CAPITALS
If there is one thing I have learned about my blogging after having the recent 'trending when trying to delete a blog' thing, it is to strike while the iron is hot, as it were. Start writing something the second that a thought strikes, rather than thinking 'I'll make a note of that thought and come back to it when time allows'. Because I don't.
Also, finish it then, because while 151 opening paragraphs kept may seem like 'a resource' to dip back in to, you actually have no idea of the headspace you were occupying and can't remember how you were thinking of developing the post from there now.
But this may just be me.
This is why, after reading my Bear blog Discover RSS feed this morning, I am now writing about the annoyance I feel when the cool kids writing other blogs do that 'not using capital letters at the start of sentences' thing on their blogs.
Why is that cool? It's as cool as that old trend of putting an i in front of product names to give it a bit of reflected coolness was in the early noughties. iPod begat iPhone, then everyone was at it until we had iSocks, iDonuts, and iDon'tKnowWhatElse.
It's not cool now. We laugh at it now, because now we have put an A in front of the i. Much cooler.
Then we're leaving out the vowels to make brand names. Wld t b cl t lv th vwls t? No. Unreadable nonsense.
Anyway, yes, no capital letters in your blog posts. Perhaps I'm just old fashioned, like everyone else that has existed since humans started using text and reading, but capital letters at the start of a new sentence was there for a reason. To tell you when it was the start of a new sentence.
I mean, it seems obvious. It's so easy for a brain to skip over an itsy-weeny full stop if there's not a capital letter ahead of it, signalling a new sentence is imminent. Without it, your mind is careering off through the words like being on a runaway train, looking out desperately for a safe punctuation station to jump off at.
The same signals are in my brain for reading, and have been since I first stunned my Dad by reading out some words I recognised from the bedtime story book when I was about three years old.
Now, if I was writing something that should feel like a stream-of-consciousness then perhaps the lack of capitals would make sense, but in that context the bloody full stops you do use don't make sense – we want commas and other non sentence-ending-signal punctuation to keep the stream flowing, not stopping.
Stop.
And although he can't be arsed to use any other punctuation that is considered normal, even Cormac McCarthy uses capitals for sentences (I think he does anyway, it's been a long time since I saw them – I lent my brother two of Cormac's novels fifteen years ago and haven't seen them since).
I suppose it boils down to this. A style. An affectation. To be different. but is also more difficult to read.
NB: There is no prize for writing me an email that points out that my titles do not use title case, i.e. Capital Letters At The Start Of Words, and therefore '...you have no idea what you're talking about'. You can write one anyway if you like. I'll put it in my 'hush now' folder.
NB(2): Also, the article above is written in a somewhat subtle and not quite earnestly meant manner that may be hard for certain nationalities to pick up on. Perhaps the same people who will have no idea what a full stop is.
NB(3): From my home page:
You may experience a nagging feeling that I might be ever so subtly taking the piss, but you'll never be completely certain
post link for sharing: https://skryblans.com/capitals
If you got this far, you may as well click the star below on your way out.