Writing

One-Liner Wednesday — Deep Thoughts

Fandango24 Comments

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“It is better to speak profoundly to just one than to blather at a world of idiots.”

Suze who blogs at “Suziland Too or Obsolete Childhood”

Yesterday I wrote a post in which I bemoaned how my blog stats were recently in a nosedive. I admit that I was being a bit whiny, and that’s when Suze put me in my place. She commented, “It is better to speak profoundly to just one than to blather at a world of idiots…yes, you can quote me.”

To which, knowing that today, Wednesday, is Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt, I replied, “I just may do that. Stay tuned!”

I thought that Suze’s highly inspirational and motivational one-liner perfectly fit the bill for this prompt. I believe that Suze was telling me that

  1. I shouldn’t give quantity a higher priority than quality,
  2. most of my posts are nothing more than me blathering on about nothing,
  3. most of the people who read my blog are idiots,
  4. all of the above, or
  5. none of the above.

In any event, I thought Suze’s comment was, in and of itself, profound. Unfortunately, she has now set the bar quite high for me because I feel as though it’s incumbent upon me to come up with something profound to post about.

Omigod, where is Jack Handey when I need him?3A9F642F-96FA-47D1-8E56-1EB1EA37F669

 

One-Liner Wednesday — The Way You Write

Fandango22 Comments

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“Don’t write so that you can be understood, write so that you can’t be misunderstood.”

President William Howard Taft

Actually, I try to do both. I write so that the message my words are attempting to convey can be easily understood. And in doing so, I hope that I won’t be misunderstood.

You see, I’m a rather ordinary writer and my writings are not very complex. I don’t have too many hidden meanings or twists and turns. So it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon or a brain scientist to get my drift. Know what I mean?

I am a logical, rational thinker and I try to write that way as well. That is one of the reasons I am not a big fan of poetry. Poetry hurts my head. I am intimidated by most poems (outside of limericks). Not only do I not understand poetry, I often misunderstand what the poet is trying to say.

My most dreaded moments in high school literature classes were when the teacher would call on me and ask, “Fandango, what do you think the poet was telling us?” My responses to such questions often turned into word salad. I would hope that, when strung together, my words would sound insightful. They never did.

Anyway, I’ve meandered way off topic and my one-liner post has gone on for way too long.

Happy Wednesday.

Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt.

SoCS — All About the Noun

Fandango9 Comments

F20C39CA-980F-45B7-B94B-481B7FB740DCNouns: you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them. Am I right, or what?

Nouns are words used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things. And while necessary, nouns mostly just sit there. In and of themselves, they don’t do much. Well, except for pronouns like “you” and “me,” “her” and “him,” “them” and “us.” I take pronouns personally.

But when it comes right down to it, I prefer verbs over nouns. Verbs are words used to describe an action, state, or occurrence. Verbs do things while nouns just hang out waiting for verbs to do things to, with, on, or around them.

Take the sentence, “He ate my ice cream.” The words “he,” “my,” and “ice cream” are nouns. (Well, technically, in this sentence the word “ice” might be considered an adjective, as it’s describing a type of cream. It’s ice cream and not sour cream or whipped cream. That said, “ice” can also be a noun, as in “Do you have any ice?”)

But I digress. The key to this sentence is not who did what to whom, but what action was done. He ate my ice cream. He could have done other things to my ice cream, like dropped it or melted it or tossed it. But he ate it. And for that act, I hate him. I really wanted to eat that ice cream myself, dammit.

So be aware, nouns, you may be the subject of — and even the object of — nearly every sentence, but it’s verbs where the action is.

And not to pile on, nouns, but it’s adjectives that make you interesting. It’s adjectives that give you color and size and depth and personality. Without adjectives, nouns, you’re kinda boring and lifeless. And without verbs, you ain’t doing much of anything.

Written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. The challenge is to simply to start your post with a noun.

Doppelgänger

Fandango1 Comment

14EF8713-1EF5-4168-8BAC-0E91BA9B07E1Today’s one-word prompt is the word “doppelgänger.” It turns out that just last month, as part of the A to Z Challenge, I wrote a post, “D is for Doppelgänger.” It was one of my more popular posts for the A to Z Challenge, second only to “M is for Masturbate.”

So, rather than taking the time to craft another doppelgänger post on this Memorial Day Saturday, I am going to link back to my previous post on this word. If you’d care to read it, feel free to click here.

SoCS — The Handwriting is on the Wall

Fandango9 Comments

BF1EF888-67D8-4F09-B8D7-9C4DDDE06F0CToday’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt from Linda G. Hill asks us to use the word “letter” in our post or to theme our post on any meaning of that word.

The first thing that came to mind for me was last month’s A to Z Challenge, for which I posted 26 times, one post for each letter of the alphabet.

Next, I thought about the phrase “the letter of the law” and how are current president has seemed quite willing to flout it nearly every day since he was sworn into office almost a year and a half ago.

And then I thought about a line from the song “The Letter” by the Box Tops, with a cover by Joe Cocker, that goes, “My baby, just-a wrote me a letter.”

And that made me wonder about the last time I actually sat down and wrote anyone a handwritten letter. I can’t remember. Maybe not in this century.

I don’t often write in longhand (i.e., cursive) anymore, primarily because my handwriting is not very legible. Even to me. So on those extremely rare occasions when I need to send someone a physical letter — when an email or a text message just won’t do — I sit at my computer, compose the letter, print it out, sign it, fold the paper, stick it in an envelope, affix postage to the envelope, and take it to the post office.

Because, if I’m going to go through all of that trouble to “write” someone a letter, I sure as shit want them to be able to read it.