writing – Page 2 – Jason Toney

“There’s some things that keep me coming around.” – Talko Uno (Prefuse 73 Unplugged In Catalonia Remix), Jolly Music

I’ve been thinking a lot about time. About how much there is in a day or in a life. How much time I have to do the things I care about. How to be more deliberate with it. How to make the most use of it.

How to bend it to my will. Some might think this is a futile pursuit. Whatever we do, time keeps on slippin’ into the future. True, and yet:

We will never have total control over this extraordinary dimension. Time will warp and confuse and baffle and entertain however much we learn about its capacities. But the more we learn, the more we can shape it to our will and destiny. We can slow it down or speed it up. We can hold on to the past more securely and predict the future more accurately. Mental time-travel is one of the greatest gifts of the mind. It makes us human, and it makes us special. – From Claudia Hammond’s Time Warped as referenced by Maria Popova

I want to change my experience of time. Take, for example, the 90 minutes to two hours between my waking in the morning and my walking out the door for work or adventure or whatever.

I could use it or it could use me. I could turn the tv on or poke around the internet or anticipate the things that may or may not happen during my day and how I might react when those things do or don’t happen. And then I could be caught off guard by what time it is, quickly pack my bag, say my goodbyes, and push out into the day having accomplished little in those precious minutes.

Or I could write.

“I could drink a case of you, darling, and I would still be on my feet.” – James Blake, A Case of You

I can’t find the reference this morning but there’s a conversation between Elmore Leonard and an interviewer about when Mr. Leonard’s writing got good. I’m paraphrasing, but Leonard said, “When I went back and took all the adverbs out.”

Leonard has said as much before in his rules for writers and other places but they don’t crackle like that conversation.

I’ve come back to that piece of advice as I’ve gotten back to writing. Adverbs have their place but when I read previous work of mine (not yet available here but still accessible here), I can see that that part of speech is a crutch. I throw a word with an -ly on the end into a sentence when I’m not confident in it. When I don’t believe I’ve gotten my point across.

It’s a cheat. A hedged bet. Most often, I use adverbs to soften my statements. To give myself a way out.

So, at least for the next little while, I’m giving up on those tricky modifiers and qualifiers.

I will say what I mean. And it will pop with confidence and certainty. I will allow my words to stand on their own and defend them when challenged.

I won’t hide behind weak expression in order to save face later.

That’s not the man I am anymore.

Category: writing (page 2 of 2)

On Warping Time

Adverb! – That’s Not What’s Happening