On Writing

Good stuff over at Pick The Brain. My favorite quote is from Mark Twain:

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain

Even if I'm very, very guilty of breaking the rule very, very, very often.

I'm not going to go on a big long rant about kids these days, primarily because I'm lazy, but I do hope that the difference between "chatting in text" and "writing" is not lost in my lifetime. I think chatting has its place, and I like the Shakespearian aspect of making language evolve to meet your needs. I love using "book" in place of "cool" (it's certainly no worse than some of the other words I've seen used for "cool").

I just hope that I never see my son use "Ur" on a term paper about anything other than the periodic table or ancient Mesopotamian cities. If he does, I may have to get Full Frontal on him.

(Please click the link to see that that statement is very, very, very much less sick than it sounds.)