Paphos People

PLATITUDES


In the Paphos Writers Group we set a topic for the next meeting, when someone suggested ‘Platitude’ as the theme for this week’s homework, my first thought was how to make it funny.
Do I write about the Duck Billed Platitude an Australian egg laying mammal, or compose a humourous poem from the many words that rhyme with platitude, attitude, latitude, altitude, gratitude, aptitude the list seemed to be endless.
After some Google research it slowly dawned on me that the majority of my writings are in fact platitudinal statements, sometimes purposefully missing the true meaning of the meaningless statement for comedic effect. Hang on a minute wasn’t that a platitude?
Now I’m confused and feeling a little depressed, but never mind every cloud has a silver lining – Oh my god another one! Or was that a Cliché? There’s a lot more to this writing lark than just writing you know.

What else have we got?
Formatting – The system of presenting script in the correct manner so that somebody with a degree in something or other can understand what you have written.
First, second and third person – Writing from different points of view, I this You that etc etc.
Past, Present and Future tense – Self explanatory really, but sometimes difficult to stay in the correct tense the whole of the time.

Then of course you’ve got style of writing, Script writing for stage plays, radio and television sitcoms. They have to contain stage directions, scene settings, pauses etc in order to make sense. Of course when read correctly by trained actors they make perfect sense and very often are very funny or moving.

So having explored the meaning of platitude, trying to differentiate between them and clichés I’m beginning to lose the will to live – Oh no not another one!

Well, finally having had all that stuff to think about and try to digest, let’s get back to the aforementioned ‘Duck Billed Platitude’ a subject I am able to write something funny about and am much more comfortable with.