Nine Years Gone

I left NYC on this date, 2011. The boy turns nine years old in January, that's how I remember the past now. These two events are connected, though we need not explore that much today. In some ways that is all that this site has been: an exploration of how my life has changed in the last nine years.

I am reading a copyeditor's book on style and finding out all the things I've been doing wrong. There are words and phrases I regularly use that are to be avoided: 

Very

Rather

Really

Quite

In fact

Just

So

Pretty

Of course

Surely

That said

Actually

It is easy to understand why these are to be avoided, but I have enough relaxed and easy fun with them that it is hard to let the relationship end. It makes me sad that using them will push me into the depths of hell for all of eternity. 

There are other things to be avoided - split infinitives, ending a sentence in a preposition, starting one with "And" or "But" - all habits I embrace and always have. In fact, so surely do I engage in this type of writerly naughtiness that of course a book on style would just actually recommend that doing so is not quite pretty. That said, that's not really the version of pretty they meant for a writer to rather avoid, just so you know, and surely so.

We'll see. Whenever I read through a book on style I immediately recognize my many habitual faults, but then I keep reading instead of practicing the recommendations. I get so excited, because I feel as if the book was written about me. I find myself returning to bad habits as if they were an unhealthy love affair.

I generously abuse the privilege of commas, as well. 

 

.