on writing

(The feed is acting weird again, and I'm not sure why. Hm.)

Sometimes I find myself using phrases that are completely cliched and overused without even realizing it. Take the Temari fragment down there- Sonya is quite right, the "sexless as her weapons" thing has been used and over used by multitudes of authors.

And yeah, sure, in a general sort of way, a knife is sexless in that it is an inanimate object and has no gender. But weapons have an inherent sensuality to them that transcends gender. And while I was going for lack-of-gender in the fragment, the lack of sensuality/sexuality was more important.

It's like every time I realize I've actually used the word "stunning" in a paper. I can't think of what I actually want to say, so I fall back on something someone else has said. (This is the second time Sonya's caught me doing this. For the win!) I wish I had someone to grab me by the shoulders and shake me violently every time I do it.

Anyway, knives are sexy and so is Temari. Maybe I'll fix it.

Also, on the subject of unoriginality, I'm getting the temptation to stick Marcus and Blaine in a room together just to let them complain about their small redheaded children, secret identities, and fucked up religions. They're the same person, augh. This is what I get for rereading my 2002 Nano when I ought to be doing homework.

I think, however, that the Seventh Hour universe is about seven million times more fucked up and unstable than Toggle even at its most ridiculous. What the hell was I thinkin? I know part of the point of Seventh Hour was to see if I could maintain an elevated style of writing for extended lengths of time, but damn. The grammar, it burns.

Remember, kids: it may look pretty on the page and it may sound pretty in your head, but chances are that dangling modifier is just going to confuse the hell out of you later on in life. I'm still occasionally guilty of convoluted sentence structure (oh, man, prepositional phrases, I hate you so much), but I've been trying very hard to cut back. Simplicity is the key to not wanting to gouge your own eyes out.

In other news, I've tracked down a copy of "Beauty and the Mess," and now I want to see Nickel Creek in concert so badly it hurts. *sigh* Will probably do a song post for it, because it's one of my favorite songs evar.