If there's one thing you learn about me from the hallowed archives of this blog, be it that I am an avid researcher of esoteric tidbits. This trait is amplified when the subject pertains to writing or literature.
As former NJCL President and current owner of this blog Elliot posted on his Facebook in the wee hours of the morning, "I just found out that the city of Liège was spelled Liége until September 17, 1946, when the accent was officially changed from an acute to a grave, and nothing could possibly be more fascinating." (I smiled to myself upon reading it, too.)
That's my life in a nutshell. The very least I can do to make the hours spent trawling through the source links of Wikipedia article after Wikipedia article worthwhile is write about it—and yes, this sentence led me to Google "trawling vs. trolling" (and, yes, I have used the correct word). In case the structure of that last sentences confuses or annoys the reader, let me explain: one of the most frequent topics subjected to my inane research is correct uses of esoteric or commonly abused punctuation.
It always starts with a question. I am a devout fan of jumbled, quirky, or structurally peculiar sentences. (I am also a fan of the Oxford comma, so pry it from my cold, dead, and stubbornly typing fingers.) Often, and especially concerning blog posts or other informal writing, I find I have too many varied ideas to fit into one regularly-constructed sentence, so I employ a vast arsenal of punctuation ammo to help me piece together sentences that seem schizophrenic in their subject.
In my younger days, this usually meant sentences swollen with commas and running off into the distance cackling madly. Now, I have dashes, ellipses, parentheses, square brackets, semi-colons; very few sentences escape without at least one of their number tagging on an unrelated idea, unnecessary expansion, or snide remark. It's a problem. I'm seeking help.
In the meantime, however, I figured the least I could do to make my habit as unobtrusive as possible in my writing was to learn how to wield my weapons wisely-- and correctly. For instance, until a couple of months ago, I erroneously used hyphens to denote dashes (-- or —). Though I can't remember a time, I'm sure I used to place punctuation on the wrong side of parentheses (it goes on the outside if it's a partial sentence). I only confirmed my knowledge of square brackets this very afternoon.
Google, like most users of the Internet, is my friend when I need answers on these questions, and mostly I defer to The Chicago Manual of Style or Purdue OWL to make sure I am following proper convention for my area.
Often it is a simple rule, but even the simple uses of punctuation work wonders to drive a muddled sentence towards clarity and focus. And what is writing but a convening of sentences? If a beautiful building is composed of shoddy bricks, the whole beautiful mess will come crashing down.
There is a lesson to be learned here, readers: if you are going to write with abandon-- and I wholly encourage doing so-- please, do it with correctly.
Showing posts with label I am obsessed with. Show all posts
Showing posts with label I am obsessed with. Show all posts
Monday, July 29, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Blogs in a Short-Form Society
As this is the inaugural content post on my new shiny blog, I figured I should start with something close to home for this "I am obsessed with..." post. In case it wasn't immediately obvious, I am obsessed with blogs.
In addition to the blogs I have started and killed (there are many), I have an extensive reading list of other people's blogs that I check nearly every day. You can see some of my favorites in the Blogs That I Love link list in the sidebar, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Fashion blogs, foodie blogs, design blogs, writing blogs, blogs about online games, blogs about punctuation. I collect them all in my handy bookmarks bar and horde them like a mama dragon.
If any of you are nodding your head in agreement or recoiling from how familiar an image I paint of my blog-obsessed habits, I breathe a sigh of relief- for I am terrified that the long-form, content-driven blog is being phased out. I may sound older than my time, or reluctant to accept the new fads of Tumblrs and Vines and Twitter and all the other sound-byte social media b/vlogging apps, but in truth I am not bothered by the other additions to the blogging scene. I often find that condensing my thoughts to 160 or 140 characters or whatever is a fun, if needless, exercise. I've had multiple Tumblrs in my time before I decided it wasn't for me, and I found the sheer number of ideas and content bandied about astounding. No, I am not mounting a crusade against short-form blogging.
Instead, I am merely hoping that long-form blogging will continue to operate in its niche. To me, long-form blogging is reminiscent of newspapers and classic books collecting dust on bookshelves. Long-form blogging, where a post picks a topic and expounds upon it and picks it up and inspects it for holes in the light- that leaves no room for casual browsing and snap reading. It rebels against the idea that people cannot be bothered to sit down and turn their full attention to a subject for even just the few minutes it would take to read these several paragraphs. It posits that people can remain interested in and keep coming back to a source of information or entertainment that doesn't necessarily vie for their attention.
On the flipside, long-form blogging also proves that people are willing to put forth effort into the content they create. When you take every witty thought or idea and immediately tweet it without further ado, you lose the chance to explore, edit, and see if the idea has anywhere else to go. I could have tweeted "I am afraid long-form blogging is going to disappear!" and gotten the same general idea across, but that is so one-dimensional that it serves absolutely no purpose, and I would have lost the chance to pull that sentence apart and see why I really hold long-form blogging dear to me.
