2 Mar 2010, Comments (2)

Word Usage and Other Disasters

Author: D. D. Syrdal

Of/Have

This is one I’ve started seeing used incorrectly fairly often in print. Confusion around the use of these two in phrases such as ’should have,’ ‘would have,’ ‘could have,’ no doubt arises from the contracted forms:

should’ve
would’ve
could’ve

Now I see in print “I should of” or “We could of” when no doubt the writer meant “I should’ve” or “We could’ve.” They sound the same when you say them, but they are completely different. “Of” is a preposition (I know, we’re getting technical), whereas ‘have’ is one of the three helping verbs: have, be, and do.

Let’s just try substituting one for the other in a less ambiguous context. For instance: You wouldn’t say “We of been here for an hour.” You would say “We have been here.” Similarly, you couldn’t say “She thought have him,” but you would say “she thought of him.” Hopefully this shows that they’re not interchangeable.

Lose/Loose

Under most circumstances, one is a verb, the other is an adjective. “Lose” is the verb. You can lose your keys, lose your mind, lose your lunch. If you lose something, it’s lost. Until it’s found.

Loose is, most often, an adjective. Loose rhymes with goose. You can have a screw loose, in which case you might lose it. If you lose weight your clothes will feel loose (how nice).

There are other uses for each word that you can look up in any dictionary of your choosing, but these are the most common situations where these two get mixed up.

24 Feb 2010, Comments (2)

Snack, or a full meal?

Author: D. D. Syrdal

Somehow I’ve now managed to involve myself in a fourth blog, which is probably not a good idea since I’ve rarely been updating my existing three as it is. However, the fourth is a collaborative blog that was started as a lark with two others just for some fun, comedic writing.

It all started when one of the visitors to my other writing blog said he’d be willing to read my vampire story, as long as there were no “sparkling douchebags” in it. And one thing lead to another and before long we had a little round-robin story started about a glam-punk band known as the Sparkling Douchebags who sing about vampires and wanting to be one. So now we’re all pitching in and creating backstory and character bios, and writing the scenes. I’ve never been involved in a collaborative project like this, so even though I’m the blog administrator I am hesitant to seem like I’m running the show. After all, the story wasn’t my idea to begin with. This has been a learning experience already in how to set up such a blog and have multiple authors, and since it’s all in fun I have to remind myself not to take it too seriously.

I just wonder if I’ve bitten off more than I can chew with everything else I’ve got going on. Then again, there’s no rush to write the story of the Sparkling Douchebags so I probably shouldn’t stress about it anyway. It’s been good for a laugh, and I’d like it to stay that way.

If you’d like to watch the story unfold (albeit, it’s likely to be a slow unfolding) it’s all over at Murder in the Mosh Pit.

On top of four blogs, I’m still working on the vampire novel. So, we’ll see if I have more on my plate than I can manage.

27 Jan 2010, Comments (16)

A couple of grammar points

Author: D. D. Syrdal

I wanted to point out a couple of things that I constantly hear, from people who should know better. Without getting too technical and invoking a lot of grammar jargon like predicate and participial I’ll just briefly mention a few things I hear most often.

He/Him, She/Her

What I hear is “Him and I talked…” or “Me and her met…” I hear it at work, on television (you’d think the writers of the shows would know better, wouldn’t you?) This does you no credit, because you’re bound to end up working for someone who knows better and will cringe everytime you say something like that.

The word “and” is a signal that both halves of that conversation are the subject. Here’s what you can try: Remove the “and” along with either the first or second party, and what do you have? “Him talked…” or “Me met,” or “Her met.” I know no one would say those things, but for some reason when they’re together, people can’t see it. Simply put, whichever pronoun you use in front of and after the “and” has to be able to stand on its own, as if the second one wasn’t there.

Correct: “He and I talked” or “She and I met”

The Death of the Infinitive “To Be”

Another trend I’ve noticed over the last several years is that of dropping the verb “to be,” as in “I need briefed,” or “He needed taught.” It makes it sound as if “briefed” and “taught” somehow became nouns, things you could pick up at the grocery store. This is not just slang people use in informal conversation with friends, I hear this from degreed professionals in the office. How did this happen? Where did this start? The first time I heard it was from a guest speaker at a convention who uttered the first example phrase, “I need briefed.” I’ve been scratching my head over it ever since, and that was probably 20 years ago, and the usage seems to be picking up steam over time. It’s such a tiny little verb, maybe that’s why it gets overlooked? It may be trendy, but it sounds, and is, wrong.

