and the classic "och, lassie"
Don't you have an elsewhere to be?
Cordelia ,'Lessons'
The Great Write Way, Act Three: Where's the gun?
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
Toddson - Jan 13, 2010 8:01:07 am PST #2989 of 6690
Friends don't let friends read "Atlas Shrugged"
Gudanov - Jan 13, 2010 8:01:09 am PST #2990 of 6690
Coding and Sleeping
I can't read the word "suddenly" without hearing "dun-dun-DUNNNN!!" music in my head.
It bugs me a lot because it seems like so often things that happen "suddenly" or "quickly" are things that just happen. I suppose if the POV character is a sloth, then it's okay, but most of the time it just bugs me.
My annoying habit word is "just". I just keeping slipping it in without thinking about it.
erikaj - Jan 13, 2010 8:01:17 am PST #2991 of 6690
Always Anti-fascist!
I don't doubt it. In the right hands, I like that sort of thing. I'm interested in the different ways people talk. Too bad the right hands are not often the hands itching to pick that stuff up.
Polter-Cow - Jan 13, 2010 8:03:54 am PST #2992 of 6690
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
My annoying habit word is "just". I just keeping slipping it in without thinking about it.
Oh yeah. I use it all the time. And "actually." Also, everything "apparently" happens with me.
SailAweigh - Jan 13, 2010 8:15:42 am PST #2993 of 6690
Nana korobi, ya oki. (Fall down seven times, stand up eight.) ~Yuzuru Hanyu/Japanese proverb
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Years of editing Scottish-set romances proves this brilliantly. One more "I dinna ken" and I would have cried.
Ha-ha! I had a beta reader who complained, "but what happened to her accent? Where'd it go?"
It went to the rubbish bin, where excess patois belongs. One or two phrases to get the feel in the reader's head and they'll start doing the translating themselves. No one has to describe a redhead as being a redhead in every single paragraph, once you know, you know.
Dana - Jan 13, 2010 8:16:52 am PST #2994 of 6690
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.
It's particularly egregious in fanfic. Yes, we know Scotty has an accent. And Chekov. And Rogue. WE KNOW.
Gudanov - Jan 13, 2010 8:17:10 am PST #2995 of 6690
Coding and Sleeping
Also, everything "apparently" happens with me.
I wouldn't be surprised if I overuse that one too.
I know I violated the exclamation points rule, but if someone yells something I have a hard time not using an exclamation point. Maybe that tells me something about the attribution tag or physical beat I'm using.
erikaj - Jan 13, 2010 8:25:14 am PST #2996 of 6690
Always Anti-fascist!
And Turtle, Dana. Yes, he's from Queens, he smokes weed, and mostly? he ought to be wearing a T-shirt that says "Comic Relief", but somehow I still hate it when fic writers make it seem that what comes out of his mouth isn't English. Maybe it's the populist in me.
Seska (the Watcher-in-Training) - Jan 13, 2010 8:37:16 am PST #2997 of 6690
"We're all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?"
It went to the rubbish bin, where excess patois belongs.
Someone really should have told Emily Bronte that. It would certainly have made teaching Wuthering Heights a little easier.
P.M. Marc - Jan 13, 2010 8:37:34 am PST #2998 of 6690
So come, my friends, be not afraid/We are so lightly here/It is in love that we are made; In love we disappear
Years of editing Scottish-set romances proves this brilliantly. One more "I dinna ken" and I would have cried.
I blame Robbie Burns for this. And ah, crap. It's almost Burns Day again. [link]
(It occurs to me that I bet a lot of romance writers from the US use Scots inappropriately. Like, for characters from the Gàidhealtachd. Thay shouldna dae that. Tis juist wrong.)