Like a newspaper, my blog will simply sit here and serve as a placeholder for my thoughts, and the traveler-by may pick it up or pass- but the traveler does not have the option of glancing at it and gleaning, from that glance, everything important in its content. It requires scrutiny and at least a few minutes of actual attention. And if, through research and editing and hard work, I can make these posts worth a few minutes of actual attention, well, I wouldn't give that up for all the cute cat gifs in the world.
(I already have most of them, anyway.)
In addition to the blogs I have started and killed (there are many), I have an extensive reading list of other people's blogs that I check nearly every day. You can see some of my favorites in the Blogs That I Love link list in the sidebar, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Fashion blogs, foodie blogs, design blogs, writing blogs, blogs about online games, blogs about punctuation. I collect them all in my handy bookmarks bar and horde them like a mama dragon.
If any of you are nodding your head in agreement or recoiling from how familiar an image I paint of my blog-obsessed habits, I breathe a sigh of relief- for I am terrified that the long-form, content-driven blog is being phased out. I may sound older than my time, or reluctant to accept the new fads of Tumblrs and Vines and Twitter and all the other sound-byte social media b/vlogging apps, but in truth I am not bothered by the other additions to the blogging scene. I often find that condensing my thoughts to 160 or 140 characters or whatever is a fun, if needless, exercise. I've had multiple Tumblrs in my time before I decided it wasn't for me, and I found the sheer number of ideas and content bandied about astounding. No, I am not mounting a crusade against short-form blogging.
Instead, I am merely hoping that long-form blogging will continue to operate in its niche. To me, long-form blogging is reminiscent of newspapers and classic books collecting dust on bookshelves. Long-form blogging, where a post picks a topic and expounds upon it and picks it up and inspects it for holes in the light- that leaves no room for casual browsing and snap reading. It rebels against the idea that people cannot be bothered to sit down and turn their full attention to a subject for even just the few minutes it would take to read these several paragraphs. It posits that people can remain interested in and keep coming back to a source of information or entertainment that doesn't necessarily vie for their attention.
On the flipside, long-form blogging also proves that people are willing to put forth effort into the content they create. When you take every witty thought or idea and immediately tweet it without further ado, you lose the chance to explore, edit, and see if the idea has anywhere else to go. I could have tweeted "I am afraid long-form blogging is going to disappear!" and gotten the same general idea across, but that is so one-dimensional that it serves absolutely no purpose, and I would have lost the chance to pull that sentence apart and see why I really hold long-form blogging dear to me.
Like a newspaper, my blog will simply sit here and serve as a placeholder for my thoughts, and the traveler-by may pick it up or pass- but the traveler does not have the option of glancing at it and gleaning, from that glance, everything important in its content. It requires scrutiny and at least a few minutes of actual attention. And if, through research and editing and hard work, I can make these posts worth a few minutes of actual attention, well, I wouldn't give that up for all the cute cat gifs in the world.
(I already have most of them, anyway.)
Saturday, July 20, 2013
An Introduction
Allow me to introduce you to The Litterateur's Notebook, and yes- litterateur. What a strange word: "a literary person; especially a professional writer," via the Merriam-Webster dictionary. My first post on this blog, and already a blatant lie!
Only time will tell for this wannabe litterateur, but hopefully you stick around to see me make it.
I'm no litterateur, insofar as the professional writer part goes. I've been paid a total of around $350 for my writing over the course of my (albeit short) lifetime, and most of that went hand-in-hand with other internship duties. Despite my success in NaNoWriMo last year, I've yet to finish a novel. But I'm only 18 (as of tomorrow), an embarking college freshman with a myriad of other things to worry about. Why should I expect to be a litterateur, or even name a pretentious blog after the word?
Well, for one thing, let me assure you: I am a hipster. I mean, there was that time I listened to a Zooey Deschanel song and didn't even hate it. I'm also a word nerd, and I can appreciate an uncommon word enough to appropriate it for my blog title.
For another, it is never too early to secure a good blog title. I mean, in a couple years I could have been kicking myself for not snatching up this blog title before it was taken by some ghost blogger who decided to leave their blog to rot (who takes littlelitterateur.blogspot.com and then doesn't post? People who want to watch the world burn, that's who).
And there's one more thing: I fully intend on becoming a true litterateur. Maybe not during the course of this blog, but the written word vocation has been humming in my blood and soul for as long as I can remember. This blog is one of my stepping stones. This blog will keep my fingers limber and my mind ticking as I work through college and, hopefully, prove entertaining in the meantime.
Personal introductions aside, I will be updating this blog (mostly) every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Almost every other day there will be content here, personal issues notwithstanding. Tentatively, Mondays will pertain to current events or "I am obsessed with..." posts, Wednesdays will either be inspiration bits or thoughts on writing, and Fridays will be book reviews.
Only time will tell for this wannabe litterateur, but hopefully you stick around to see me make it.
Cordially yours,
Abby
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