One more rant for the holidays: style self-consciousness

Pascal Cuoq - 9th Aug 2011

One unexpected consequence of writing semi-regularly in a blog, in addition to the other bits of writing that I have to do, is that I am starting to hate my own style. It feels like English sentences always come out my fingers with the same rhythm to them. Precisely dull. I always use adverbs the same way. I would go on, but it's gotten to the point where I'm wondering whether I'm not going to switch to my native language mid-post. Better B quick!

I read tons, from many different people. The Internet is great for that. Audiobooks have also long replaced music in my iPod. That is less varied for obvious technical reasons, but I listen to anything by Douglas Adams, and various other BBC radio broadcasts. There's \Bilbo the Hobbit" I like to go through when I know I'll have a long stretch of listening time such as a night walk. Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories" are great for alternating with chapters of "The Selfish Gene". One thing written and read by Scott Adams (the author of Dilbert not any other Scott Adams). Another by Orson Scott Card. Neal Stephenson. In a nutshell plentiful formats and authors. But I don't seem to be able to form sentences other than the repetitive tripe here which wouldn't be too bad and I'm getting allergic to it which is.

Do others feel the same way about any non-native language? How do you overcome it? Let's say you have an article to write some documentation to revise and you are completely and utterly tired of hearing yourself speak. What would you do?

Pascal Cuoq
9th Aug 2011