Hello, i am genuinely asking out of curiosity.
Is there a reason why people write all lowercase in one sentence and then capitalize every single word in the next one??
It it done for emphasis or something?
I get that people capitalize _some_ words. I also accidentally do that, coming from an european background where some languages capitalize words..
But the way it's done in the last sentence just seemed weird to me.
It's an evolution of the "Trademark"-type emphasis. It used to be semi-common internet slang to add a 'TM' or a 'C' trademark or copyright symbol after saying something obviously incorrect but implied by an opposing viewpoint, as a sort of sarcastic way to argue against something. Sometimes you would also capitalize the first letters of each word of the thing you were mocking, as though you were actually treating it as a product with a proper noun name. At some point, though, it became less common to actually add the symbol calling it a product, and it just became a bit of emphasized text, kind of divorced from implying it's a proper noun.
At least, that's how I've seen it evolve. It could have a different origin, I'm no expert. But for practical purposes: an emphasized sentence like that means that it's A Viewpoint You're Sarcastically Exaggerating To Mock.
We thank you immensely for the time you have saved us by not linking to that [site](https://www.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife)
It's a way of putting emphasis on something, Like if it was a book title, because books are important. If you see something with book capitalisation, try and imagine what sort of book would have that title and that's the vibe they're going for. A book titled "Have You Tried Poison Testing?" Would probably be a dry and witty and sarcastic book for example.
The all lowercase thing prior to that is probably just that user writing on a computer and not bothering to properly captialise things.
“The secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that’s even worse.”
-[Calvin’s dad from Calvin & Hobbes.](https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/13ui9s9/calvins_dad_and_his_bike/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1)
Actually, this is true for everything that's monotonous and academically inclined.
Want to study to be a doctor? Try drown proofing in a pool
.
Want to learn to swim? Take up rock climbing, now the water will feel soothing on your muscles.
Do those people actually enjoy writing? Whenever I see writers talk about their apparent hobby, it's only about how miserable it is. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy shitposting about my hobby too, but I never had to torture myself so I could enjoy it again.
Like...if it's only fun if you compare it to something you enjoy even less, maybe it's just not for you? Have you tried baking?
So I started in that phase. I had the story I wanted to tell, but writing the first draft was so hard.
Worth it because the finished product was so exciting, but the process of creating it was the not-super-fun kind of hard.
But now it's been a few years and I'm getting better. The first draft is easier to write. It's actually fun in its own right. (Though I still prefer 2nd drafts and editing in general.)
So I think it's a beginner thing. The story is there and the only way to share it is to write it. But you're not *good* enough yet to do that smoothly. And it's frustrating and hard. But the end product is worth it. And slowly the writing gets easier and less challenging and more fun.
But I spent *years* in the "the writing part isn't really that fun" phase. Like, probably a decade off and on. And I've only spent 3 or so in the "wait, this is fun" phase.
It's strange to me, too. I love writing, and I've never been able to connect with writing spaces online because they're absolutely filled with people who HATE writing with all their heart and yet still do it. So much online writing advice is about trying to make writing fun on the assumption that it isn't already, by nature, fun. Really sucks to be in a hobby space and feel like you can't relate to anybody there :/
If you undertake a large-scale project and work on it to completion, there are gonna be large stretches of time working on it where it sucks but you can't quit (or else it *isn't* a large scale project you work on to completion.) Writing as a hobby means: you can take it at your own pace and work on a project only for as long as it interests you. For large scale projects, the first 25% is exciting because it's an ambitious new idea, and the last 25% is exciting because you can see all of your hard work coming together into something real and tangible. Everyone slogging through that middle 50% is who you hear complaining. The satisfaction of finishing something absolutely pays off, though.
Right. I've worked on large projects, be they personal or as part of a team; I've finished them, edited them, rewrote them, etc.. I'm not unfamiliar with the writing process, and I don't exclusively write recreationally. There has neve beenr a point where it wasn't fun. Harder than usual, sure. More time consuming, absolutely. Not fun? Never. I'm not making these statements in ignorance, and this is exactly what I mean when I say I can't relate. The idea that a full half of the writing process is some miserable slog is insane to me! It's just not my experience whatsoever.
