When I decided I wanted to write I read a
lot about finding my "voice" which led me to believe that best way to do this was (and
is) to write as if I am speaking to a friend ie. in my natural voice. This doesn't mean I
don't work on it, try not to be repetitive, boring, obscure, stilted, have long
sentences that go on and on and on .... etc. I have been told by friends that
they can hear me talking when they read my writing (which apparently they view
as a good thing) and by people I don't know that ...
~
(I have) good ideas and an interesting writing style.
~ (I
write in) a witty, quirky way which is a joy to read.
~
(My work) is humorous and well written.
~
(and) very fun to read.
and so on and so forth. I have also had reviews saying ...
~ "regarding
the writing style, I found the tone to be condescending rather than
informative."
~ "... spelling
errors, paragraph errors, grammatical errors ..."
Both of these last two surprised me (as you
know if you have read previous posts) and several people have jumped to my
defence.
I have therefore done a bit more research
about writer's voice and have read that ...
~ (One
should) "write at least in part how you speak to capture your essence"
~
(Your voice is) "... not just how you write but who you are."
~ Style
is the expression of the writer’s
personality on the page.
So I have
now decided to grow up: I am taking it all too personally. Before I do grow up however I'd just like to
mention this.
Till vs
Until
Yesterday I received a 3 star review of my
"291 Tips ..." ebooklet, and I am honestly grateful, which read
...
"The tips in this book are good for
the novice and/or aspiring cook, however I have to take stars away for the
constant use of "till" instead of the correct word "until"
throughout the book."
Now maybe I am too sensitive and I know one "Can't please all of the people all of the time" (a bugger though
that is) but am I wrong in feeling people are being a little too picky about a
booklet giving a list of handy tips?
Anyhoo, being as how I'm a bit of a twat I
looked up till vs until on the web and read over and over again that the two
words are interchangeable. More interestingly on World Wide Words (I love this site and can while away hours on it) I learnt/learned that ...
"The most common belief is that till is a shortened form of until. You can see how this could have grown up, but the truth of the matter
is that till is by far the older word, being recorded from about the year 800, while
it took another 400 years for until to appear in the language (it’s a compound of till with the archaic Old Norse und, as far as, which also survives in the archaic unto)."
... and ...
"The current position is that until is the more common of the two words and is generally considered to be
slightly more formal, which is why it turns up more often in edited prose. It
is also rather more likely to appear at the beginning of a sentence than is till. But till is perfectly good English and the choice of whether to use it or until is often decided by the rhythm of the sentence."
I think I'll stick with till!
Goodnight,
Suzy Bowler
