How many times have you been engrossed in a conversation to find yourself at some point totally somewhere else, in your mind anyway? What made you completely lose interest leaving only a blank stare on your face as you try to recover? The only thought remaining – what is this person talking about? Now, I ask you, is this feeling of being lost limited to only the spoken word?
Flip the coin.
How many times have you been engrossed in a book offering a great plot, exciting characters, vivid imagery, only to STOP before reading it in its entirety? Perhaps you were at the beginning, maybe into the most exciting part, perhaps even near the end, but you still STOPPED reading. WHY?
There is a ton of power in the spoken and the written word. Both have the power to paint the most vivid picture, the purest essence of abiding love or the most morbid replication of horror. Word choice can make or break a scene but that is not where it stops. Within the verbal word, we are able to evoke emotion simply by a change in the pitch or tone of our voices.
But what determines the voice of the written word?
Ah-h-h! It is not only the word choice but the nature of the grammar incorporated. Yes, the exclamation mark does make a difference! And, the comma, the period, the question mark and of course, correct spelling. Without the correctness in presentation, concentration is broken, which results in rereading, rereading, rereading to the point of total loss of interest.
Bottom line…
Remember to edit. Find someone else to edit. Have that someone else find someone else to edit. Never leave your writing riddled with outrageous errors or wording that requires a thesaurus to understand. After all, your objective is to entertain, not frustrate!
catnipoflife 
[…] How many times have you been engrossed in a conversation to find yourself at some point totally somewhere else, in your mind anyway? What made you completely lose interest leaving only a blank stare on your face as you try to recover? The only thought remaining – what is this person talking about? Now, I ask you, is this feeling of being lost limited to only the spoken word? […]
I’m in the middle of a book and having a lot of trouble staying focused on it. It is, in a nutshell, boring. Not so much poorly written as badly plotted. This is a mainstream book by a well-known author — I’m supposed to review it. Where is Max Perkins when we need him? The quality of books has gone downhill in the past few years … probably because of the scarcity of EDITORS!
I wanted to share some awards with you, please take your pick!
http://utesmile.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/a-brand-new-award-and-many-more-%E2%99%A5/