Stop the abuse!

If you've been reading my health-related posts, you can see that I'm not all that big on resolve. I tend to latch onto the first reason not to do something; I am the King of Excuses & Rationalization. With that in mind, I decided to make my resolution this year (besides the usual generic "be a better person" type of declarations I always roll out on the 1st and break by January 15th) a simple, highly attainable one:

I'm going to try to stop over-using (and misusing) semicolons, parenthesis, hyphens, quotation marks and...my favorite...trailing off with "..." all the time.

Deep down I'm still carrying that wannabe writer torch; and while I feel my style is highly readable, it certainly could use some polishing. When I write I basically transcribe the voice inside my head, which leads to an informal, conversational tone that lends itself to run-ons and other similar grammatical transgressions. At times I struggle to sense when and where to pinch off the flow. The result can be really haphazard. While I have no intention of being too formal or stuffy or British, I do want what I write to feel less like jottings on a Post-It and more like a finished product. I believe the answer simply lies in more thorough and frequent editing on my part. I am going to make a conscious effort to comb back over the things I write so that I can filter some of the sloppiness out. Whenever they appear, the aforementioned crutches will be scrutinized for relevance with extreme prejudice, in the hope that they rear their ugly faces with far less frequency.

Okay, that last sentence is sounding really sanctimonious, which is not my intent...

...damn it!

Anyway, if you notice my older blogs changing slightly, chalk it up to editing practice. And as always, let me know what you think.

Analytically,

-Joey