Jump to content

Cole Parker

AD Author
  • Posts

    9,058
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    15

Posts posted by Cole Parker

  1. With experience from both reading and writing, the order of words becomes easier to discern, even though it is sometimes only obvious, after it has been posted.

    :icon_geek:

    You quite obviously meant: With experience from both reading and writing, the order of words becomes easier to discern, even though it is sometimes obvious only after it has been posted.

    :wave: indeed!

    C

  2. I'm going to jump in here and make a comlete ass of myself. Usually, I have a good feel for these things, and in this case I seem to have none at all. But that won't stop me! As I say, here's where I make an ass of myself.

    I think, the way they are used, 'If only I had known' and 'If I had only known' mean exactly the same thing and are interchangeable. I also believe they're idiomatic. If you look for a literal meaning of 'If only I had known,' it means if you and only you had known something; it excludes all other people from that knowledge. Yet, that isn't the way it's used or what it means. The 'only' in that usage is for emphasis, and so the usase is idiomatic, meaning the phrase has developed meaning over time that is different from the literal meaning of the words in the phrase.

    That makes perfect sense to me, but might be entirely wrong.

    Of the two usages, 'If only I had known' and 'If I had only known', either, by itself, sounds correct, and I'd have a difficult time saying I preferred one over the other. I think, if you held my feet to the fire, I'd use the first rather than the second because you're not spliting the verbs that way with the problematic 'only.'

    I'm sure this doesn't help anyone at all, but I don't always have such a great vehicle to show my ignorance.

    C

  3. I just finished the Foley-Mashburn series by Brew Maxwell on Crvboy. Everyone else has probably read it as it began in 2002, but I just read it now, finished it tonight in fact. It's all about relationships, love, and leaning about being gay in a supporting environment. It's incredibly long, and very well done.

    If you haven't read it, you should look at it. It starts with the story 'Tim.'

    I also liked the Colby Series by Tim Mead a lot. It's also at Crvboy.

    C

  4. You do realizee that your voice is uniquely yours, don't you? And in being uniquiely yours, it is interesting, not cliched, valuable and entertaining. You have something to say, and don't need to be so hesitant to say it. If the responses to your posting this snippet were unfavorable, would you no longer write? I sure hope that woudn't be the case.

    Ultimately, you're writing because you want to, so if I like it or hate it should have nothing at all to do with you writing it. Colin is correct in saying that you have to write for you. If you write just to get acceptance of an audience, you won't be satisfied because you'll be compromising what you're saying to garner approval. Don't do that. Write for yourself.

    You'll need an editor, but they're easy to find if you write well, and you do. However, knowing you'll have that at the end means you don't have to concentrate on making it perfect, so you can simply write what feels good to you, then let the process take off from there without it influencing what creativity is involved during the production phase.

    I hope you continue with what you've started. The amount you've written is about the amount I read to decide if I want to continue reading a story. I stop reading more than I continue reading when I get about that far into stories. This one I'd want to continue reading.

    Cole

  5. I'm not touching that with a ten foot Pole.

    If there is such a thing.

    I think the NBA would know if there were.

    Oops. I just used the subjunctive, which is Colin's pet peeve.

    What do you feed one of those, anyway? Pet Mart has never heard of them.

    C

  6. Funny Interview Answers

    I was hiring for a collector position and received a resume with the following as the candidate's Goals and Objectives:

    "I want to be successful as everyone does, but I want to kick it up a knotch (his misspell) and be VERY successful and become #1 in everything when it comes to professional, family, and personal way of life."

    You want to be VERY successful? Why didn't you tell me before? What a novel goal in life. Does Emeril know you are using his phrase? Thanks for your time -- next!

    Does anyone else have a problem here as I do? I'm not sure what a "collector position" is and what the requirements for it are, but she's disqualifying the applicant because he's overly enthusiastic? Because to show his enthusiasm he uses an expression he's heard and can relate to? I found when I'd hire people, enthusiasm, if real, was a desirable trait, not something to be discarded quite so easily. Just because he used someone else's expression to evince his enthusiasm is not a reason to disqualify him. In my thinking at least.

    C

  7. Colin's attentions to this story were not minor or trivial. He has a tremendous grasp on reality, and geatly helped shape the sum and substance of this story. He can be as coy as he wants, but his contributions were substantive. And hugely appreciated.

    C

×
×
  • Create New...