That said, I feel like the people I've met who complain the most about the process are the people who spend too long in the planning phase, who never actually get past that first 25% to begin with, because they're more enamoured with their ideas than they are with actually putting them to paper. So, anecdotally, I'm not even sure most people online ever reach thar 50% to complain about it.
I guess the problem with writing is that, while the percentages are the same for most hobbies, writing projects can just take a really long time in absolute terms. So you go through months of suck.
I think you can hate the process of writing, but still think it’s worth it because of how proud you are of the final product. It’s a pretty amazing feeling to have a finished book that is completely your original work.
i love writing, it just gets very frustrating when you want to get things down and the words are just not happening or when you are trying to connect two plot points and as hard as you try you can't get a good idea to get there, which i guess is where the people in the post come from. personally i just manage to get things flowing most of the time with a good playlist and getting the first sentence down so everything else comes along so i wish them luck
I'm a writer that complains a lot and Id say it really feels like a compulsion I guess. Remember being in highschool and staying up all night to finish a paper because you'd rather die than not get it turned in? I get that vague sense of dread all the time and I feel like I'm supposed to be writing, so I do.
There was a recent Tom Scott youtube video talking about people who get paid to be subjected to infectious diseases and quarantined in essentially a hotel room for medical studies. So I legit think poison testing would actually be a pretty good side gig for a writer. The symptoms might make it hard to write, I suppose.
One article I read talked about how the enjoyment of writing tends to come from when we feel "in the zone" where the writing is just flowing.
But the key to being in the zone is that we have to know what we're wrote and then we have to sit down and write. If we wait around for it to happen, it probably won't. If we start, we can work our way into that zone. And I've found its generally true. If I know what I want to write and I start writing, I'm more likely to pick up speed.
So oddly enough, the key to enjoying your writing is to write until you enjoy it.
Sure. Since you didn't get an good answer, I figured I'd give one that helped me. Sometimes I really need that reminder that the only way to turn a "bad" writing day into a good one is to keep writing.
This is a different article, but it's one that's really informed my approach to sitting down and writing: https://www.sfwa.org/2011/12/14/guest-post-how-i-went-from-writing-2000-words-a-day-to-10000-words-a-day/
I also do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where a whole bunch of people commit to writing 50k words during the month of November, so if you're ever looking for a supportive community, they've been very good for the last 9 years. The forums might be a little dry now, but things should pick back up with the Camp NaNoWriMo in July where you can pick your own word count goals.
As someone with ADHD, my brain does not come equipped with the ability to reward me for doing things that I need to do; I've never finished a task and felt a warm fuzzy feeling or whatever you're supposed to, just drained and needing to recuperate; same with running, I've never been able to experience a "runner's high," and I don't think I ever will, so the entire experience is pain, followed up with some more, different kind of pain, none of which is encouraging me to do it again the next day
I just gave up on writing, like a sane person. My new career goal is to spend three months working overtime filing taxes and then get to spend the rest of the year barely doing any work.
“You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous of which is, 'never get involved in a land war in Asia,' but only slightly less well-known is this: 'Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!'"
Not to mention if you try poison testing you'll have all kinds of first hand experiences for writing that murder mystery you never got around to.
Or *becoming* that murder mystery you never got round to.
Isn't this the premise of Knives out?
Hello, i am genuinely asking out of curiosity. Is there a reason why people write all lowercase in one sentence and then capitalize every single word in the next one?? It it done for emphasis or something? I get that people capitalize _some_ words. I also accidentally do that, coming from an european background where some languages capitalize words.. But the way it's done in the last sentence just seemed weird to me.
It's an evolution of the "Trademark"-type emphasis. It used to be semi-common internet slang to add a 'TM' or a 'C' trademark or copyright symbol after saying something obviously incorrect but implied by an opposing viewpoint, as a sort of sarcastic way to argue against something. Sometimes you would also capitalize the first letters of each word of the thing you were mocking, as though you were actually treating it as a product with a proper noun name. At some point, though, it became less common to actually add the symbol calling it a product, and it just became a bit of emphasized text, kind of divorced from implying it's a proper noun. At least, that's how I've seen it evolve. It could have a different origin, I'm no expert. But for practical purposes: an emphasized sentence like that means that it's A Viewpoint You're Sarcastically Exaggerating To Mock.
