Q: Hey bill I just wanted to show you something that I think is pretty cool - the way that good writing can make you slow down. Here's a fun example: "Somewhere, an actual balloon floats into the horizon of a midwestern town" That one word - actual - makes it much harder to just skim through the sentence,, makes you think. Do you agree? Have any input?
A: oh hell yeah. i agree, there are many many ways to play with writing so that it is exactly how you want it, and i am very aware of this. you may not believe it, but even on this questions page i frequently take great care in that regard, even though i sometimes may appear to be using the grammar of a teenager from a low income family, it is almost always carefully crafted to have the exact results i am looking for