Heh. Cindy, I think all usages are acceptable, basically. I'm very Humpty Dumpty when it comes to that.

I just hadn't heard it before, and one of the cool things about everyone's work in here has been the new ways a word or a turn of phrase gets used in different parts of this country.

I've seen it used a lot in this sort of situation, "It grieves me to tell you X" or "You know how it grieves me when you act this way." I always thought it was a Britishism. I do know it's used in formal-type situations.

Heck, it's in a song I love, "And it'll grieve me so to" something or "And it grieves me so to" something.

Say you're sitting high atop Writers' Mountain, being the guru. Students of writing toil up the hillside, to ask you for the One True Pearl of Wisdom that will shine the glow of enlightment on their labours.

One line, and one line only. Distill, please. What would you tell them?

Sorry I am late to this.

Don't edit until the story is done.

connie, that's what I meant - not sure of how to phrase what looked different. Let me try for examples, instead.

"I mourn my dead love. I mourn for my dead love. I grieve for my dead love."

IOW, I've seen "mourn" used both ways, but never seen "grieve" used without something to qualify it.

Crap. No access to memory bank sections dealing with linguistic architecture terminoloy this morning. Send donuts.

Don't edit until the story is done.

That was Betsy's advice: write first, edit after.

I don't actually work that way - I edit as I work. But that's just my process, and it's why I find everyone else's fascinating.

I wonder if "it grieves me" is a Southern thing.

A friend of mine has been writing a story for years. She edits and edits and edits. I suspect she is still on chapter one.

I also edit as I go, but it helps get me back into the story the next day. I read previous day's work, edit and polish, and then start the new stuff. Works for me.

I've heard "it grieves me", connie.

I've heard it "it grieves me" all my life. What I've never heard before is "I grieve you."

So, someone is dying, I'm standing over their bed. I might say "I will mourn you". It wouldn't occur to me to say "I will grieve you."

I don't know the real grammatical terms, but I don't think I've hard forms other than "X grieves me" or "he grieves for". Active form? Passive, because something else receives the action? Present tense? Third-person as the subject of the verb? I can put together a kick-ass sentence, but I wouldn't be able to describe it technically under threat of torture.