Yesterday I saw a very interesting post over at
Dwight's Writing Manifesto called
Drat That. It's a post about the perils of overusing/misusing the word "that," something I definitely tend to do. Thanks to his handy pointers, I'll definitely be looking out for that in my writing in the future. Thanks, Dwight!
I never thought about "that" as a stumbling word before. I'll have to pay more attention.
ReplyDeleteHuh!
Well - wanted to drop by and wish you a Merry Yule and Happy New Year!
Happy writing in the new year!
Yes, that's been a subtle issue that caused me to mentally stumble before, but I never quite thought about it in depth.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the holiday wishes -- same to you! I hope you have a great Christmas and New Years, and find them both relaxing and invigorating.
Merry Christmas, Chris! Put your feet up for a day or two; computer techno nerd geeks need time off too, you know.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stephen! Merry Christmas to you, too!
ReplyDeleteAnd I don't know about anyone else, but I'm off until January 2, so I'm planning on plenty of relaxation -- but also some writing, when I can sneak it in. Probably not in the next few days, though!
Hope you're having a great holiday season there in Germany. I bet you have a much better chance of a white Christmas than we do here in NC.
Hi Christopher. Just want to say "hi!" We've met, via Anne Mini's blog, and I checked yours out. I've got to quit adding to the list of websites and blogs I check on a regular basis. I seem to spend all my time doing that, rather than writing. (Oops, I used "that," but hopefully in a correct way. In trying to duplicate some of the British speech patterns in my stories, I sometimes switch "what" and "that." It can drive the grammer checker nuts. Which just might be the real reason I do it. (It also goes nuts with words that are normally verbs used as nouns!)
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas! (We might have a "white one" here in Spokane.) Happy New Year as well.
Dave
I forgot to tell you: your subtitle ("Now every shadow . . .") is very catchy. If it's a first line (from Alden Ridge, I assume), it works.
ReplyDeleteHi Dave (McChesney, I presume),
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by on my blog! Sorry for the delayed response here, but it's been a very busy holiday season for me -- good, but not a lot of time spent at home.
I've certainly seen the inversions of "what" and "that," and it seems like a valid thing to do (though I don't personally do it). Of course, your use of "that" as a direct object was fine, so far as I know -- I believe it's mostly when it is used as a connector that it can be unnecessary (or an article of sorts, I suppose -- if I had written "I believe that it's" in the sentence above, that should have been trimmed). But I'm no real expert on this subject at all, so take my advice with a grain of salt!
Happy New Year!
Chris
Thanks, Stephen! It's actually not a first line at all, though maybe it should be. It's just an evocative line from the second chapter of Alden Ridge, which I thought would make a fitting/interesting subtitle. Thanks for mentioning that!
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