Stuffy Stuffy Grammar Gal O/

2024.09.23

Good morning that wonderful way.

Here, there, everywhere. This day. That day. Who's got the rub? The rub a dub dub bub, that's who.

Boo. The friendly neighborhood Ghos+ here.

How do you know what to write about, Ghos+?

I don't start with thinking; I start with words and follow the rhythm.

It's much more interesting that way.

There's prose. That's a prompt. You tell the story.

B. Ueland calls the manner I use, "Microscopic Truthfulness." If you're a writer, I recommend her book, it's one of my favorites. "If You Want to Write."

The best books have the simplest titles, almost always prepositions.

They're unfinished; you have to read the book for closure.

Sonorous, too.

Flowery, too.

With most of our communications being textual these days, the ability to craft beautiful sentences takes centerstage. There's a level of respect and necessity that wasn't there decades ago.

Like if everyone knew how to play the violin, we'd better recognize the best players. That's the state of the sentence these days.

Grammar is a canvas and not a prison. It's always been that way. It's a musician going off the beaten melody for a little jazz for self-expression.

Sometimes I dangle my clauses, sometimes I run on, sometimes I go to verse, sing a little song.

The voice of which would've been respected for it's exceptionality decades ago, but these days it's just better everyday communication.

The paragraphs are text message sized.

Sometimes there's a wall of text. Sometimes a word.

You should only, on very rare occasions, send your loved one an auto-reply. And, as I do send you some love, I'll do my best not to hit the AI assumption button.

Least I can do is send you a well considered emoji.

Stuffy Stuffy Grammar Gal with her dangling adverbs stuffed in her scholarly skirt will tell you an emoji does not literature make.

I'd ask her if Egyptian hieroglyphs do.

Then, stop talking to her. There are much better pro-evolutionary things to do.

It's a convention, though. You wouldn't write a whole novel in exclamatory phrases. The period and question marks would get lonely.

It requires a first person narrative to pull it off. Unless it's in dialogue, where it's best used. Quotation marks followed by 'he said,' 'she said' business are so rarely done well.

You could toss in a :D, or a :P, or if you're really bold XD.

In quotes, though.
An interesting idea.

The important thing, like everything else in writing, is that it goes with the flow of the conveyance.

A Victorian romance, set in Victorian times, would not have a cellphone, so it should not contain emojis.

Simple rules.
Flow rules.

So much is dependent on time.

The battery went low on this machine.

Sometimes we all ought to unplug to recharge.

Another difference we have with machines.

We plug them in to charge, and unplug ourselves to recharge.

Take care and have your better day.