If you want to still point to the importance of the earlier event I like Shadowhawke's longer sentence structure though.
By 'point', I meant acknowledge that it had been a particularly happy day, without stressing the fact.
And my sentence should have started, "If you still want to point..." Go me. :thumb:
Actually, I presume it is merely meant to refer to a particular day in his past which he remembered for being really happy, instead of an expression referring to how little he smiles...
Sorry (!) Hishi, I don't agree with you.

Here's the original:
It was the first time he'd smiled since ten years ago.Shadowhawke's version of the sentence, as I read it, is also suggesting he doesn't smile much, as well as highlighting the day. To cater for your perspective on the original, my first suggestion increases the emphasis placed on that day in particular. My version may be hard to read, I don't know.
I offered the second example, to place the emphasis on fallible emotions and memories.
I'd recommend the second example personally. It can be risky to claim outright that a character hasn't smiled for ten years. He may have smiled to himself without thinking for example, and suggesting otherwise makes a character less 'believable'. It's an 'unnecessary-risk' phrase, obscuring a
better solution.
I don't see what you're saying sorry. I don't think we're on the same page.
Edited by psiclops, 05 September 2004 - 12:19 AM.