I’m pretty anal about this sort of thing, especially when it comes to the internet. What you write, and how you write is ALL that people have to go on.  So, if I am using the improper word then it looks like I’m an ignorant git which can cause people to not take me seriously.  I remember playing Shadowbane nearly five years ago.  I was typing into guild chat saying something like, Your crazy. I then saw my typo and typed into guild chat a correction, *You’re.  The response was an immediate, Oh my god,  someone actually knows the difference! and Thank you for displaying intelligence, and Hey, it’s nice to see a newb who understands these things.  Those responses caused me to be even more careful about my writing, especially since I almost didn’t bother with making the correction. The less careful I am the more stupid mistakes I make (hey, maybe there’s a life lesson in there somewhere).

I remember in an online class I had a while back one of the students always used the word “are” in place of “our”. I politely mentioned it to her in a private email because she did have some interesting things to say but the error was distracting and made her posts harder to read. Her response? She didn’t care because her way was easier and everyone understood what she was saying anyway. Gah! I couldn’t believe it. My response was, Okay, if you want to make yourself look like an idiot go right on ahead. If our roles had been reversed I would have been grateful that someone cared enough to talk to me about it. In fact, I remember confusing the words retribution and restitution. I was grateful when someone pointed it out to me when he heard me use the wrong word in a conversation. It was embarrassing, sure, but I’d rather feel a bit embarrassed for a brief moment than perpetuate an error.

I’m not saying that I have to write absolutely perfectly every time, nor does anyone else. Typos happen, no matter how careful you are. I do know that some people have language disabilities so they mix stuff up a lot or suck at spelling, but disabilities are no excuse to not try. What I am saying is that we need to pay attention to how we are expressing ourselves with the written word. It makes a difference in how we are perceived. Communication in writing is fostered best (and dare I say in speaking as well?) when we take the time to think about what we want to write, how we’re going to write it (which may involve a bit of research), and to reread, read aloud, and revise when necessary what it is we are writing.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/lennart_green_does_close_up_card_magic.html

*SPOILER*
Favorite line: “I’ll do this quick, very quick, but in slow motion so you can see.”

PS: Thank you Xarph.

I can barely breathe, the air is dark.
I shrink at the sound
Of the roaring lions,
And I hide from the scorpion’s tail.
I fear the bottomless pit,
And the shape of the locust;
And wormwood bittered the bloody waters.
 
I sorrow over the death
Of two olive trees that live.
The earth is ablaze, the soil reddened
And rich with a foul stench.
Bones are left naked,
And eyes fall to the ground.
The dragon tries to rob me of my life.
 
I cry for all who are lost
And refuse to be found.
I am covered in lamb’s blood.
I hear the sobbings of those silenced,
And the tears of the forgotten child.
I know the pain of a raped earth, and
Feel a need to quell the shadowed works of man.
 
The world burns in shades of red,
Blackened by the thick smoke of the pit.
A thousand eyes see me for what I am.
The clouds fail to bless the earth with rain,
And dark secrets are hidden for all to see.
I fight a continuous battle with the serpent,
Desiring to be a candle of good.

A new song is sung for he who took the book,
And before the throne was a sea of glass.
Man gave power to the dragon for gain,
And things reverted back to the days of old,
Fighting one on one, than by finger.
An ending of one’s own life was desired by many,
Innocent blood crying from the dust.

Currents filter through from house to house,
And many faces are the same as the other
By those who enjoy playing god.
I voice the voice of hope,
Finding those who wish to be found.
The winds howl in defiance,
Ears deafened by whistling screams.

Many tunes are left unremembered.
Demons infest the human mind,
Creating showers of blood by our own making.
Happy tunes are sung in minor keys.
Man has gone askew by the hissings of the serpent,
Plaguing ourselves with terrible things,
And the dragon gnashes its teeth at my heels.

Memories are shattered again and again,
Lies becoming truths, and reality a dream.
The dragon rejoices in the follies of man.
With augmenting tears, I speak truth,
Taking those who are found to the valley,
And on bended knee, we walk,
Guided by an unseen, but felt, hand . . .

NOTES: I wrote this poem on July 24th, 1998, while I was a Glasgow. It used to be “Untitled” and was first published in The National Fantasy Fan Vol. 4 No. 1 March 2004 (also known as The Fan and The e-Fan #1) as “Untitled”. It has gone through a few titles such as “Two Voices” and “The Doom & Hope of Man”. However, thus far, I feel that End Times is more appropriate.

So, Kenlon is a fabulous Game Master, and I’m not just saying that because he’s my husband. I’ve been in games where the GM, well, those games weren’t so fun. This Exalted game has been running for two and a half years. He started the game soon after our separation every other weekend but when I started visiting him it changed to every weekend by popular demand from his players. Before I joined the game I helped with the concept of one of the non player characters, a Lunar Exalted (there are different types of exalted) who are bonded to the Solar Exalted.

After helping him refine her character concept and finding a name for her I was asked to draw a portrait of Gentle Claw. She was a fighter (as all Lunars are) but she was compassionate and kind as well. Then, things did not go so well when she came into contact with the Solars, especially with the Solar she is bonded to. It ended with her running away. Then the Solars forgot about her. They didn’t look for her or do anything to help her return to them. And now, she has changed (and if I tell you what I do know about this change the GM will “kill” me as the group doesn’t know what I know. Kenlon only told me because I was not in the game and no plans were being made for me to be in the game at the time.). I was asked to draw her portrait again but with the changes in place. So I did.

First is Gentle Claw as she should be. The second is Gentle Claw as she now is. Click on each image to see the full sized image.

Before and After

I have a small light table. I used it to trace the basic features of Gentle Claw and then started to make subtle line changes. She is gaunt looking, much thinner, so her whole face is drawn in, her eyes hollower, hence the dark circles. Her small smile is gone – lips turned down instead, her eyes are narrowed instead of more open, her eyebrows are lowered, no longer up, changing her expression from an open warm one to harsh and cold. Of course she now has boy short hair, and new dark tattoos (all Lunars have tattoos but they’re silver not dark and hers didn’t come up on her shoulders and face, so these are different).

After making all these changes I was still able to see Gentle Claw as she is supposed to be. When I turned off the light table I gasped in shock. I couldn’t believe it. The difference was astonishing. All I had done was change a few lines by mere millimeters and now she looks horrifyingly different.

When I showed the final version to my husband he said, “That’s horrifying.” Which, he confirmed, meant that I did my job right. I felt so bad. This will hopefully help the group to visualize the difference and lead them to question their current assumptions.

Art is an amazing thing isn’t it? Just a few subtle line changes can so drastically change the look of a face. Let alone changing the hair and adding tattoos. A face so nice and kind looking can so easily be changed to something so cold and hard, all because of the placement of the lines were subtly altered. I have never experienced this sort of thing before as an amateur artist. I suddenly feel I have a greater appreciation for the work artists put in to achieve a particular feeling or mood in their work.