(no subject)
I have to admit, I have an issue when authors replace character’s names with something that describes the character (i.e. “the scientist” for Rodney, “the colonel” for Sheppard, “the older brother” for Dean”). It makes me mad. Because nothing is more of a turn-off than having random phrases thrown into a sentence because of the believe that seeing a character’s name three times in a sentence is going to sound repetitive. Let me tell you, it’s not. Never, ever. Not in a million years.
People have names for the simplest of reasons: so we know whom we’re talking about. We do not need to make Rodney the shorter guy, the brown haired dude, the smart guy, and neither the scientist. It’s Rodney. The end.
What if a friend would tell a story about us to a third person, and every other time s/he would have said our name, s/he would call us by our profession, or by our height, boob-size or I.Q.? How fucking ridiculous. Who tells stories like that?
I just had to find/replace nearly one hundred “scientist” with “Rodney” in a story. I also replaced about the same amount of “lover” in the same story. That might just be me, but I find the word “lover” a bit on the annoying side, especially in fanfiction, and especially when it could be replaced by the lover’s name. With my changes, the number of times Rodney’s name appears went up to close to 1,600 times. 1,400 Rodneys really wouldn’t be as repetitive as 1,600. I can totally get behind that.
I know my little rant isn’t going to change anything (although I wish it would), so, someone should make this point at one of those “how to write fanfiction” communities.
Also, astrophysicist; not scientist. Rodney would kill you with his brain.
People have names for the simplest of reasons: so we know whom we’re talking about. We do not need to make Rodney the shorter guy, the brown haired dude, the smart guy, and neither the scientist. It’s Rodney. The end.
What if a friend would tell a story about us to a third person, and every other time s/he would have said our name, s/he would call us by our profession, or by our height, boob-size or I.Q.? How fucking ridiculous. Who tells stories like that?
I just had to find/replace nearly one hundred “scientist” with “Rodney” in a story. I also replaced about the same amount of “lover” in the same story. That might just be me, but I find the word “lover” a bit on the annoying side, especially in fanfiction, and especially when it could be replaced by the lover’s name. With my changes, the number of times Rodney’s name appears went up to close to 1,600 times. 1,400 Rodneys really wouldn’t be as repetitive as 1,600. I can totally get behind that.
I know my little rant isn’t going to change anything (although I wish it would), so, someone should make this point at one of those “how to write fanfiction” communities.
Also, astrophysicist; not scientist. Rodney would kill you with his brain.