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True, hence “weighed” not “followed blindly”

I checked the forum guilelines and PUI (posting under the influence) is not prohibited.  Seems like an oversight to me.

*passes bong and the iPad to wife and says* “Here, you read it, see if you can make any sense of it.”

Apologies. I know nothing about you.  I wasn’t inferring anything political.  I was merely using a pop culture simile in the discussion of a writing topic. 

Simile: a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g., as brave as a lion, crazy like a fox).

Chip on shoulder:  To have a chip on one's shoulder refers to the act of holding a grievance that readily provokes disputation.

“Exasperation is a lesser emotion and results from the failure of another to understand or conform.”

You won’t find any dictionary that supports this narrow definition....

Angela Ackerman has a series of interesting thesauruses, including one called the “Emotion Thesaurus”.  In it, she describes elements of every emotion imaginable.  She organizes them according to how they might evolve. For instance: Suppressed Aggravation, Annoyance, Anger.....

This is the entry under “ANNOYANCE”
DEFINITION: aggravation or mild irritation
PHYSICAL SIGNALS:
A pinched expression
**Sighing heavily or with exaggeration** (emphasis mine)
Statements suggesting impatience: Here, I’ll do it.
Narrowing eyes
Crossed arms
Tapping a foot, fidgeting
Swatting at the air
Tics and tells (a throbbing forehead vein, fingering a collar)
Lips pressing into a white slash
Clenching the jaw
Grimacing, sneering, frowning
Complaining
Folding the arms across the chest
Hands that briefly clench
Making pointed suggestions to alleviate the annoyance
Tugging at clothing (jerking down a cuff, forcing a zipper up)
Cocking one’s head and then shaking it
Raising one’s eyebrows and giving a glassy stare
A gaze that flicks upward
Minutely shaking the head
Changing one’s stance (shifting weight or position)
Propping the head up with a fist
Holding the head in the hands
Opening the mouth to criticize, then stopping short
Taking a deep breath and holding it in
Finger-tapping a tabletop
A smile that slips or appears forced
Snapping a pencil tip, using unnecessary force
Pacing
Light sarcasm
Asking a question that has a painfully obvious answer
A sharp tone
Speaking in short phrases
Visible tension in the neck, shoulders, and arms
Rigid posture, cords twanging in the neck
Rubbing the brow as if to ward off a headache
Avoiding the person or object of annoyance
Pressing a fist to the mouth
INTERNAL SENSATIONS:
A headache
Stiffness in the neck or jaw
Raised body temperature
Sensitivity to noise
MENTAL RESPONSES:
Berating thoughts
Straying attention
Thinking of an excuse to leave
Making unkind mental comparisons
Wishing to be somewhere else
CUES OF ACUTE OR LONG-TERM ANNOYANCE:
A reddening face
Rough handling of objects
Taking over someone else’s job or duties
Grinding one’s teeth
Throwing the hands up in a gesture of surrender
“Stalking off to get some air
Shutting down, not speaking or responding
Pulling someone else into the situation to divert attention and allow one to exit
MAY ESCALATE TO: FRUSTRATION, ANGER
CUES OF SUPPRESSED ANNOYANCE:
Nodding, but tightly, as if holding back from speaking an insult
Switching to another job to keep hands and thoughts busy
Attacking a task, diverting one’s energy
Forcing oneself to remain in the presence of the annoyance
Faking interest, barely holding impatience at bay
Carefully controlling one’s voice and tone
Focusing one’s gaze elsewhere in an attempt to ignore

WRITER’S TIP: Don’t get caught up on the eyes to convey emotion. While eyes are often the first thing we notice in real life, they provide very limited options for description possibilities. Instead, dig deeper, showing how the character behaves through their body movement, actions and dialogue.

Excerpt From
The Emotion Thesaurus:
Becca Puglisi & Angela Ackerman
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/emotio … 5492?mt=11
This material may be protected by copyright.

**Note:  So no one goes off the deep end, this comment is not directed at anyone in particular.  It’s merely an observation on discussions like this in general.**

It’s always interesting to watch a discussion on some simple grammar aspect dissolve into a more general discussion of “following grammar rules” (or not)—and to watch (inevitably) the experts come forth to opine.

Novices (like myself) breaking rules rarely create anything better than mediocrity, despite our bold assertions, until such a time as we embrace the rules and give them the respect they deserve (then break them knowledgeably).  In fact, when you don’t “really” know the rules fully, you don’t even realize what a mess you are making when you brazenly disregard them. 

The folly in the assertion that it’s okay to play footloose with the basic rules and conventions of proper grammar is, most of the time, the people making this argument don’t have a legitimately firm grasp on the rules they hold in such disdain.  In fact, too often, the ones who argue most vociferously that it’s okay to eschew the rules for the sake of “their art,” are those using the argument as a crutch, or as an excuse for not digging into the nitty gritty to deeply understand proper grammar, punctuation, syntax, etc.

People who have truly mastered the rules well enough to intelligently manipulate them, rarely defend what they do.  They don’t need to.   They diligently hone their art over their careers, learning to manipulate the rules in concert with and in respect of those rules—and let their work speak for them. 

So, what you can “almost” always be certain of is: Those who speak loudest about their confidence in defying rules are the very ones who don’t have a firm grasp on them. 

I have a writer-friend who refers to this propensity as “S&W’s Razor.”

Writers who aim for mediocrity often think they are better than the rules before they know them.  Writers who aim for greatness almost always have a great respect and deep understanding of the rules and conventions of their profession. 

I think Pablo Picasso said it best:
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”

Welcome to prove the razor...  :-)

If you aren’t a paying member, you can still “reply” to a post in Premium, but you can’t “create” a topic.

You don’t have to be a paying member to be a Premium member...

This’ll stir ‘em up (especially the passive-aggressives—they’re cute when they get a bee in their bonnet. LOL). I applaud your frankness, my friend.

https://www.thenextbigwriter.com/contes … Contest-18

You just select the contest from your home page, then select “entries” to see the list of entrants.

I started to reply, “How would you know?” And then it dawned on me...