writing style

in general

names and pronouns

• try to write “we” instead of “i” or (especially) “you”

• default pronouns for a stranger are they/them

if a stranger has gifted us their name or pronouns, respect their gift by using what they gave us without any modification, including capital letters

capitals

• no capital letters unless they’re part of a name or a direct quote
  • headings are not names

punctuation

• omit the terminal period from the last sentence in any paragraph
  • unless:
    • “quoted.“
    • (parenthetical.)
    • followed by an emot. :)

• colons, questions and exclamations are not periods, thus are allowed!

• “punctuation goes inside quotes.“

however at all times, very specific things may be quoted very specifically:

• use outside punctuation if felt as necessary
• try to omit ending punctuation for “filenames.txt”

narrative tense

in narrative, we favor present tense

some specifics

social media

• no more than one link per post

• for reals, minimize use of the word “i”
  • often it can be omitted and implied

unicode

we prefer plain-text over high-unicode symbols

for example, we prefer emoticons :) over emoji 😀, and writing 1/4 instead of ¼

however:

• the bullet symbol • is fine to use directly

• unicode characters are allowed where sensible

we save text with UTF-8 encoding

markdown

• we write in a markdown dialect called rightdown

• markdown style modifiers go outside quotes
  • *"example"* → “example”

pet peeves

someday we will yield on these points, but today is not that day

• “begs the question”
• “couldn’t care less”
• nauseous v. nauseated
• font v. typeface
• who v. whom
• sentient v. sapient

sound effects

as most human speech is birdsong, we’ve taken to using onomatopoeia regularly

written sound words

• chorp – neutral acknowledgement
• chirp – vaguely positive acknowledgement
• chirp! – mild excitement
• chirps! – general excitement
• sqk – acknowledgment with overtones of distaste in everything
• SQK! – moderate to strong distate; why does this world exist?
• chirp chirp! – summoning thee
• liq – i like you

please note that our chirps and sqks — misleadingly similar to bird and rat calls respectively — should in fact be interpreted as dragon speech. though at all times, of course, we remain a shape-shifting demon

words that look like sound effects

• meow – placeholder for any thing, person, act, or feel
  • must be interpreted by tone and context
• mew – coping
• bark – see SQK!
• woof – hey, sexy
• chirpitychirp – let’s go

words that are

these words exist:

• imma – short for ‘i am going to’
• lux – a unit of conceptual energy
  • synonyms: mana, soul, or even index entry
• serendux – magic that casts itself
  • the effects of such are serenduxical