Why be afraid of proper nouns and active verbs
A friend sent me a blog post from a woman I used to know.
The post did not use a single proper noun. It described "a city" or "a forest." Passive voice to make the description of lifting weights and educational courses and work completely generic.
Everyone works and everyone lifts the weights they hope to lift and everyone tries to learn new things
This blogger is my ex wife. Why write generic stuff like this?
1. She's involved with multiple people so she doesn't want to signal to one that she's with the other.
2. Her lawyers have told her that if I find out that she's been shacking up with someone I know then she won't get her $4.9 million (there is no recourse in the Settlement agreement but the Ghost isn't very financially savvy and her lawyers are "women all get screwed" cliches so I don't see a lot of clear thinking coming from that camp.)
3. She's in shock because she's stuck somewhere that's meaningless and she's afraid. Perhaps she's drugged by an NVC cult.
4. She has so many enemies she doesn't want them to find her. These would be people who asked for her help or needed it and she disappeared. Caroline? The guy from Arizona? Family? People she's insulted far too often? People she stole money from? Old friends of hers who she was having an affair with for years? My ex needed to get laid to stay alive. Hard to know. She has lots of enemies including me but not the type that require a witness protection program. Lying and non-disclosure are more than enough when no one is interested in your bad behavior.
5. Impairment or simply bad topic choice? Hard to say something original about a CrossFit class. It hurts so good? For gods sake spare us.
6. Boredom. Lack of challenge. A writer completely out of "flow?" Embarrassment?
Certainly no reason to read generic blog posts unless you know the writer. She came upon a split in the road and just sat down in the middle of the intersection and inspected her new shoes for three years. Along with Kim. (The one proper noun.)
The post did not use a single proper noun. It described "a city" or "a forest." Passive voice to make the description of lifting weights and educational courses and work completely generic.
Everyone works and everyone lifts the weights they hope to lift and everyone tries to learn new things
This blogger is my ex wife. Why write generic stuff like this?
1. She's involved with multiple people so she doesn't want to signal to one that she's with the other.
2. Her lawyers have told her that if I find out that she's been shacking up with someone I know then she won't get her $4.9 million (there is no recourse in the Settlement agreement but the Ghost isn't very financially savvy and her lawyers are "women all get screwed" cliches so I don't see a lot of clear thinking coming from that camp.)
3. She's in shock because she's stuck somewhere that's meaningless and she's afraid. Perhaps she's drugged by an NVC cult.
4. She has so many enemies she doesn't want them to find her. These would be people who asked for her help or needed it and she disappeared. Caroline? The guy from Arizona? Family? People she's insulted far too often? People she stole money from? Old friends of hers who she was having an affair with for years? My ex needed to get laid to stay alive. Hard to know. She has lots of enemies including me but not the type that require a witness protection program. Lying and non-disclosure are more than enough when no one is interested in your bad behavior.
5. Impairment or simply bad topic choice? Hard to say something original about a CrossFit class. It hurts so good? For gods sake spare us.
6. Boredom. Lack of challenge. A writer completely out of "flow?" Embarrassment?
Certainly no reason to read generic blog posts unless you know the writer. She came upon a split in the road and just sat down in the middle of the intersection and inspected her new shoes for three years. Along with Kim. (The one proper noun.)
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