Writing

[sartorias]

Today's riff is on writers and bad advice.

Yesterday I went up to workshop with the Greater Los Angeles Writers' Organization. What fun that was! There is always a heady energy being around other writers. Everybody gets it. I don't feel like an extra thumb. And so much talent!

Comments

[bummble]

Great post & comments: bookmarked it!

[sartorias]

Thanks!

[la_marquise_de_]

Wonderful: thank you. (I'm with Cora: I hate the whole 'use brisk masculine prose' thing that bans the passive voice, Latinate words, adverbs... anything with any nuance.)

[la_marquise_de_]

The prohibitions against latinate words always bother me as well. Whenever some style guru goes on about the evil of latinate words, I want to say, "Folks, the Norman Conquest was almost a millennium ago. It's really time to get over it and stop defending your Anglo-Saxon identity all the time."

There is a German comedian who - in reaction to all of those complaints that the German language is being overrun by evil foreign words (mostly English these days, but French and latinate words aren't popular either) - came up with Siegfriedisch, a version of the German language that is completely free of any words of Non-Germanic origin. The results are hilarious.

Blanket prohibitions of "foreign" words are another of my pet peeves, though that seems to be more of a problem with German.

Cora

[sartorias]

Siegfriedish? That sounds like fun!

[3rdragon]

I will say that after reading an acquaintance's draft, I do suddenly have a LOT more understanding of why people don't like adverbs. (He used eight adverbs in the first paragraph, which was four sentences long, and things really DID get bogged down.) And thinking about it later did make me realize that we often use adverbs because our verbs are boring.

But I do use adverbs, and I don't intend to stop. I just make sure that when I use one, it's the right adverb, and the right place for an adverb.

[sartorias]

Very true!

[aanna_t]

The embarrassing thing is that, even though these rules are listed for being unhelpful, I started hyperventilating while reading them. I am such a gullible newbie.

[sartorias]

Heh! All things in moderation, that's the ticket!