Don't "Build to a Crescendo"
While I'm feeling a little peevish about things publishable, I want to talk for a moment to all those authors who want to be dramatic and write that something "built to a crescendo" — and those editors who edit them.
Don't write it. Ask your musician friends first what this musical term means. The "crescendo" is not the end-point of some process, it is the process. A "crescendo" is the act of slowly getting louder in music; the opposite is a "decrescendo".
Look! You can even use it as a verb: "They crescendoed to an ear-shattering triple fortissimo!"
Isn't that more fun now that misusing a cliched phrase that marks you as a second-tier (at least) writer?
And while I'm at it, I think I may scream if I see one more person write the wimpy "Make no mistake…". Don't do that, either, aspiring writers. All it does is emphasize how weak your rhetorical skills are compared to how strong you mistakenly think they are.
2 Responses
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Subscribe to comments via RSS
Leave a Reply
To thwart spam, comments by new people are held for moderation; give me a bit of time and your comment will show up.
I welcome comments -- even dissent -- but I will delete without notice irrelevant, rude, psychotic, or incomprehensible comments, particularly those that I deem homophobic, unless they are amusing. The same goes for commercial comments and trackbacks. Sorry, but it's my blog and my decisions are final.
on Wednesday, 16 September 2009 at 10.13
Permalink
Can one crescendo to a sforzando ? No, I guess not. They happen all of a sudden. The crescendoing to a climax is nice though, eh?
on Thursday, 17 September 2009 at 21.28
Permalink
As you say, a sforzando just happens. Like that! Hard to do, though, without an audience seeing everyone get ready for it.
Who doesn't like crescendoing to a climax? It's the rhythm of life.