Last night, around a half past midnight, three minutes after I had turned off the computer for the night (isn't that always the way?), it suddenly hit me** how I could make my conference paper not suck.
Twenty minutes ago, I finished a revision of said paper. It's not going to change anybody's world, but I'm now fairly certain that I will not embarrass myself or Esteemed Adviser at the upcoming conference.
((sigh of relief))
**I know that good writers avoid the passive voice like the plague. But I just can't bring myself to claim agency in these late-night inspirations. They happen to me.
4 comments:
The "no passive voice" rule is just another of those Strunk & White shibboleths that lead to what the people at Language Log have named "nervous cluelessness"
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1357
("It hit me" isn't passive voice anyway--the passive voice version would be "I was hit by it." The distinction has to do with whether the verb is assigned to the actor or the acted-upon. But it can be ignored [passive] or [active] you can ignore it.)
RootlessC, you're totally right. That is active voice.
At least you had the fucking sense to get right back on the motherfucking computer. I can't tell you how many times I have had a Nobel Prize-winning idea after turning in, and told myself to remember it in the morning. So far, still no Nobel Prize.
Congratulations. I think it's interesting when we get those late night inspirations -- last week I woke up at 3:30 AM when I was leaving the house at 5 AM and realized how to focus MY conference presentation. I think it's that it's all in our head, and we let go of control, and then we can think.
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