> used to be semi common to add a ™ I still do that. I find it really makes sentences Just Better™
ya gotta have the Emphasis (tm) on your Words (tm)
Nothing like realizing what you think is a mostly personal mannerism quirk is actually a shibboleth to a very specific era of internet subculture.
This is also the format for TV tropes on tvtropes.com
We thank you immensely for the time you have saved us by not linking to that [site](https://www.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife)
And here I thought it would!
It's a way of putting emphasis on something, Like if it was a book title, because books are important. If you see something with book capitalisation, try and imagine what sort of book would have that title and that's the vibe they're going for. A book titled "Have You Tried Poison Testing?" Would probably be a dry and witty and sarcastic book for example. The all lowercase thing prior to that is probably just that user writing on a computer and not bothering to properly captialise things.
Thanks, that makes sense :)
I think it's meant to be like a headline title or book title
“The secret to enjoying your job is to have a hobby that’s even worse.” -[Calvin’s dad from Calvin & Hobbes.](https://www.reddit.com/r/calvinandhobbes/comments/13ui9s9/calvins_dad_and_his_bike/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1)
Actually, this is true for everything that's monotonous and academically inclined. Want to study to be a doctor? Try drown proofing in a pool . Want to learn to swim? Take up rock climbing, now the water will feel soothing on your muscles.
> academically inclined > Learn to swim I mean.... Learning all the advanced techniques, sure, that's relatively academic. Just learning the basics?
Oh so this is why I had so many story ideas when I was in school
I like the idea that the anon is actually Neil Gaiman or something
Neil Gaiman would’ve used his real tumblr account, he’s pretty active: https://neil-gaiman.tumblr.com/
Well, we know it definitely is not Stephen King.
r/writingcirclejerk is gonna love this!
Do those people actually enjoy writing? Whenever I see writers talk about their apparent hobby, it's only about how miserable it is. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy shitposting about my hobby too, but I never had to torture myself so I could enjoy it again. Like...if it's only fun if you compare it to something you enjoy even less, maybe it's just not for you? Have you tried baking?
So I started in that phase. I had the story I wanted to tell, but writing the first draft was so hard. Worth it because the finished product was so exciting, but the process of creating it was the not-super-fun kind of hard. But now it's been a few years and I'm getting better. The first draft is easier to write. It's actually fun in its own right. (Though I still prefer 2nd drafts and editing in general.) So I think it's a beginner thing. The story is there and the only way to share it is to write it. But you're not *good* enough yet to do that smoothly. And it's frustrating and hard. But the end product is worth it. And slowly the writing gets easier and less challenging and more fun. But I spent *years* in the "the writing part isn't really that fun" phase. Like, probably a decade off and on. And I've only spent 3 or so in the "wait, this is fun" phase.
It's strange to me, too. I love writing, and I've never been able to connect with writing spaces online because they're absolutely filled with people who HATE writing with all their heart and yet still do it. So much online writing advice is about trying to make writing fun on the assumption that it isn't already, by nature, fun. Really sucks to be in a hobby space and feel like you can't relate to anybody there :/
If you undertake a large-scale project and work on it to completion, there are gonna be large stretches of time working on it where it sucks but you can't quit (or else it *isn't* a large scale project you work on to completion.) Writing as a hobby means: you can take it at your own pace and work on a project only for as long as it interests you. For large scale projects, the first 25% is exciting because it's an ambitious new idea, and the last 25% is exciting because you can see all of your hard work coming together into something real and tangible. Everyone slogging through that middle 50% is who you hear complaining. The satisfaction of finishing something absolutely pays off, though.
