"But" writing

[Flash]

try dealing with copy when the writer starts sentences galore with "and" ...

Reminds me of the drive-thru chick in Dude, Where's My Car.

And then? And then? And then?

NO AND THEN!

 

[Songbird]

try dealing with copy when the writer starts sentences galore with "and" ...

 

[Flash]

try dealing with copy when the writer starts sentences galore with "and" ...

try dealing with copy when the writer starts sentences galore with "and" ...

But you already said that.

 

[Songbird]

man, this helio sucks.

 

[spikechiquet]

Sometimes, going away from buts and thoughs and howevers can be a great writing tool.

John Thompson likes his cheese.
Cheddar, mozzarella, munster. All kinds. Swiss, even.
He eats it three times a day, sometimes more. It dominates his diet the way garlic dominates breath.
Today, he is eating an orange.
Today, he discovered he is lactose intolerant

i SO want to know how that story ends

Hopefully with a ninja. Or a dragon. Or a dragon-ninja.

Four things I learned to always make a morning show entertaining (I used to work in radio)
1. ninjas
2. monkeys
3. lesbians
4. Any combonation of the three (lesbian ninjas, monkey ninjas, etc.)

Now I have a fifth: Dragons!

 

[Matt1735]

When I worked at my first paper (mostly as a designer), a writer who has gone on to bigger and better things would get so irritated if one person on the desk got his story... He called him the "however monster"... no matter the context, the desker would replace the "buts" with "howevers" throughout every piece of copy. Being in the middle of that was good for laughs.

 

[BrianGriffin]

I feel as if I've fallen into a writing rut in which I way-too-often set up "but"s.
--
Smith, 43, doesn't like basketball. But when the Sacramento Monarchs are on TV, he can't turn away.

John Thompson likes cheese - a lot. But, today, he is eating an orange.
--
Those examples are (obviously) both fake and bad, but (see!) that's what I've been doing. And it's bad - or, at least, uncreative, especially when it becomes my first lede-construction instinct.

How do I get out?! How do I stop?!

I have your problem. What happens a lot, if I'm not writing on deadline, is I go back and take the "buts" out and, in the process, I find that I end up with a piece that reads better in general beyond just the removal of "buts." Sometimes removing the "but" makes you re-think your word choices in general.

I think that's a good way to start. For some of those stories that are to be in the can a day early (or maybe early in the day) just write as you normally would. Then go back and change it. In that process, you'll start training your brain to think differently when it wants to pull it's "but" out.

But you can never completely eliminate the habit...

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Some people can get away with but writing:

 

[dargan]

John Thompson likes his cheese.
Cheddar, mozzarella, munster. All kinds. Swiss, even.
He eats it three times a day, sometimes more. It dominates his diet the way garlic dominates breath.
Today, he is eating an orange.
Today, he discovered he is lactose intolerant
"I always thought I was above it," said Thompson, peeling away the rind like layers of string cheese — some habits are hard to break. "And then I'd get .violent stomach aches and my wife would complain about the smell of, um, well..."
He trails off, as his wife chimes in.
"You haven't experienced hell until you've had one of John's dutch ovens," Therese Thompson said, grimacing, scrunching her nose — some habits are hard to break.
John's situation is a dire one.
As one of the primary testers of taste for Velveeta, Thompson literally made a life out of cheese.
He's been working at the Velveeta plant for 18 years, first as a kneeder, then as a sniffer, now as a taster.
"I have no idea about my next step," said Thompson, who named his children Gargonzola and Jack. "I thought I could retire on cheese. Now my stomach is not only robbing me of my favorite food, but my livelihood."

This is fantastic.

However, John Thompson is the former coach of the Georgetown University Hoyas, not a Velveeta employee. Correction, please.

I LOST it when I read that.

I think what made it even funnier was that I assumed it was John Thompson of Hoya fame from the beginning.