The Journal: The Writing, and Me Griping About the Language

In today’s Journal

* Quotes of the Day
* The Writing
* Here I continue to gripe about the decline
* The Numbers

Quotes of the Day

“There are plagues, and there are victims, and it’s the duty of good men not to join forces with the plagues.” Albert Camus

“Some people contend that the English language is a living, breathing organism wherein the definitions of words and rules should change to reflect their mass misuse. … English should not stoop to embrace the lowest common denominator. Rather, society should step up and grant the language the respect it deserves.” Terry Fallis

The Writing

On Thursday I had an abbreviated day. I had a doctor appointment, so I was able only to work until about noon. In that time, I was able to cycle through the whole 19,000 words. But just as I got to the place where the new writing would start, I had to stop.

Friday was a different matter. I figure I’d dive right in and the novel would take off again. It didn’t work quite like that.

In the first few hours, I struggled. My conscious mind kept trying to butt in, reminding me of bits and pieces of what I’d written before (and lost), and I managed to write maybe a thousand words in those first few hours.

So I cycled back another couple of times, to specific places in the novel where earlier events had occurred. I’d presented those events only in part, so I would have to go back and address them again later.

The first situation resolved almost too quickly. When it was over, I was a little disappointed and still about halfway stuck. But after I resolved the second event, the story took off again, and the massive loss of Wednesday was finally behind me.

Getting rid of the last three chapter summaries I’d written in the reverse outline was exactly the right thing to do. In other words, trusting myself and the characters was the right thing to do, and that’s the whole basis for writing into the dark in the first place.

I still wish I hadn’t been foolish enough to lose those 7500 words in the first place, but since I did, I feel very fortunate that the novel is once again off and running with only one day of relative down time.

As a result, I had one of those “really good days” yesterday with over 6700 words. Back at it tomorrow.

Here I continue to gripe about the decline of our language.

In an article in a major magazine, I read that a woman walked into her “backyard.” In actuality, the woman walked into her “back yard,” an adjective-noun combination in which the adjuctive provides additional information concerning which yard she walked into.

Do some writers really not know this? Or do they just not care?

This kind of misuse, which is becoming more prevalent every day, is the difference between an adjective (backyard) and an adjective-noun combination (back yard). Children might well visit a “backyard” swing set, but they do so in the back yard.

Yes, I’m aware that if “backyard” isn’t already listed as a noun in the dictionary, it probably soon will be. Why? Because it’s always easier to shake your head, mutter under your breath and change the rules than it is to take the time to teach correct usage.

Witness the witless recognition of “till” (a nour that means “cash drawer” or a verb that means “turn over the soil with a plow”) as an inane replacement for “’til” the truncated version of “until”. Is it really that difficult to write “until” or explain that the apostrophe at the front of “’til” stands in for the “un” in until? Really?

I’m sure to many this simply doesn’t matter. Whatever. It still marks a “rapiddecline” in our written language.

I don’t like sloppy or uncaring work, so I didn’t finish the article. Which left me to wonder whether later the same woman walked into her “frontyard”.

And if she drove into town and suffered a parking mishap, I wonder whether the “backbumper” on her car was damaged. Perhaps the accident occurred because one of her “contactlenses” fell out. And if I wanted to help her find it, would I look for a “bluecontactlense” or “browncontactlense”?

Yet one more reason I enjoy escaping into my fictional world.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Christmas Star: Jupiter and Saturn…” at https://www.wtol.com/article/weather/christmas-star-jupiter-saturn-rare-double-planet-december-solstice/269-34b0330d-2f72-4ac5-82a4-0dd966d445d7. The original article, sent to me by Sam T., is at The Washington Post if you can see it past their annoying popup.

See “Reading Is More Important…” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/reading-is-more-important-than-writing/.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 770 words

Writing of The Journey Home: Part 2 (novel)

Day 1…… 4955 words. Total words to date…… 4955
Day 2…… 5068 words. Total words to date…… 10023
Day 3…… 6513 words. Total words to date…… 16536
Day 4…… 7467 words. Total words to date…… 24003
Sigh. Closed without saving after Day 4…… 19000
Day 5…… 0792 words. Total words to date…… 19792 (cycling)
Day 6…… 6788 words. Total words to date…… 26580

Total fiction words for December……… 21560
Total fiction words for the year………… 474091
Total nonfiction words for December… 3770
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 188980
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 663071

Calendar Year 2020 Novels to Date…………………… 7
Calendar Year 2020 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2020 Short Stories to Date… 13
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 52
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 214
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

2 thoughts on “The Journal: The Writing, and Me Griping About the Language”

  1. I’ve been using ’till’ instead of ‘until’ for most of my life. I can remember finding ’till’ in a dictionary when I was a journalist in the 1970s in an attempt to settle an argument with a copy editor. (I still lost.) One of the early Beatles songs, ‘Till There Was You” dates from the early 1960s. So it has been in common usage for a long time. I never thought of it as a contraction of, or more familiar way, of saying ‘until.’ It always seemed correct to me. It wasn’t until I read today’s journal that I bothered googling it and discovered that ’till’ predates ‘until.’

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/should-you-use-until-or-till-or-til

    • I guess it all goes to what you were raised with and/or your personal taste on that particular word. From my earliest days in school I remember “till” being either the open drawer of a cash register or a farmer plowing dirt. “Until” or the truncated “til” (which the dictionaries now say is “archaic,”) are the words that meant the period of time before something happens. I started to say I’d have to look up “till” in the OED and see what it has to say, but it wouldn’t change my preference anyway.

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