All kidding aside, Carlysle . . . Carla, I corrected him automatically. I'm too used to thinking of you as 'Carlysle' and male to change both at once . . . All kidding aside, it'd be better for you not to stay on here any longer than the storm.

However, he obediently sat down and shut his eyes. After a while he opened them and said, “I must have been able to 'unmagic' a crow just by being kind to it, and I was able to contact trees and things in the garden."

Similes were not my cuppa, anyway. My classmates tended to overload their writing with them (all-time record: six in one paragraph) and they stuck out like violins in a rock tune.

The unskilled man’s attempt at fixing his car engine was fruitless.