Weekly Writing Challenge: I Wish I Were

When we send a post into the blogosphere, we want to make sure our best feet are forward. That means making sure errors like typos or poor grammar don’t detract from what we have to say; it’s one of the reasons The Daily Post highlights common grammar struggles.  Grammar challenges follow up on grammar posts, calling on you to put your new-found understanding to the test.

To participate, tag your posts with “DPchallenge” or leave a link to your post in the comments. (It would also be great if you could link to this post to encourage people to take part – the more the merrier!) Please be sure your post has been specifically written in response to this challenge; obvious attempts to link-bait will be deleted. We’ll keep an eye on the tag and highlight some of our favorites on Freshly Pressed each Friday.

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Last week, our grammar guru, Daryl, talked about the oft-mysterious subjunctive mood in If Hairs Be Wires, Black Wires Grow on Her Head. Use of the subjunctive mood isn’t as common in English as it is in other languages. I, for one, hadn’t even heard of the subjunctive tense until my first French class in middle school. (I blame the ’90′s hit song, I Wish, what with its improper use of the subjunctive and all. “I wish I was a little bit taller”? Tsk, tsk.)

As Daryl mentioned in his post, the most common uses of the subjunctive mood in English are conditions, suppositions, wishes, demands, suggestions, and statements of necessity. At least once in our lives, we’ve all muttered, “I just wish I were…” or “If I were more like…”, knowingly or unknowingly invoking the subjunctive mood.

In honor of Daryl’s post, we ask you to finish the following sentence for this week’s writing challenge: “I wish I were.” Do you wish you were able to go back and visit that beautiful country you saw 10 years ago on vacation? Or do you wish you were more like a superhero and could reads minds as a special power? Or maybe you wish you were a famous writer, so you could share your voice with the world? (And if so, what would you want to say if you knew the world would listen?) The sky is the limit, so dream big and let us know what you wish for. Just don’t forget to use what we learned. It’s “I wish I were,” not “I wish I was”!