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| 24 October 2003 |
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I'm Obvious Man!
So, the final tweaking of the novel has been coming along fairly well. My wife has been reading the hard copy and marking those glaring grammatical problems that I will always overlook because it's just so hard to change the writing one more time. In my silly head, it sounds fine, so why waste the time, right? Wrong. The changes we're making now are really a wonderful final touch. Very little is crucial, but most of it is making the narrative flow more smoothly. Indeed, a few changes have made the writing just sing. Of course, getting rid of all those pesky adverbs and "quites" and "rathers" that I rather like is a good thing. And there are quite a lot of them, too.
In the midst of this, I'm finding several phrases in which I am clearly trying to emphasize something, but just end up making it sound silly by redundancy. And saying the same thing again. Repeating myself, really. Anyway, as some of these are darn funny, I thought I'd share:
"...was preposterous and totally unbelievable." 'Cause you see, it's not just preposterous, but also totally unbelievable!
"Joe was a younger man in his late twenties...." As opposed to all those younger men of 92
"Joe took a deep breath of air...." because liquid nitrogen was in terribly short supply just then
"He'd taught briefly at NYU for a year." Yes, it was a year of 5-minute long sessions. Power education at its finest!
And that's all for now. I'm sure there'll be more, and I shall post them as they come up. 'Cause if you can't share your silly writing moments with others, what's the good of them? |
Jelly Pinched Wolf 6:53 PM
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| 13 October 2003 |
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The Car Must Die
I'm even this close to being serious.
Howdy, friends and neighbours! Been a while, I know. But being online blogging has not been a top priority of late. Also, I just frankly haven't had much to say. It happens. Things shall be changing, though. A great deal, in fact. As my wife was working up her redesign over at Synonyms and Sugar, she turned to me and asked if I might want one as well. And you know, I do. Full makeover, in fact. You see, beyond the wanting for a new look, the tone of this blog has changed more recently. I don't have the time to keep up on all the fun political and cultural ado going on in the world, and so the opinion-machine that my brain sometimes devolves into isn't really feeling motivated anymore. So then, a change is in the works (subject to my wife's free time and availability what with school kicking her butt and all), and with it I shall focus on my writing, as I intend to start doing more of it now that the novel's done. And yes, this may actually mean more posts. As many of my friends know, I can go on for hours about my writing. The planned new look of the blog (including a new name) will focus on that. So here's your heads-up. Can't give you an ETA, but just know we aren't slacking here in the Jelly-Pinched home.
Now back to the car. I hates it. It needs to die. We finally get my wife a working (and very personable, I might add) car, and mine decides to go into apoplectic fits. At a time when we really can't afford such things. I replaced the rear tires, as they were needing it. Shortly thereafter, the Anti-Lock Brake System light came on for no reason. A few days later, the car ceased desiring to start. Checked the battery, and the low cranking amps and slight bulge on the side suggested it was bad. Replace. Yay, all is good, right? Nope. Few days later, here comes the ABS light again, and then yesterday the blasted vehicle decided to strand us at the Container Store. Jonathon has saved us countless times, and yesterday evening was no exception. It's now in the hands of ProCare, and I can only pray that it's as simple as a bad alternator, because if it's a short, this is gonna hurt. I hate my car.
But I'm not letting it get me down, because today's our second anniversary, and not even a lame car can ruin that. We had a lovely evening out Saturday (knowing that Monday was not conducive to such things), but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the import of today. As my wife said on her blog, two years isn't so much in light of how much lies before us yet, but since every moment is part of the whole, one can't help but sit back and just marvel. Wow, two years! And what's great is that it's still just the beginning. There's so much left to look forward to. Possibly even more dead cars. Who can say? But you know what? At least I know my wife will be right there with me, shaking her head in time with mine, when those cars croak. |
Jelly Pinched Wolf 6:55 PM
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