Than/Then

Now this one I see in print All.The.Time. Most often I see then used when it should be than. ‘Than’ is comparative, as in “Steve is taller than John,” or “Marcy’s cookies were better than Sue’s.”

‘Then’ is used in time situations. “If he arrives on time, then we’ll go to the movie,” which specifies “That is when” the event will occur. Maybe the ‘e’ in ‘when’ and ‘then’ can work as a little mnemonic?

Went/Gone

Wrong: Had went.
Right: Had gone.

Go-Went-Gone. I go. I went. I had gone.

There are more I could get into but if you have questions, here’s a great site which can help with a quick question, and minimal, but effective, explanations: Common Errors in English Usage.

7 Jan 2010, Comments (3)

Has This Ever Happened to You?

Author: D. D. Syrdal

‘Writing is just having a sheet of paper, a pen and not a  shadow of an idea of what you are going to say.’

Francoise Sagan

:::drumming fingers on computer:::

I haven’t written anything (except comments on blog posts, and a few minor revisions) for at least two days now. Am I busy? Not especially. Distracted? A bit.

As part of my Christmas presents, my son’s ex-gf (and still roommate) got me a ticket to a concert that I had told them about, for a band we all like. Evil Son and said Ex got tickets for themselves after I informed them this band was coming to town, but did not offer to pick up a ticket for me (for which I would have paid, had they asked). I was a little miffed. Actually I was going to cut him out of the will (as soon as I put one together). So he’s saved now. Anyway, I was looking up directions to the venue where the concert is going to be and then of course saw the roster of acts that are playing there over the next four months, which included a couple of  Finnish metal bands, so I had to check out their sites… Sweet Brigid how one thing leads to another. (more…)

28 Dec 2009, Comments (2)

Magical Quote

Author: D. D. Syrdal

I was in the bookstore yesterday, where they carry a line of refrigerator magnets printed with sayings and quotes of famous authors and philosophers. I happened to see this one, and liked it so much I almost paid the $5 for the thing, but then decided I really couldn’t justify it:

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”

Roald Dahl

While it’s not directly about writing, I think it certainly applies. As a writer, watching what goes on, and seeing what most people miss, is really what makes for good literature.

Kind of a corollary to the first quote is this:

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.
– Orson Scott Card

That’s the trick: Seeing the story, and getting the idea jotted down before you lose it.

4 Nov 2009, Comments (0)

Age Appropriate Music

Author: D. D. Syrdal

For NaNoWriMo I’m beginning the prequel to the novel I was working on before I was swept away by my vampire novel back in April or May.

Confused? Ok, here it is: Up until I got the inspiration for the vampire novel I was writing a supernatural/magical realism kind of story (although the realism seemed to be becoming a less and less significant element of the story). It’s essentially a story about a young woman who begins training with a long-established coven of witches on the coast of Oregon. While there, the coven is visited by two very different groups of other magical practitioners, who are seemingly at odds with eachother. They don’t arrive at the same time. The first trio is somewhat splintered when the second group, who are apparently chasing the first visitors, arrives. The young woman who is the most recent addition to the Oregon witches is convinced to join the second group, and they leave, heading east in pursuit of the leader of the first group.

Ok.

The origin of the witches of the Pacific Northwest is the premise of the prequel. This is going to be set in the Gilded Age, the 1880s, the age of Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. No, I don’t know why, that’s just the way it came to me. Well, that’s not entirely true. I was surprised and intrigued to learn of the illustrious past of the area I grew up in back east. Once known as the premier seaside resort of the east coast, Long Branch, NJ (yes, that’s New Jersey. Stop snickering) was the summer resort town of no less than seven presidents, and unhappily the site of the death of James Garfield after being shot by an assassin, after lingering for two and a half months with the bullet lodged in his spine.

So, there we have it. Now, the problem is getting my head into that space, and out of the vampire novel I was working on until November 1. I’m kind of a nut about using music for inspiration, and my latest musical acquisition is not helping. I need something that will transport me to that time, and I’ve been rocking out with the latest release from AFI, Crash Love (and by the way, the guys outdid themselves on this release). This isn’t working. I guess I’ll have to restrict further musical purchases (at least of the rock variety) until after November 30.

Ok, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Chopin, Brahms, Schumann here I come.

