I received the following note on my writing this week, and it's food for thought.
This person feels that there's a "plainness" to my writing from lack of "witticisms, allusions, bon mots, and deviations".
And they're welcome to that belief! It's just interesting, because I'd never thought that building stories of the present through history & lit analogy might be considered plain.
If the baseline is "not willing to sacrifice accuracy for a witty aside", though... then yep! I'm a plain writer!
๐ฌ Maybe it's like how "vanilla" has been so slighted as a flavour for years that people forget it is still, in fact, a *flavour*?
@MLClark itโs a flavor that is adaptable, sought out, pairs well with a myriad of things, is delighted in both scent and taste and grows on a quiet beautiful flower.
Vanilla has a lot going for it. I suspect envy.
Another one with the big words, @MLClark ๐
Sounds like the "You Can't Handle the Truth" guy. ๐ค
Hey! "bon mots" is made up of two tiny words! Three and four letters apiece, don'tcha know! ๐
Who even uses 'bon mots' @MLClark? ๐ Are we in 18th century France?
@MLClark Eh? Your writing has plenty of colour, nuance, humour. Are they reading the same pieces as me? How odd!
๐ฌ Oh, is this a bad time to tell you that I've been secretly backmasking all your newsletter mailouts? Nothing Satanic, I promise! But special secret messages all the same. Hope you've enjoyed the jingles in them especially!
@MLClark Whut? I need to revisit! ๐
@MLClark Yeah, my editor told me to delete from my history book draft passages that might be categorized as witticism, bon mots, etc.
But you still left one page where all the first letters line up to say N-E-V-E-R-G-O-N-N-A-G-I-V-E-Y-O-U-U-P, right? ๐
@MLClark They were the last letters at the end of each line, on the right side. I like a challenge.
Well played, Stephen. And I assume the appropriate link was added in place of one of the key citations, too? ๐ Can't wait to see which one!
@MLClark Fixed the URLs, but now the endnotes are in Cyrillic. Take that, CMoS.
@MLClark "I taketh thou dost dare not fairly appreciate the ruminations of Mr. Oscar Wilde, then." Or, as I'd say, fuck off hoser.
@MLClark I'm thinking you could have fun with this. Like, just respond with "Bruh."
@MLClark Not unexpected from a Brent. Forsooth .
@MLClark Pretty sure I had Brent in American Literature and Comp. Solid C- writer.
Ok I'm done. ๐
And you were GLORIOUS. ๐ฅ
@MLClark Both perturbed and bored. A lethal combo.
Uh....what???? Someone's projecting or something. You can safely ignore that.
People are wild. ๐
Oh aren't they just? I don't know what to do with the lot of them. ๐
Right? Humans are a little like gas stoves. You're never supposed to leave them unattended, but what happens if the world is just FILLED with gas stoves, Lise? ๐ฌ How does one attend to them all?!
I was hoping you knew. ๐ฌ
You are recently receiving the attention of folks who think a great deal of their own opinions, arenโt you?
My stars ๐
It's nice that confidence is a thing some people have, eh? ๐
@MLClark
I didnโt really enjoy the writing style of that bit of criticism, whoever wrote it.
Perfect response. No notes.
@MLClark Dang. It reminds me of the writing group mod who rejected my piece, because he preferred to write poetry with huge and obscure words.
@MLClark "plain writer" reminds me of my friend's stalker who is obsessed with her husband, saying she is entitled to have him because she is "not vanilla."
That's not how it works, that's not how anything works.
๐ฌ Oh good grief, no.
Pretty sure other flavours are not invited to hop buckets in the ice cream shop... but she sounds one scoop short of a banana split, so I'm not sure if that would ever get through to her. (How exhausting for you all, though!)
@MLClark Thank you. She's a few fries short of a happy meal, looks like a zombie, and reeks like cheetos from what I was told.
With such folks, I remind myself that I only need to pass a few unpleasant moments with them, but they have to live with themselves full-time - and what a rough gig that must be!
@MLClark I cannot imagine she sleeps very well at night.
@MLClark Maybe you should smile more. ๐ฌ
Oh, shoot, I knew I forgot something! ๐ฌ
@MLClark It just seemed to be in the same vein...SMH
@MLClark huh. I find your writing flavorful, personally. Would not have selected plain as an option.