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  • The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."
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« TEV GIVEAWAY: LAST LAST CHANCE | Main | DUNBAR VILLAGE FUNDRAISER »

April 07, 2008

THE VIEW FROM OUR WINDOW

(With apologies to Andrew Sullivan ... )

Img047

This is the view from our lovely perch in Mineral Wells, TX where we're working on the new novel.  Internet connection is indifferent, so don't expect much this week but we'll do what we can when we can.

Oh, we've been asked to say that "Texas isn't as bad as y'all think it is."  That Texans have asked us to say this should put things in some perspective.

Posted by TEV at 09:02 AM in Housekeeping |

Comments

Texas has trees?

Posted by: Jim | April 07, 2008 at 11:06 AM

Looks like Kenya.

Posted by: Antoine Wilson | April 07, 2008 at 11:31 AM

If you need any firearms, and I think you will at least feel out of place without them, I'll get my brother-in-law to fix you up. Tried to call you for Japanese lunch today, but expect you are gnawing on beef bones.

Posted by: paul | April 07, 2008 at 02:03 PM

If you need someone to refill your coffee or keep the mosquitoes away on your return trip, I'm your man.

Posted by: Jay | April 08, 2008 at 10:05 AM

Want to get some work done? Forget the view and find a blank wall.

Posted by: Banjo | April 08, 2008 at 07:13 PM

Wow! What a view!

I've been living in fricken dallas for ten years and until now I didn't know Texas even had topography! Come clean. You photoshopped the whole thing.

I agree with banjo. Better to look out on a blank wall if you're trying to get some writing done.

Posted by: brendan McNally | April 12, 2008 at 05:04 AM

Is this a residency, or just a self-made one?

Congrats on your upcoming debut!

Posted by: Randa | April 12, 2008 at 02:51 PM

Self-made - a "bootstrap" residency ... Thanks for the wishes, Randa.

Posted by: TEV | April 12, 2008 at 03:21 PM

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