!

What's wrong with laughing at your own jokes? I always thought that was part of my charm. If anything, exclamation points are underused. I feel pressed to make my own punctuation mark. Maybe:

Trifextra: Week Seven

And now on to the Trifextra Challenge.  This weekend, we're turning to the literary greats, specifically F. Scott Fitzgerald, who once said:  "Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke."  A quick scan of current theory will tell you that the usefulness of the exclamation point has almost always been a source of contention.  There are those who believe it a perfectly worthwhile member of the punctuation set, and there are (even more of) those who believe it simply has no place outside of dialogue.

The editors of Trifecta are certainly not linguists, but we have noticed, time and again, that an exclamation point often disrupts the flow of an otherwise smooth piece of writing.  It almost instructs the reader as to how he or she should be feeling in response to the writing!  (Saw that?)

This weekend's challenge is to give us a story or snippet of a story which includes, in exactly 33 words, a justified exclamation point.  Make us believe that your exclamation point simply needs to be in your story.  The writer with the most believable exclamation wins.

Comments

  1. I thought this was COMPLETELY ADORABLE! Or perhaps I should say it exhibits that part of your charm. :)

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  2. F. Scott Fitzgerald is overrated. He wrote 5 novels. Stephen King wrote over 60, and he is a friend of the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. It leads me to believe that the !!!!!!!!!!!!!! key was stuck on Fitzgerald's typewriter. And ask yourself how many have read The Great Gatsby? And how many have read the Pet Cemetary or It or The Dead Zone? Scotty obviously could have used a little more !!!!!!!!!!!! is his life.

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  3. Actually, I have read The Great Gatsby. Give it another try. Writers can make up their own rules. Both Steve Martin and Joyce C. Oates wrote two short stories as a kind of writing exercise using only one period (at the end). So Mommy Patient, go for it!

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  4. Clever. I hunted for more than a minute trying to figure out where the exclamation point was.

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    Replies
    1. Cool! Thanks. I found it too, after reading your comment. My post was even more awesome than I had originally thought.

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  5. Exclamation marks only work when you are genuinely exclaiming. For example, writing "Up Yours!" in response to a blog comment. I once got this response to a comment and immediately saw the value of the exclamation mark.

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  6. You guys are cracking me up. Thanks!

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Go ahead, make my day.