Day 353
Friday, August 24, 2007
I've been working on a list of words I want to avoid in general, but especially in writing.
- Incendiary-- Unless I'm describing something that's literally incendiary (as in, relating to setting stuff on fire), I want to really steer away from saying stuff like, "Angus Young can play some incendiary guitar solos."
- Quirky-- Quirky has become an easy descriptor for lazy reviewers. "That [fill in the black with independent movie] was a quirky delight." "They Might Be Giants play quirky pop music." TMBG, in an interview, showed their disgust at being labeled as such in nearly early review of their albums that they see. They're right--it's lame.
- Hot-- I'll still use this to describe temperature. Huge offender: "That 'High School Musical 2' track is hot!"
- Unique-- Think about it; why are you calling My Chemical Romance unique again?
- "[so and so] is the next [so and so]"-- As in "James Patterson is the next Anton Chekhov!" Usually the former is no where near as good as the latter, and the latter--if alive--does not want to be compared to the former. LAZY. Maybe so and so is just themselves? Can be used sparingly to good use.
This is just a sampling.
posted, with grace and poise, by Jason @ 8/24/2007 11:46:00 PM,
