Newsletter #97 — Why a Parrot?
January 1, 2025
Newsletter #97 — Why a Parrot?
Writer's Rant — I suppose that every writer has a pet peeve or two about poor writing. (Some writers have dozens of pet peeves . . . but rest assured I'm not one of those writers.) One of my pet peeves is stumbling across writing in which the modifier is misplaced in such a way as to create a ludicrous meaning. Just the other day I ran across such a sentence. (I have changed the names in order to protect the guilty.)
"The son of a pilot, Michael is raised after his father's execution by his mother."
First reading: I assumed that Michael's mother executed Michael's father. That's what the sentence says. Or perhaps Michael's grandmother (his father's mother) executed her son: from where it's placed, the pronoun his could refer to either Michael or to his father. However: I refuse to rant about mere pronouns when we are speaking about modifying phrases.
Second reading: The meaning of the sentence was so "off" that I figured the writer meant this: The son of a pilot, Michael is raised by his mother after his father's execution.
In English, modifiers express their intended meaning when placed as close as possible to the noun or verb or phrase they are meant to modify — else a meaning different from the intended one may be conveyed to the reader. This is because, in English, word position is important!! The information this writer wanted to convey is, is raised BY WHOM. The answer, by his mother, needs to be placed as close as possible to is raised.
When by his mother is closest to his father's execution, then it seems to modify that phrase: his father's execution by his mother.
The sentence that got me to ranting was written by a professional writer, not by a layman . . . which increased my rant level by about 500 percent. My advice to fellow writers: please do not strew modifiers across your sentences in willy-nilly fashion. Place them properly.
End of rant.
Video — I've created another video, Why a Parrot?. I hope my eye movement (as I "secretly" read the teleprompter) is better in this video than in the previous one.
Good Grief! — In writing my January 1 blog, I realized that I used to print a free chapter of one of my books every January 1. This was popular with readers, so I did it more than once with Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel. Also with Charlie Chan's Poppa. But then, when COVID hit us all, I forgot that I used to do this, and it has been several years since I posted a free chapter in my January 1 blog.
This year I remembered my "tradition" and decided to do it again. My January 1 blog is titled "Free Chapter of Exit Velocity." As I was typing my blog into WordPress, I noticed that WordPress has added a new AI feature — if you want it to, AI will suggest an "optimized" title for your blog. A title that will supposedly result in better SEO (Search Engine Optimization) results.
So I thought, Let's see what AI can do. The first thing it did was come up with many titles based on the grief Rowan (main character) is experiencing. One such title was "Uncovering Grief and Action in Exit Velocity."
The titles, by the way, came in groups of three, and I had the opportunity to "Generate Again." I'm sure AI could have thought up titles by the hundreds if I kept hitting "Generate Again."
In any case, the titles that AI generated about grief gave me pause. It is very true that the first chapter of Exit Velocity shows Rowan's grief. But: is that what my blog is about? I didn't think so. My blog wasn't intended to show Rowan's grief, but to offer a free chapter.
I kept asking AI for titles, maybe seven or eight times, but AI just didn't "get" what the blog was about. The more I asked, the grief-ier the suggested titles. So I continued to use my original title and went on to other things. A couple of weeks later I returned to the blog (I write my blogs about a month in advance, then edit them a couple of days before publication). Out of curiosity I tried the AI "Improve Title" feature again and, Blow Me Away! — the first title AI offered was this: "Free Chapter of Exit Velocity: A Thrilling Preview."
This was amazing! Did AI, somehow or other, "learn" that my blog was not about the free-chapter content, but about the fact that I was offering a free chapter? Or — did AI simply use my original title and add three words to it? Frankly, I suspect the latter.
Free Chapter — And here it is: my January 1 blog in which I offer a free chapter of Exit Velocity.