You're not going to get that here, grammatical correctness. Sorry. Just gonna say that up front. Many words and phrases are as bland as broccoli and chicken. The way I cook 'em is I use spices, and in doing this blog, I'm pulling out all the stops on what might be termed 'correct usage'. Thus, when yesterday I inserted the assemblage 'most worstest' to describe a theoretical event, I paused. "Will the reader shy away from my future blog posts because I wrote 'most worstest'? Will astute purveyors of the English language turn up their noses at me and say "It was okay to read his stuff- until he used 'most worstest'! After that I couldn't read his offerings anymore, because he's gone off the deep end".
Now I know that 'most worstest' is an aberration. When I typed that I paused, but thought "Ach, what the hell" and left it in there. "They'll be ok wit it 'cuz they know that's how I roll".
Says it all
Kai Oberhauser- Unsplash.com
I'm also gonna use 'gonna', 'ain't', ''sposin'', and all the other twisted and strange vernacular I hear on the street, on commercials, in the movies, on the web, in geek speak, whatever. Those flavorful words are my spice rack. Ain't gonna be no holdback and I will be the judge as to whether I've pushed things too far because I know that what I write has to flow, be understood, and make sense. Those are my goals. I'm not deliberately trying to make my words or phrases so florid ('elaborately decorated') that they can't be understood, no, I want the opposite. I want comprehension to dawn. And to that end, words used in very particular ways can point the reader to what lies beyond words because words can only say so much.
Dig- (another favorite word of mine) the English language has 50,000 plus words in it, many of them archaic or little used. Might as well use them if they're in the arsenal, right? And if people don't understand a word, they can look it up. Just takes a sec. Also, punctuation has punch so I use it. Italics, bold lettering, the use of capital letters, special symbols, parenthesis, quotation marks, etc. Every key on the keyboard has a use.
That said, there are things I can't stand and won't allow in my writing. Misspelling. This is rampant on Craigslist. It is abominable and I will not allow it! Typographical errors. These I search diligently for and are things I notice from time to time in other people's writings. Typos are easy to make and sometimes hard to spot. I might let a few slip from time to time- totally unintentionally- because I'm rushed, usually. I try not to let misspells slip but if they do, same reason.
Lern how too spel!
Ben Hershey- Unsplash.com
There was a movie made not long ago, a remake actually, called 'True Grit' with Jeff Bridges in it. A character in that movie, a young girl, spoke the most archaic English. She didn't use contractions, which I use almost exclusively. Instead of saying "I don't, I can't, I won't" she would say "I do not, I can not, I will not" and it sounded so labored. Tell you what, you talk like that and you will definitely stick out from any crowd. "What are ya, a preacher?".
I've been writing for thirty, forty years and I STILL don't get all the intricacies of the English language. The English language has amazing artistic potential. Who wouldn't use the language to it's fullest capability? Everybody tries to, consciously or unconsciously, but sadly not many are really good at it. I guess their interests lie elsewhere.
Writing takes constant practice. There are words floating around in your head, yeah, everybody's got those, but transferring that ethereal material to actual written form is the difference between writing dreck and producing art. I hope to produce art (and meaning) so the path narrows where I wander. If you can go there with me, if you can follow, comprehend, and digest what is being offered, I think you'll find some tasty dishes that are sure to please.
If that's too little for ya, there's fare like the always brilliant analysis of current events done by Richard North Patterson (how does he do it?) or if that's too much for ya, there's always the dialogue scrolling by on your closed captioning text screens when you watch TV shows.
There's content, and then there's filler. I can't make the choice for you, I can only offer up what I produce. Choose from the menu and see if it hits the spot!