Cheerskep: Well, I think that you are nearing the point of sufficient
chastening and I detect a repentant tone in your postings. With Michael's
concurrence, we may let you off at this point. However, consider this a
stern warning against hasty postings which violate the standards of the
list. Further incidents may be punished more severely, i.e. we may have to
call in William!
Geoff C
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Cheerskep envision #3
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:41:11 EDT
In a message dated 10/31/08 2:03:41 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Cheerskep: I too was both amazed and disappointed to read your careless
use
> of the noun form "impact" in your last posting.
>
Now you can see why as a playwright I have to revise and revise and revise.
I usually reread my forum postings once, rapidly, before hitting "send
now".
The trouble with that kind of proof-reading is that one is usually
looking
primarily for misspellings, secondarily for dropped words. In other words,
sensibility doesn't get much chance to raise its voice. It's a fairly sure
thing
I'd never have a character use the word 'impactive'. Michael is right: If
the
word doesn't have a satisfactory "synonym", move on to a phrase. Instead of
'more impactive', I should have said 'has greater impact'.
(To words I considered and rejected I should add 'moving' (or 'more
moving').
There are times when 'moving' certainly feels right. But for me it comes
with
a connotation that things are going slower than those with "impact".
'Moving'
lacks an element of wallop that comes with 'impact'. To the non-writer,
this
kind of chewing is painful to the teeth. To many writers, it's a great part
of
the pleasure -- finding what you're looking for. Twain said, "The
difference
between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between
lightning and a lightning-bug.")
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