That Moment :continued

tmw someone goes through a piece of your writing and deletes every single instance of the past perfect tense...idk

 

Apparently they still do, lol
I'm unaware of youth dance culture for the most part because I'm homeschooled and somehow I don't feel as if I'm missing out on much

(They were dancing while they asked so kind of, but I deadpanned with "unfortunately, no" and walked away)

 

Sounds about like what I do when the kids try to get me to whip/nae-nae/dab.

 

TMW:
After you get your nosed pierced the piercer tells you to be careful taking off your glasses because it could pull out the stud.

Fast forward a week later.....

Im dancing in my room with my dogs, jumping up and down singing and dramatically whip off my glasses....... And nose stud


Fucking hurt like hell!!!

 

Oh, wait till they get to the past continuous. "You used 'was'! That's passive!"

 

Ironically, I found out the guy was dead from a flyer advertising a fundraiser for his daughter, who's in a wheelchair due to two clapped-out hips.

I'm not happy she's suffering, even though she was complicit in the hatchet job her father did on my career. I hope she gets the surgery she needs. But my attending the fundraiser would be, um, inappropriate.

 

One of my bullies (not really a bully, but a mean girl who used to talk about me behind my back)

Is now in prison. High speed car chase that ended in cops finding a bunch of cocaine in her trunk.

I laughed

 

TMW the state DMV sends you replacement license plates because some bureaucrat decided that 20 years was long enough exposure to the elements. So you replace the plates and as you toss the old ones in the trash you realize that you just tossed aside 20 years of your life as well.

 

Calm down Homer, she's out of business now, you'll still have to go to your regular guy.

 

Nah. But I sure liked some of the years they represented.

 

That's how I felt trading-in my 14-year old cars that I bought new. First was a 1980 Subaru Hatchback and the other was a 2006 Jeep Liberty. Lots of memories associated with those cars.

 

TMW after a long trip when one walks though one's own front door and falls first into the arm's of a loved one and then between the arms of one's favorite chair. A Hello to Arms.

Ahhhhhhhhh.

 

That moment when you go to the Caribbean and still look exotic.


Local guy: where are you from?
Me: Michigan
Him: but where are you FROM?
Me: Michigan
Him:....... Where are your people from??
Me:..... Maryland.
Him: you have no Island in your blood?
Me: nope. Not that i know of.
Him: still lovely.


(ALLLLL of my life people ask me "where are you from/where are your people from" or "what are you?/what are you mixed with?"...... Im just black, lol)

 

Also, never in my life have i heard such smooth pickup lines!

"Your name must be Angel. You can call me Jesus, cuz CHRIST is it sinful out here!"


-to my mom- "you must be her mother. You can call me "son-in-law" " -winks at me-


From an "ugly duckling" that boys would tease and fake ask out as a joke to this? I think i like the Caribbean

 

Lol, I’d be embarrassed to say that to someone. Maybe that why I’m still single - I need to learn to be shameless

 

You're married, right? You can follow that up with, "Yeah, my husband thinks so, too."

 

That moment when you're in the shower and you realise you aren't the only one who currently wants to punch your protagonist in the face.

And there's the solution to your plot problems.

 

That was definitely me. I hate past perfect.

 

it’s kind of useful to talk about anterior actions

 

I see too many writers get stuck in it for too long. I use it, but try to keep it as absolutely minimal as possible. I consider a paragraph to be too much most times, though occasionally maybe? I find once you've established past perfect you can transition into past or present if you do it right. Something like:

I've done this too many times—drown my troubles in whiskey as if it dissolves them. It does temporarily. No, that's not right. It dissolves your mind, makes you stupid enough you still feel good.​

That's what I call general present. It isn't describing present actions but timeless ones, things you've done many times, or that people in general have done, could be doing now, and will probably do in the future. I call it the general present, there may be a better term for it. I wasn't intending to, but I also slipped into general second person. I guess it goes with general present tense.

Another strategy to transition out of past perfect:

He had snuck out and gone into town to see Mai again. He always did that when his wife fell ino one of her moods.
​

I wasn't planning to, but I shifted into general past this time. Always is like generally or habitually, it's another timeless qualifier, not describing a particular action, but one he's taken frequently and will probably continue to. Habitual actions I suppose.