II. Writing Goals

In my previous two posts, I didn't explicitly describe my writing style; instead, you got to see it. At its worst, it is (as you may have noticed) long-winded, somewhat unfocused and jumpy as I return to make the same point again (and parenthesis-heavy (notice the meta-comment (here))), occasionally dry, and in places even depressing. That is my "serious" style (caricatured to its worst side, of course), and I apologize for any injury caused your minds by its use in posts I and Ia. I also have a frivolous style, where I don't care about making a serious case and instead just make up as much random nonsense as I can (this works better for fiction), with lots of snarky phrases and, occasionally, self-commentary (like the parenthesis comment above). You will notice that a few of these phrases crept into my "serious" essay in the first two posts.

What I believe I need for improvement, is--wait for it--a balance (gah! that word again) between the two, so that the serious writing is neither dry nor depressing, while any non-serious writing is more sensible and less random, yet at the same time keep both caricatured styles available for any rare occasion that requires either dullness or randomosity (yes, I know that's not a word, but that's the point). Particular target: figurative language--I tend to be very literal, and so dislike overly flowery descriptions, but as a result I tend to neglect descriptive sections altogether (not good for fiction, and an invitation for dryness in nonfiction). I will need, in future writing, to--balance--its use and avoidance. (Seriously, "balance": stop following me already! I'm trying to work here.) I'll also need to work on controlling my exploding population of parentheses. My tendency to running on and on, whether to dull oblivion or a pinnacle of absurdity, can (and should, if I believe all those writer's manuals) be kept in check only by editing.

The other category from the sheet ("variety" being already covered somewhat through devices and tones, "thoughtfulness" and "mechanics" not posing me any problems), i.e. "volume," contains one thing I may need to work on: number of pages per week, a.k.a. actually sitting down to write and writing. I have a very busy schedule, with almost too much going on, and on top of that I tend to procrastinate. I'll just need to find the time, smack myself a couple of times, and do it, I suppose.

So those are my goals for improvement in writing, and they all seem doable (except (maybe (dealing (with (that (malignant (infestation (of (parentheses...))))))))) I'll see you next time, hopefully improving already.