You may have noticed.
You may even be planning an intervention.
When I look back through my blog, emails, correspondence and even my thoughts, I take note that I am obsessed with the “dot, dot, dot”.
They are so cute, round and multiple. They are a perfect circle design element repeated three times. They are so dramatic in their effect. They are thought inducing, subtracting and multiplying. They are compact and can be taken almost anywhere. Oh, how I love the …. (the fourth one there is the actual period at the end of that sentence which I probably should have replaced with an exclamation point…((see how great that pause is there?)))
Which brings me to admit that this isn’t the first time I have been in love with punctuation…(stop me, now)…
My first crush was with the exclamation point!
I am perky by nature so the exclamation point and I really hit it off. Oh, how I could just bring any sentence more umph, visibility, and sass by just adding one of those!
It was easy! It was effortless! It was a trap…
…because too much of a good thing depletes its value. I was over-exclaiming!
Suddenly all those really important points were lost with all the other really important points.
I just had to start saying “no” to the exclamation point. I couldn’t go cold turkey. I couldn’t avoid my first love completely. I have had to go on punctuation limitation.
I have self-imposed a one exclamation point rule. Only one per event. Only one saved for the most important point thoughtfully and lovingly placed.
Oh, I have flirted with the ALL CAPS and the bold. I have even been known to use the –, or in extreme cases the italics. But for now, it will be the dot, dot, dot until…
I get help.
PS: A special thanks to JCK, Meg, Madge, Burgh Baby, Rachael and Amy who may have suffered through that post twice. It originally appeared 12-7-07.
I’m a semi-colon girl, myself; odd, but true.
Hello, my name is Rachel and I suffer from the same affliction.
Let’s start a club…!
I can’t really talk –see any of these 🙂 on my post 😉 (see I can’t stop!)
…pure junkie here… can’t help myself… so glad I’m not alone!!!
…ellipses, they’re called…
I def love ’em…almost as much as I love your blog!!!
PattiLynn
Love the ” . . .” and the ” — ” I have to admit. Use it all the time much to my English professors’ dismay. If they only knew they’d gather, en masse and demand my English degree to be revoked.
Deep sigh…me too…me too.
Me too…me..too…
…..!!!!!
…….!!!!!!!!!!!! …..!!!!! ….!!!!
…!!! !!!!! !!!!! !!! … … ……
!!!!…..
…
!!!!
…
Me too, which is why we get along so well.
And is this a re-post? Or was it an email where we’ve discussed this before? We’ve been around each other too long.
I just can’t quit you. (Gay cowboy reference completely random, because I have NO intention to quit you, but it popped into my head so I typed it and now I’m realizing that I’m the first comment so everyone is going to see this, so I should just stop typing now)
Have a lovely day.