What Are Your Intentions?

Julie L.
York

Everyone knows the saying, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Something similar can be said for authors, “The road to bad reviews is paved with unclear intentions.” OK, so it’s not nearly as catchy, but it’s valid. When we speak, we can use tone of voice and body language to convey what we really are talking about. In fact, close to 90% of our communication is actually conveyed through non-verbal means. The tilt of our heads, our posture, where our arms are sitting…those are all clues beyond our tone of voice that tells people what we mean without having to say the words.
Now, in writing, this is impossible to do, so, just how do we convey what we really mean?
Raise of hands—how many have totally botched an entire conversation because what we thought our texted words said was not understood the way we meant them? After you’re done cringing, because we ALL have done it—think back to how it could have been said or should have been said. Every person who knows how to read has their own internal voice and emphasizes words differently in their own inner dialogues that may be totally different from how an author may have meant them.
Months ago, a fellow author posted a sentence that he wasn’t certain how to punctuate with commas. I replied with something like, “What did you intend to point out with that sentence?” You’d have thought I’d killed a puppy. That text conversation went bonkers! Grammar Nazis from all over had a field day.

Read the entire article in the Dec/Jan 2018-19 issue of InD'Tale magazine.

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