words you want the writers to work into their story

[Christopher]

One thing I regret... in something I wrote recently, there's a point where the word "bleeping" is used (to describe a piece of medical equipment), but the word I really wanted to use, because it felt right for the character whose viewpoint it was in, was "bleepling." But I changed it myself because I knew it would get "corrected" in copyedits/proofreading and I'd have to fight for it every step of the way, and it just wasn't quite worth it. And I'm not sure it really comes across in print the way it sounds in my head (as three syllables, the gerund of "to bleeple").

 

[Lorraine Anderson]

KRAD wrote: Few things will drive me ripshit faster than a copy editor who messes with my dialogue to make it a) technically grammatical and b) no longer sound like sentient beings talk.

This is why I can't write a business letter to save my soul anymore. Drives my boss nuts.

 

[Rosalind]

Well, I did make sure to work the quote, "This furshlugginer veeblefetzer's gone all potrzebie," into Summon the Thunder after a challenge by Steve Roby, so it's not as though I'm opposed to the notion.

it's been a while since I read STT, where did that quote appear?

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Doesn't anyone remember Star Trek: Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, the unpublished crossover epic? It was an eighteen book series (6+6+6=18) in the form of six linked trilogies (Enterprise, TOS, TNG, DS9, New Frontier, Voyager). The dramatic conclusion was to come in a post-Endgame Voyager story by Christie Golden, in which Chakotay's spirit guide and Naomi Wildman's invisible friend the Pink Unicorn magically materialize to save the universe from the Antichrist. There were supposed to be ebook-only introductory chapters for each book, the third book of each trilogy was a hardcover, and the concluding book was a signed limited edition of 50 copies, each painstakingly illuminated by a group of devoted monks, for $4,000.

Thank god that didn't happen. I think that series would have pissed off every single reader in some form or another.

 

[Kevin Dilmore]

("Stet" is Latin for "let it stand," and is what you write on the manuscript when you want to reverse an editorial change of some kind. Who says you can't learn things on the Internet?)

Screw the internet -- I took 19 hours of Latin in college!

And speaking of stet, did you know that "stat" -- the word all the physicians are screaming on each episode of "E.R." -- is a shortened version of the Latin word statim, which means "immediately"?

So, yeah. Look at me and my badazz Latin skillz.

Praetor Bubba Augustus (And douche is Latin for "vinegar with water.")

 

[KRAD]

* makes mental note to start calling annoying people "bags of vinegar with water" *

 

[Sci]

I'd like to see someone use the word "betwixt." In point of fact, it'd be pretty neat to see someone write an entire Star Trek short story in the style of Shakespeare or Marlowe.

 

[TGTheodore]

One thing I find really weird is that they insist on "correcting" the spelling of "Uhh" or "Umm" to "Uh" or "Um." And yet "Hmm" gets through.

Well, if you cut the second "M" in "Hmm" then it would be "Hm."

Which, we all know, is the symbol for the element Hermaphroditium.

--Ted

 

[Dayton Ward]

Well, if you cut the second "M" in "Hmm" then it would be "Hm."

Which, we all know, is the symbol for the element Hermaphroditium.

Okay, that one's goin' in somewhere.

 

[Kevin Dilmore]

^ Man, I immediately thought the same thing!

Kevin

 

[Dayton Ward]

it's been a while since I read STT, where did that quote appear?

Chapter 31, where Quinn and Pennington retrieve the Klingon sensor drone.

 

[Quimby]

Well, your English teacher was making the error that many English teachers and pedants make, which is to assume that grammar is a proscriptive thing rather than a descriptive one. Language evolves naturally from use, and the way it's used is constantly changing. People try to define rules describing how language is used, but all too often they arrogantly insist that those rules are meant to restrict its usage and that anyone who diverges from them is "wrong" -- even if the "rule" contradicts a usage that's been common for ages.

True. Language is the ultimate democracy. If enough people say it's right; it's right. I even thought of mentioning that in my original post but was lazy. Still, once it was pointed out to me that if you think about it, the construction makes no sense, I couldn't stop noticing it. It's been almost 18 years since that English class so I don't think it will stop anytime soon

Sorry for the hijack. To pull this back on topic, the word I would like to see is "guppy."

 

[BrotherBenny]

I would like to see hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia used somewhere. It means fear of long words - but why is it such a long word?

OT: Why is abbreviation such a long word?

 

[Christopher]

Still, once it was pointed out to me that if you think about it, the construction makes no sense, I couldn't stop noticing it.

But it does make sense, in the literal sense of the phrase: it conveys a comprehensible meaning to the listener. Anyone who hears "The reason is because etc." is going to understand what the sentence means; therefore it makes sense. That matters more than whether it conforms to some arbitrary structural formula. Language isn't mathematics; it's capable of conveying the same sense through more than one structure.

Let's look at singular "they" again. The reason this is discouraged is because it seems to us that it doesn't "make sense" to use a plural pronoun for a single entity. But that's treating language like math again. The truth is, the idea that "they" is exclusively a plural pronoun is a historically recent convention, and the actual fact of English usage is that the word "they" has been used as both a plural and a generic or distributive singular pronoun for at least 700 years. (A distributive pronoun is one that applies to each individual member of a group: "Each person should do their duty.") But people writing grammar books simplified it to a singular/plural distinction and thereby created the perception that it "didn't make sense" to use the pronoun in a way that it had been regularly used since Middle English.

Heck, one could just as easily argue that it doesn't "make sense" to use "you" as a singular pronoun when it was originally the plural form with "thou" being the singular. Pronouns can and do change number. And other language forms change as well. Making sense means communicating comprehensibly, not conforming to a set pattern.

 

[William Leisner]

Man, I am so glad I haven't turned in my MyrU page proofs yet...

 

[PaulSimpson]

Man, I am so glad I haven't turned in my MyrU page proofs yet...

We've sent one section to print in the new Star Trek Magazine issue so don't you dare add it to the scene with ****, the ***** and the *****!!

Paul

 

[Kevin Dilmore]

Man, I am so glad I haven't turned in my MyrU page proofs yet...

We've sent one section to print in the new Star Trek Magazine issue so don't you dare add it to the scene with ****, the ***** and the *****!!

Paul

Bill, don't tell me you ripped off The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe AGAIN!

Bubba D. (who's hoping more for the Fanboy, the Dabo girl and the Hypnotoad.)

 

[OmahaStar]

I think it'd be rather amusing for the word "Google" to appear in one of the Trek books.

 

[TGTheodore]

I think it'd be rather amusing for the word "Google" to appear in one of the Trek books.

Or rather, "googol". (Which I'm betting has.)

--Ted

 

[Rosalind]

it's been a while since I read STT, where did that quote appear?

Chapter 31, where Quinn and Pennington retrieve the Klingon sensor drone.

cool, thanks Dayton!