How Not to Write a Novel by Howard Mittelmark

Author:Howard Mittelmark [Mittelmark, Howard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780061646096
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2011-02-21T17:30:02.518000+00:00

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“Ironically,” We Said, Ironically

Ironically, the one day we had set aside to write about irony was the day we had to do our ironing before our blind date.

Ironically, our date turned out to be the one person in the world we were hoping to avoid.

Ironically, our date turned out to be the one person in the world we were hoping to meet.

Ironically, we blinded our date.

Ironically, our blind date saw right through our pretenses.

Irony as a word and a concept has been so thoroughly stretched and abused by writers published and unpublished that it is now virtually meaningless, routinely applied to any situation in which one thing bears some relation to another thing.

Try it…it’s fun!

Ironically, the pope actually was Catholic.

Ironically, the bear passed up all the other pastries and chose the bearclaw.

“Ironically” can often be replaced with “Wow,” or “Dude, check this out!” with no change in meaning.

We would tell you how it should be used, but in a book called How Not to Write a Novel, that would be too ironic. (Feel free to check any of the standard references; we recommend Fowler.) We will tell you this: There is never a need to tell your reader that something is ironic. Ironically, it was the very cat he had impregnated in the first place! If it is ironic, the reader will notice. If it isn’t, asserting that it is ironic will not make it so.

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