocal modifications, not grammatical correctness or readability.
Everywhere else, the vast majority of what I write is for oral presentation, so punctuation markings are used as visual cues for vocal modifications, not grammatical correctness or readability.
Have your peeps not been clearing out access to the storm drains so that when all this f-ing snow melts you get a skating rink for a road or something?
Or do I just not want to know?
I overuse "clearly"...it's my bane.
Becoming an author makes you a lot more aware (or at least it should!) of the words you and others use, much like how my radio listening changed after I'd become a musician.
Becoming an author makes you a lot more aware (or at least it should!) of the words you and others use, much like how my radio listening changed after I'd become a musician.
I do this all the time if I'm talking online or via text. I think it's to emphasize how I would sound if I were having the conversation in person, as opposed to grammatical correctness. I don't do it with formal documents.
GasBandit
Staff member
Yeah, but I don't post the SWF that makes it official until I get off work.
I'm sure it's more that people aren't used to the idea that someone as argumentative as you, as outwardly liberal (or just anti-status quo) as you, and as downright stubborn as you might actually be intelligent (and noticeably above-average, at that). 'Cuz let's face it, the stereotype of the loudmouth Southerner is quite the opposite.
--Patrick
Went out to give blood today, but I mixed up the addresses and when I got there they were finishing up . Getting home was a bitch, construction EVERYWHERE. Afterwards I went to Angelos talked with my friend who worked there about DC comics, his shock that bronies exist, and stuff in general. After I finished my food, went to pay...and a previous customer payed for my food. Huh...that was nice.
GasBandit
Staff member
Ok, NOW it is OFFICIALLY FRIDAAAAAAAY!!!
Cajungal
Staff member
About to post my picture of the day on facebook. A friend has posted a link that says "Don't marry a man who does any of these things!"
...Okay, I'll bite, friend. They're all pretty obvious-- if he beats you, emotionally abuses you, doesn't contribute... but nestled between these horrible offenses is... watches porn.
*starts singing one of these things is not like the other*
...Okay, I'll bite, friend. They're all pretty obvious-- if he beats you, emotionally abuses you, doesn't contribute... but nestled between these horrible offenses is... watches porn.
*starts singing one of these things is not like the other*
Maybe she just doesn't believe in marriage, that's what I'm getting from that.
I did too good a job cleaning the toilet and now I don't want anyone to use it.
GasBandit
Staff member
"Lupus is in the lavatory making a big stink,
Macing up the toilet seat and pooping in the sink." - Jimmy Pop, The Bloodhound Gang, "You're Pretty When I'm Drunk," Use Your Fingers, 1995.
Did you get tracking?
figmentPez
Staff member
Before I was a regular on Halforums, I used to frequent one of the largest Christian forums on the internet (which has since gone under, because they stupidly switched from an actual forum to a Facebook group). Among the posters on the Singles and Young Adults sub-forums were numerous women who not only said that they wouldn't marry a man who watches porn, but wouldn't even date a man if they knew he'd ever looked at porn. It didn't matter to them if the guy had looked at some as a teen and not again in his adult life, they were so terrified of what they think porn does to someone, that they couldn't even stand the idea of being with a guy who had ever committed that sin.
It reminds me a lot of how some health nuts view food. I remember back in the late 80s / early 90s, when fat was heavily villainized, and there were all sorts of fad foods that were low-fat and fat-free. Including entire lines of cookies and other desserts that were fat-free. It's a lot easier to just say "fat is bad" than it is to actually pay attention to the nuances of what makes a healthy diet. Similarly, there's no nuance to how many Christians view sexuality. It's not always as extreme as "sex is bad", but it's often "sexual immorality is bad, and sexual immorality is anything I don't do".