22 Oct 2009, Comments (0)

E-books and Price Wars

Author: D. D. Syrdal

I ran across this gem today, announcing the price for Stephen King’s new e-book, due out in December (the hardcover will precede it by a month).

Scribner announced Wednesday that the digital edition of King’s “Under the Dome,” a 1,000-plus page novel, would have a list price of $35, several dollars higher than for what e-books usually are listed.

I have to say, I am at a loss to understand why an e-book would cost $35. There are no printing costs, no distribution, and it’s Stephen King so marketing is nil. The man is a household name. I have to wonder what they’re going to charge for the hardcover. It would be interesting to find out how many people will fork over that kind of money for an e-book, on a reader that will be obsolete in a few years. How many computer programs can’t even read files that were saved in older versions of themselves? What happens to your ‘library’ when the technology changes? It would be nice if someone had the answers to these questions.

Maybe someday we’ll all just have microchips in our heads and we’ll download the book directly to our brains, saving ourselves from having to read at all. In the future are actual, physical books going to become the exclusive domain of museums and wealthy collectors? Better hang on to the ones you’ve got, those could be your grandchildren’s inheritance.

14 Sep 2009, Comments (0)

That’s All There Is To It

Author: D. D. Syrdal

People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn’t like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that’s all there is to it.
- Harlan Ellison

Preach it, brother. We may not be sitting behind typewriters these days, more likely a computer, but that’s about all that’s changed. At least when it was a typewriter we didn’t have the distraction of surfing the internet (as I’m doing now) and obsessively checking e-mail. Ah, the good old days.

10 Sep 2009, Comments (0)

My Macabre Muse

Author: D. D. Syrdal

It’s hard to get into the mood for gloomy, macabre writing when the sun is shining and it’s 80 degrees outside. I have to play tricks on myself and mentally travel to abandoned castles being lashed by violent thunderstorms, fog-bound moors, cemeteries with dead trees standing in silhouette under a full moon.

Today I went in search of those who have gone before. No, not the dead. Writers of the macabre, dark poetry and prose. And I’m happy to report (in the gloomiest way) that there is lots of free stuff online. One such charmingly grim site houses the poetry of William Blake, Ann Radcliffe, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Brontë, Goethe, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Aleister Crowley, and scores of others, along with novels, novellas, short stories and more.

HorrorMasters.com has it all, even free Gothic E-cards, and gifts. Mummies, werewolves, vampires, witches, murder, ghosts, seances, my dark heart was nearly wild with joy. Endless inspiration awaits in such vaunted company.

2 Sep 2009, Comments (0)

A Dark and Crooked Road

Author: D. D. Syrdal

Moving into the “horror” genre (or what Harlan Ellison prefers to call “fiction of the macabre”) was an unexpected turn in the road for me. I never read much horror, at least not much that I can recall. Supernatural fiction (Dennis Wheatley), stories about poltergeists, but no Stephen King, or Anne Rice, Clive Barker, not even much Poe. That is, until recently. It was only a few months ago that I finally read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which was not at all what I expected. Frankenstein still awaits me on a shelf.

J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla was I think an even better vampire story than Dracula. I read Edith Wharton’s Afterward, purported to be one of the finest ghost stories ever written (although I have to say I preferred Kerfol. The sheer weirdness of that one stays with me).

I’m taking a detour for a bit from the fiction to read On Writing Horror: A Handbook by The Horror Writers Association.

On Writing Horror

I have discovered I have much catching up to do on reading the classics of this particular genre.

Mostly, though, I question why at this time I am drawn to it. Perhaps it simply suits the state of mind I’m in these days. Perhaps I simply needed to grow into it.  I had to be able to face my own dark side without shrinking from it. Yes, it’s there. My constant companion.

As my bat (I call it mine, as if you could lay claim to one) dives and swoops around my backyard, I think this quote by Harry Shannon in On Writing Horror is a good way to sum up:

To paraphrase Carl Jung: I had to try to gain power over my fantasies, for I realized that, if I did not do so, I ran the risk of their gaining power over me.

That’s perfect.

For me, reading and writing horror is about eating my own shadow so it won’t eat me.

 

Tags

Aleister Crowley blogging Bram Stoker Carmilla Dracula Edgar Allan Poe Edith Wharton grammar Harlan Ellison horror horror fiction HorrorMasters.com J. Sheridan Le Fanu macabre typewriters vampires work writing

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