Thanks Try.
Alas ... "Verklempt" does not rhyme with much ... but if I know that bugger, @d-pend, he'll figure out a way to use it in a poem just to make me look incompetent. B.S.'ing aside, Dan has a mastery of vocabulary that leaves EVERYONE speechless. Myself included. Indeed, he even knows Sumerian Cuneiform ... which he often employs. :-)
I am ferociously proud of the writers in this group.
Often, I spend long stretches STUDYING the way they write, trying to figure out effect. If something was funny, what ... precisely ... made it funny? If something was poignant, why? Metaphors, allusions, the turn of a phrase.
(And yes ... it is for the express purpose of stealing the technique.)
In Great Writing, these elements are often subtle, and hence, difficult to isolate. But PHC authors provide ample opportunity to practice.
Steel sharpens steel.
Quill