Let's Talk with Diane A.S. Stuckart
Period, comma, exclamation point…
June 16, 2022
I was at my hair appointment a couple of months back, about to pay my stylist, when I heard the ominous tones of the Imperial March from Star Wars. Nope, Darth Vader wasn’t approaching. It was the ringtone on my cellphone assigned to my hubster. (Hey, Honey, it’s all in good fun…honest!) I silenced the ring; then, as I don’t have the thumb dexterity to type fast, I went to my message app and swiftly dictated the following:
Just finishing up with my hair appointment, comma, I’ll call you when I’m on the way home, period, Give me five, period.
As I hit “send”, my stylist broke up laughing.
“You can tell Diane is an author,” she told the other client waiting in her micro-salon. “She sends texts with punctuation. I never do.”
The other woman laughed back and agreed she never used punctuation in her texts, either. I merely shrugged. I’d never realized I was some sort of crazy writer outlier who took the time to send properly formatted messages rather than relying on textspeak. (In my defense, I’m not above the occasional OMG or LOL. But I do draw the line at U and UR.)
Anyhow, I paid and went on my way, but the situation got me thinking. Our professions and avocations and hobbies all cause us to look at the world a certain way. Because I am a thrifter with shops on Etsy and eBay, I always drive slowly on trash day in case someone is getting rid of something perfectly good that I could keep or resell. Because I am a paranormal investigator, I always review the photos my home inspector husband takes of the places he inspects. (You know, in case he’s accidentally caught a ghost on film.) And because I am a beekeeper, I always take note when we’re out what plants and scrubs and trees are attracting bees.
Yep, we all have our “tells”. I’d love to know yours. Comment below and let us know…what little thing do you instinctively do that demonstrates you are an accountant or dancer or computer expert, or whatever?
To learn more about author Diane AS Stuckart, visit her WEBSITE.
Posted in Let's Talk, with Diane A.S. Stuckart • Tags: Diane A S Stuckart, Let's Talk, Period comma exclamation point | 12 Comments
I punctuate my texts as well, though I am often guilty of having a perfectly punctuated text, the spelling will have gone amiss in the microseconds after I click send. If I’m outside for a walk, I mostly look at the ground/near-ground for wildlife and in the sky for birds. Occasionally I am seduced by the way light comes through foliage and must stop to take it in. Which actually means that I often don’t know what’s happening with my feet! I have become well acquainted with tree roots and ruts in roads. I’m getting to the point where I think I might be more surefooted if I walked everywhere in a hamster ball…
I like your hamster ball idea, Maggie. But awkward if you get to a hill!
Because I went to art school, I was trained to study objects, people, and places, their shapes, the shadows, how light affects them, the way someone holds her head or moves a limb, etc. I’ll sometimes stare for what some might consider too long as I study something that captures my attention. This once resulted in an uncomfortable situation when I overheard someone say that I creeped her out because of the way I had intensely looked at her. Afterwards, I went up to her in private and apologized, but it was a bit of a wake-up call for me.
That’s the problem with being a people watcher — and that’s why dark sunglasses are so handy!
I come up with murder plots. I could be having an innocuous conversation with someone and then will say, “That’s a great way to kill someone off!” This happened the other day and I’m going to use the method in my WIP. I also use vocabulary words or phrases that my husband says, “Only a writer would talk like that.”
LOL, you’d think the man would be used to that after all these years!
Like you, I punctuate posts and normally spell out words (although autocorrect usually has another word in mind). My legal background also comes through in my verbal speech: per se, etc.
I bet that legal-speak is pretty much permanently ingrained in you! 🙂 And don’t we all hate autocorrect!
OMG. I’m a punctuator, too! It feels like if I send a poorly written text, someone might judge me for it! Since I’m also a photographer, I’ll frequently notice the light, especially in the early morning (my favorite!) And, I’ve also been known to surreptitiously shoot photos of interesting people to later turn them into characters.
Thank you notes and greeting cards are hard for me–I feel I have to be brilliant or else folks will wonder (and judge!) why a writer is sending such a banal few lines. 🙂
Lab tech here. I notice people’s veins outside of work. It took me years to not immediately look at someone’s ear lobes when meeting them, because of a 7th grade science lesson on genetics, where we had to tally whether our classmates’ ears were free or attached. And I’m really nuts about using proper punctuation and spelling in texts and social media, probably even more so because so many people don’t.
LOL, lab tech or vampire?? Ha! I, too, look at ears, but the other end, and only because one of my brothers has kind of pointy ones (we kids always told him he had antelope ears, though what made us choose antelope over some other beast, I have no clue. 🙂