Say Good-Bye Already

Good advice isn't always easy to swallow, even when you know it's right.  An initial reaction of denial and insult is natural. It's easy to puff up ones chest and think, "What? No way." However, once the ruffled feathers are smooth and ones IQ returns...acceptance is inevitable. This is good.

Last weekend I had the benefit of having my blog read (and critiqued) by a professional writer/editor. He was complimentary: "Your writings have a down-home breezy feel to them, quite charming." How nice is that? I am  appreciative of his positive sentiment.

Among other suggestions for improvement, he offered the following: "Please, please, please quit using so many exclamation points." Did you notice? Not one, not two, but three "pleases". Ouch. He drove home this advice with a quote from one of his former journalism teachers: 

"At birth, each person is given one exclamation point to use in life, so use it wisely."


 Elaine from Seinfeld needs the same advice.

After mulling over his feedback, I opened my blog and re-read some of my posts - exclamation points now removed. Something magical had happened: The statements, sentences, everything improved. Where I thought it would detract, it now was better. Wow. (By the way, I really wanted to put an exclamation point at the end of that "wow" - it's like an addiction I am going to have to get over.) 

Did I hide any around the house?

I was surprised that something this simple and obvious could improve the quality of a sentence. Along with my surprise, I cringed thinking about how guilty I've been of "exclamation point" overload. The good news is that this is a habit that can be easily fixed. Knowing you have a problem is the first step. I'll start by going into all previous blog posts and removing exclamation points. 

Even though I felt humbled, there is nothing wrong with making mistakes and not being perfect. Solid, concise (quality) writing is not easy. As long as I keep an open mind and willingness to learn, I am okay with small embarrassments.

 I hope this editor continues reading my blog and provides additional constructive criticism. He gave me more advice then I've described in this post. I will reference his advice often. Many thanks to him. It might be baby steps, but I will always strive to improve.  

Finally, this is where I say good-bye and farewell...to the exclamation point. Until we don't meet again.

 



PS: Click here for a site that includes a helpful exclamation point guideline: "To exclamation point or not to exclamation point."