A handful of writing complaints
Dec. 31st, 2024 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyWhich I would not, of course, provide unsolicited to the people who did them.
1. I recently was happily reading when I realized that the author had managed to write an entire dialogue heavy scene in which every person started their words with "Oh". They weren't doing a thing, they just didn't glance over their work after running spellcheck. I actually was tempted to provide some unsolicited advice and that's why I'm posting, in the hopes that this cures me.
2. If your protagonist's culture does not have literal radar, your protagonist does not have figurative radar. Likewise, no space race or military radio jargon = nobody says "Earth to $Name!" That latter has come up too many times in the past few weeks and I do not know why I've suddenly run into it so often.
3. With that said, lazy word swaps are lazy, and often unnecessary. If they have cats, there is no need to ask if the sphinx has got your tongue. Cats are right there!
4. Prophecies are stupid and so are most people's attempts at riddles. I've hardly ever read a story with a prophecy and said "Wow, that prophecy was necessary and really added a lot to this story", and I blame the Greeks for this precedent. But at least the Greeks didn't feel the need to make their riddles thematically appropriate, and you know, that doesn't make the riddles more clever. Tolkien is the riddling exception, but that's because he was vastly over-educated.
5. As always, please remember that potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers are New World crops. Yes, that means that there were no potatoes in 12th century European stews, curries, or Ireland, and all the kimchi was just cabbage.
6. There are still no alleys in NYC. I mean, there are some, but not enough to justify including them in your story.
****************************************
The Art of Sutherland Macdonald, Victorian England’s “Michelangelo of Tattooing” (ca. 1905)
Scary, weird, but more ‘biblically accurate’ angels top some Christians’ Christmas trees
Malaysia announces new search for aircraft MH370, missing for over 10 years
Costco is pushing back — hard — against the anti-DEI movement
What the Most Famous Book About Trauma Gets Wrong
Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen
Alabama profits off prisoners who work at McDonald’s but deems them too dangerous for parole
Death on the Night Shift at Frozen Pizza Factories in Chicago
1. I recently was happily reading when I realized that the author had managed to write an entire dialogue heavy scene in which every person started their words with "Oh". They weren't doing a thing, they just didn't glance over their work after running spellcheck. I actually was tempted to provide some unsolicited advice and that's why I'm posting, in the hopes that this cures me.
2. If your protagonist's culture does not have literal radar, your protagonist does not have figurative radar. Likewise, no space race or military radio jargon = nobody says "Earth to $Name!" That latter has come up too many times in the past few weeks and I do not know why I've suddenly run into it so often.
3. With that said, lazy word swaps are lazy, and often unnecessary. If they have cats, there is no need to ask if the sphinx has got your tongue. Cats are right there!
4. Prophecies are stupid and so are most people's attempts at riddles. I've hardly ever read a story with a prophecy and said "Wow, that prophecy was necessary and really added a lot to this story", and I blame the Greeks for this precedent. But at least the Greeks didn't feel the need to make their riddles thematically appropriate, and you know, that doesn't make the riddles more clever. Tolkien is the riddling exception, but that's because he was vastly over-educated.
5. As always, please remember that potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers are New World crops. Yes, that means that there were no potatoes in 12th century European stews, curries, or Ireland, and all the kimchi was just cabbage.
6. There are still no alleys in NYC. I mean, there are some, but not enough to justify including them in your story.
The Art of Sutherland Macdonald, Victorian England’s “Michelangelo of Tattooing” (ca. 1905)
Scary, weird, but more ‘biblically accurate’ angels top some Christians’ Christmas trees
Malaysia announces new search for aircraft MH370, missing for over 10 years
Costco is pushing back — hard — against the anti-DEI movement
What the Most Famous Book About Trauma Gets Wrong
Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen
Alabama profits off prisoners who work at McDonald’s but deems them too dangerous for parole
Death on the Night Shift at Frozen Pizza Factories in Chicago