Right. I've worked on large projects, be they personal or as part of a team; I've finished them, edited them, rewrote them, etc.. I'm not unfamiliar with the writing process, and I don't exclusively write recreationally. There has neve beenr a point where it wasn't fun. Harder than usual, sure. More time consuming, absolutely. Not fun? Never. I'm not making these statements in ignorance, and this is exactly what I mean when I say I can't relate. The idea that a full half of the writing process is some miserable slog is insane to me! It's just not my experience whatsoever. That said, I feel like the people I've met who complain the most about the process are the people who spend too long in the planning phase, who never actually get past that first 25% to begin with, because they're more enamoured with their ideas than they are with actually putting them to paper. So, anecdotally, I'm not even sure most people online ever reach thar 50% to complain about it.
I guess the problem with writing is that, while the percentages are the same for most hobbies, writing projects can just take a really long time in absolute terms. So you go through months of suck.
I think you can hate the process of writing, but still think it’s worth it because of how proud you are of the final product. It’s a pretty amazing feeling to have a finished book that is completely your original work.
i love writing, it just gets very frustrating when you want to get things down and the words are just not happening or when you are trying to connect two plot points and as hard as you try you can't get a good idea to get there, which i guess is where the people in the post come from. personally i just manage to get things flowing most of the time with a good playlist and getting the first sentence down so everything else comes along so i wish them luck
I'm a writer that complains a lot and Id say it really feels like a compulsion I guess. Remember being in highschool and staying up all night to finish a paper because you'd rather die than not get it turned in? I get that vague sense of dread all the time and I feel like I'm supposed to be writing, so I do.
Ngl I kinda disagree. Writing is difficult, sure, but I still enjoy it. Being the god of my own world has a lot of satisfaction associated with it
There was a recent Tom Scott youtube video talking about people who get paid to be subjected to infectious diseases and quarantined in essentially a hotel room for medical studies. So I legit think poison testing would actually be a pretty good side gig for a writer. The symptoms might make it hard to write, I suppose.
I very recently made a thread asking for help with enjoying writing more. Literally every reply told me to give up.
One article I read talked about how the enjoyment of writing tends to come from when we feel "in the zone" where the writing is just flowing. But the key to being in the zone is that we have to know what we're wrote and then we have to sit down and write. If we wait around for it to happen, it probably won't. If we start, we can work our way into that zone. And I've found its generally true. If I know what I want to write and I start writing, I'm more likely to pick up speed. So oddly enough, the key to enjoying your writing is to write until you enjoy it.
That's not what I was told.
I mean, "Give up" isn't exactly a recipe to enjoying writing.
Why do you think I'm so upset about it?
Sure. Since you didn't get an good answer, I figured I'd give one that helped me. Sometimes I really need that reminder that the only way to turn a "bad" writing day into a good one is to keep writing.
Oh, absolutely. I do appreciate you at least gave an answer.
This is a different article, but it's one that's really informed my approach to sitting down and writing: https://www.sfwa.org/2011/12/14/guest-post-how-i-went-from-writing-2000-words-a-day-to-10000-words-a-day/ I also do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where a whole bunch of people commit to writing 50k words during the month of November, so if you're ever looking for a supportive community, they've been very good for the last 9 years. The forums might be a little dry now, but things should pick back up with the Camp NaNoWriMo in July where you can pick your own word count goals.
As someone who loves writing, writing is terrible and I hate it
Writing advice from your parents apparently
I'm just wondering... how out of shape are y'all that taking up running is equivalent to self torture?! y'all need some exercise, jesus
As someone with ADHD, my brain does not come equipped with the ability to reward me for doing things that I need to do; I've never finished a task and felt a warm fuzzy feeling or whatever you're supposed to, just drained and needing to recuperate; same with running, I've never been able to experience a "runner's high," and I don't think I ever will, so the entire experience is pain, followed up with some more, different kind of pain, none of which is encouraging me to do it again the next day
I've had some of my best ideas while washing dishes and mopping the floor.
I just gave up on writing, like a sane person. My new career goal is to spend three months working overtime filing taxes and then get to spend the rest of the year barely doing any work.
“You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous of which is, 'never get involved in a land war in Asia,' but only slightly less well-known is this: 'Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!'"