My moose has abs.
I had myself another adventure in the woods today. I kind of wonder what my neighbors think of me prancing around the woods in heels and a skirt, hauling a stool and a camera around and taking pictures of myself. Hmm. I really  hope that they’re gone during the day.
I’m trying out new makeup today. Well, sort of new. More eyeliner and definition. I think I like it. It’s darker in person than on camera.
12 Comments
Sarah
I love that article! Creative license! Creative license! I once wrote a paper that started with 3 or 4 incomplete sentences and turned it in to my college english professor who made me correct them. The trick is to not get carried away with creative license and disregard grammar too much.
I’m so glad you used my favorite photo for this week and I will spend much time trying to write a piece this week because of that. I’m so excited because I have such a great idea!
Anyway…
that’s all.
Mara
Yeah, fragmented sentences are tricky. There needs to be a good balance between creativity and technicality to get away with things. 😀
Hehe. I thought you’d like it!
Sarah
They are tricky, but I feel, to this day, that the liberty I took with them was good, and not overdone or misused…
“Can you hear it? The quick, deep, raspy breaths of a dancer after finishing a complicated routine. Can you see it? The muscles tense, and tight, ready for each movement, each step, and each turn. Can you feel it? The blood seeping from blistered toes, and salty sweat dripping from glistening faces on to the rough, wooden floor. No, you can’t. All you can hear is musical magic, drawing you in. All you can see is graceful movements flowing together to create a beautiful dance. All you can feel is enchanted by the effect of the dancer.”
Mara
That works, because you’re sort of… answering questions. I like it.
Sarah
Thank you, my english professor also was not american or english… and it was english 101 at a community college where they feel they have to teach you form writing all over again. I was very angry when I got a C all because of my creative liberties, but that is in the past. It took me a while to find that paragraph, I had to go onto fictionpress finally to get it.
Love your outfit! You look gorgeous in that skirt. I don’t think I could pull that off half as well as you do. Beautiful.
Mara
Ohhhh. That makes sense. But yeah, it’s in the past. For the record, I wouldn’t have edited it. 😀 I give you an A. Hehe.
Thank you.
Avra-Sha Faohla
I… ah… may be guilty of being a bit too quick to refuse to end sentences in prepositions. If it’s part of an expression, such as “don’t let it pass you by,” or if an alternate wording would sound awkward, I’m fine with it. But if you can at all avoid it… do so. I won’t ask someone, “Who are you looking for?” or even, “Whom are you looking for?” because those wordings sound wrong. Laugh if you want, but I’ll say, “For whom are you looking?”
I try not to take it too far, of course. If I want to know what something’s for… I’ll ask it like that. I won’t say, “For what is this?” because… well… that’s just ridiculous. Still, sometimes the nitpicker in me makes me say things like, “From where did that come?” And that sure gets me some funny looks.
So go ahead. Call me a pedantic snob. I probably deserve it.
Mara
You pedantic snob.
😀
HA! I couldn’t resist. It made me giggle.
See, I… generally just say or write it the way it flows. I don’t pay as much attention to grammar as you might think.
Avra-Sha Faohla
😀
I don’t pay specific attention to the grammar, either; proper grammar comes naturally for me. And sentences usually come out not ending in prepositions. When my sixth grade English teacher told me this rule, I started noticing whenever people ended sentences in prepositions unnecessarily, and then it started sounding wrong, and then… I slipped into the habit of wording my sentences to avoid ending that way.
But now that I think about it, I’m not so obnoxious about this rule. I didn’t even notice, at first, that the sentences in that article were ending in prepositions, because none of those five sentences bother me (although I myself might say one or two of them (the second or third) differently). And Churchill (read the comments) definitely had a point – it’s silly to always follow this rule. Still, if there’s another way to word it that doesn’t sound weird, I very much dislike hearing it worded with the preposition at the end.
Mara
Pretty much. I rarely have to think about proper wording– rarely as in… only when I’m editing for someone else and it sounds weird.
I couldn’t find Churchill in the comments.
Yeah, if I know that it’s a rule I might be breaking, I’ll usually find a way to change what I’ve written. Especially if it were for an essay or school paper or something like that, which depends on a grade. But in book-writing, I think it’s slightly less important to rely on rules, because there are books I’ve read that have been written in a style that completely ignores the rules, yet works because of the narrator’s voice. Sometimes, language can be used as an art form as well.
Avra-Sha Faohla
It’s right there, in the second comment. It’s probably my fault that you couldn’t find it, since I evidently wasn’t so clear. When I said “read the comments” I meant “read the comments for a mention of Churchill.” 😀 Sorry for being so vague!
I just found http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001702.html, and I think it’s worth reading. It explains exactly why Churchill’s (if it was his) statement sounds so ridiculous, and how people who don’t believe in ending sentences with prepositions would respond to him to support the preposition rule.
I really like what the author of that post wrote, except for the bit at the end wherein he stated that the rule is nonsense. I have to disagree with him, because… it’s an accepted rule, and it makes sense not to end a sentence with a stranded preposition. Why should people decide that it’s okay to ignore the rule? I don’t care if they say someone made it up. All rules were made up by someone at some point, weren’t they? And as long as the accepted rule is worthwhile – which this one, I think, definitely is – I believe it should not be disregarded.
Mara
Ohhhh. Gotcha. Yeah, I was looking for a comment posted by someone using the name Churchill. Hehehe.
Yeah, rules are made for a reason. They shouldn’t be completely ignored.