Sympathy Pt. 04 - My Writing Process

My Background

I have been "writing" professionally for some thirty years of my life.

But that was generally as required by my clerical job in a large engineering company.

I wrote reports; processes; procedures; reviews (on similar); and was even "published" within the company's documentation system.

I have also written computer programs, albeit pretty low-level stuff.

All that experience has led me into a mind-set of near pedanticism.

Now -- any programmer knows that you can't bugger about with computer language. You have to use the correct word, in the correct position, spelled correctly, and use the words in the correct order; and punctuate the sentences (lines of code) correctly.

Hubots are more flexible, as we will make sense out of most misspellings, and poor punctuation. However, in many instances, a hubot's "personal stresses" can get meanings out of what they read, to match their own shortcomings or biases. (For example - words used by the political party in "opposition" to that party a person supports, has a totally different meaning to those very same, but "honest and true" words, when used by the party that the person supports.)

Application

Knowing all this, I try to apply my learned lessons onto my written "Tales".

I can "knock-off" (ha-ha!) an eighty percent complete Tale in maybe 100 hours of writing -- over days, or weeks, depending how much of my time I can devote to its creation at any one time; and, obviously, the length of the Tale. And, of course, depending on how frequently and drastically my computer keyboard keeps shuffling the damned buttons about!

Then it is hours and hours of slog, as I polish; amplify; prune; and reconfigure sentences, and paragraphs, and even sections (chapters).

But the main thing that I struggle with which I struggle -- is expression! And, obviously, -- a teensy bit, grammar. (Visual image of Jeff Bridges as the Starman in the film "Starman", holding his finger and thumb a little apart -- for "a little bit".)

Listen to any conversation, especially those with more than two proponents.

Ignore the actual words for the moment -- just listen to their voices.

What do you get from a verbal conversation that you cannot easily get from a written conversation?

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Expression! That's what!

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Voices rise and fall in volume; cadence speeds up or slows down; stressing this word or that; or stressing whole sentences.

Without care, print can be a boring monotone.

So, I have developed a few tricks, as well as using the common ones, e.g.: -

Generally common ones (I believe?) -

using upper case, and bold print for emphasis and/or "volume" ...
what? -- WHAT? -- WHAT?

using italics for a different stress on the word ... what? -- what?

using close-hyphenation for gabble ... what-the-hell-does-that-mean?

using spaced-hyphenation (n -- dashes) for speaking slowly ... what -- the -- hell -- does -- that -- mean?

using the absence of hyphen or space to represent stress ... whatthehelldoesthatmean?
(Horrible, right? To be used sparingly.)

All my own work[?] --

There is a verbal "shortcut" that are used by many; and, I believe is now endemic in Australia; and that is -- what I shall call -- the "query terminus" (Qt -- for short).

The "terminus" here is the last word or two of a sentence, where the voice is raised in pitch, slightly, to mimic where an asked question will frequently rise in pitch towards the ultimate word.

The Qt has come about, it is believed, as "short-mouth" speech (as against "short-hand" writing); e.g.: -

full"I went to the doctor today because of the swelling on my brain. You know?"

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where the "You know?" is (obviously) the question, and the "know" can be 'squeakier' than the "You".

Qt"I went to the doctor today because of the swelling on my brain[?]."

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where "brain" is squeakier than the rest of the sentence, and the "[?]" is my signal to show you, the reader, that although the sentence is not a question, its last word or two make it sound like a question, thus becoming the actual Qt.

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Then there are words inside a sentence that carry this raised pitch (and followed by a minimal pause "query interjection" -- Qi for short), to indicate the queried intent; or the dubious accuracy; or even the suspect intent; of the word: -

full"Don't know. None?"

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Qi"This one seemed to be more ... pleading[?] than ... accusing[?]." (Lifted from this tale.)

Then there are pauses.

Narratives often mention "pregnant pauses". Maybe (as far as I am concerned -- anyway) they are the silent equivalent of a "Do what?" statement, and maybe accompanied by introspective or puzzled stares, glares or glances?

These I show with a question mark, on a line all to itself: -

?

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Then there are things like "exclamative pauses" -- the silent form of the shout "What the Fuck!", but experienced by all present.

These I show with an exclamation mark, on a line all to itself: -

!

Read on -- enjoy!