I have a hyperbolic writing style. Scratch that. I have a hyperbolic communication style. I’m animated and prone to exaggeration. Is this a problem? Only if the person I’m speaking to doesn’t know me — so usually, yes.
It’s gotten me into trouble on this site occasionally, and I am working to address it. As a refresher, however, here’s what hyperbole means:
The key here is, “…not meant to be taken literally.”
It’s important to differentiate this from believing something absurd. As an example, when I said a single article in just a few seconds made me re-think my entire stance on global warming (or something to that effect), what I really meant was that it made me re-adjust my belief factor from 90% to 60% (those are friend prices), which was a major thing to me.
My language was meant to convey how major it was, but it’s important to keep it all in perspective. The fact is that I wasn’t convinced of man-made global warming before the article (which I clearly stated in the original post), and I wasn’t completely unconvinced afterwards. All that changed was my current level of belief. The failure was in how I communicated the whole thing.
I wonder if this sort of language simply comes with excitement, which I never want to lose. But much of it arguably has to go in order to be a mature and serious writer. I want to be accurate but I also don’t mind being a bit dramatic at times, as long as it’s understood that I’m being so. I suppose the key is to clearly delineate between harmless hyperbole and weak, poorly thought-out opinions.
Bottom line? I like the word evar, and I want to be able to use it in a sentence.
