I was gonna write a book, but learned I was too dumb.
Pronouns 1 in fiction writing:
I swear to you I have encountered these things in my writing.
Sometime during your writing career, you have heard or you will hear the next bit of advice. Any pronoun you use will reflect back to the last person or object spoken about. I'm gonna leave off on the object for now and talk about the person. This is simply not true in fiction writing. I'm sorry, but it's not. You can open your books you have at home and find this is not true yourself. Writing fiction stories is not and will never be like writing a formal report for work, college, or highschool. The rules change, they're flexed, and there are bigger needs involved. It's a bit more relaxed, actually.
Before I go further I just want to say that if you are riding that literal high horse today, you can slide on down at this moment. If you don't feel like doing this, then please pass us by.
Fiction is not literal. Not good fiction that is. One should stumble a bit; the characters should misunderstand each other a few times. This is what's called real people. (Btw, in the past two paragraphs, I've written one sentence fragment, and one passive sentence. I should be shot. Good thing fiction writing is not so formal.)
Pronouns have all these different uses and names. We have the subjective pronoun, which is the pronoun we use for the subject of the sentence. We then have the objective pronoun, which is used as the object of the sentence or the prepositional phrase. Then one must decide whether what you have is an indirect object or a direct object.
Next, we have possessive pronouns and those relative ones too. And at this moment if you're like me, your eyes just glazed over, a mental block went up, and you're groaning with a panic-stricken air about you…
If we were going to write us a fine, fat report or essay for Professor Gripes-a-Lot, then sure panic is allowed. We're not though, so we should be fine.
In fiction writing, we have this thing called context (aka: common sense). This means the word literal is gone from our vocabulary and what we need worry about is clarity. I know, just plug your ears to the ones still on their literal horse. If they pull out their pitchforks, let me know.
Why the heck should you care about the pronoun use? Well, because we saw Spot run and Dick chased after Spot and Jane fell on top of Dick. Then Spot slobbered all over Jane's toes and Dick thought Spot's slobber on Jane's toes was very funny. But Jane didn't so Jane slapped Dick and Dick fell onto Spot and squashed Spot's tongue. Jane hit Dick again. Dick said, "Stop that, Jane. That is not funny."
And that was in first grade. Now, we have common sense.
Objective pronouns within context:
Here's a place where we would be doing the Jane, Spot, Dick thing: Bill passed the plate to Bob. In this sentence we could use an objective pronoun and no one is going to be confused. Bill passed the plate to him.
If in the context of the story, we have two men talking and eating common sense would tell us to whom the plate was passed. It's doubtful Bill would pass a plate to himself. Ah, but what is that? That is called a reflexive pronoun and would be the correct pronoun to use if Bill passed a plate to himself. It would be incorrect to use the objective pronoun of him if Bill is passing the plate to himself. Therefore, it's apparent the rule of the pronoun taking the place of the last person mentioned is entirely wrong. Life does not work that way. Likewise, I would very much like to know how that action is accomplished. Does he pick up a plate, then hold it out from him, then pass it to his other hand? If he was going to do all this then wouldn't it be easier to just grab the plate?
Subjective pronouns in context:
Animals and the pronouns used for them. Oh, gah. There are things animals can't do. Like grab things, unless it's a monkey. They can't talk. Animals can't gently slide a finger down the girl's arm either. So if your male MC just slid off the back end of his donkey, then " he" can very well be used when he takes hold of your female MC's hand.
John slid off the back end of his donkey. He frowned, looking around him, then took hold of her hand. "Do you think they're in there?"
Context and common sense says the donkey can't do this. All will be clear on who is doing the hand grabbing, frowning, and talking. But for those that aren't clear on this and perhaps think the donkey used his teeth to grab hold of the female MC's hand, well, what a surprise they will have when the female MC doesn't scream out in pain. I'm quite sure they were holding their breaths over it too. Now they can relax. It wasn't the donkey. Come to think on it, did we even mention whether the donkey was a female or male? I also wonder whether anyone was wondering if the subjective use of the pronoun, "they" up there in those sentences was confusing and maybe the people wondering thought perhaps I was referring to the donkey, male MC, and female MC holding their breaths.
Here is a list of subjective pronouns in singular form: he, she, I, you, it. Here is a list of subjective pronouns in the plural form: we, you, they.
Most everyone I'm sure wasn't confused over the 'they'. This is because in context I'd defaulted they to anyone wondering. I had not established the male MC, female MC, or donkey as a group, nor had I referred to them as a "they" anytime before. The group established in that paragraph was anyone wondering. Your very intelligent mind will automatically tell you this.
Possessive pronoun usage and clarity:
Annabelle handed her red dress to Lisa. She slipped the red dress over her head.
These two sentences are pretty clear, but are they? If we go by the old rule of the pronoun picking up the last person mentioned then we know Lisa is the one slipping the dress over her head. Yet, sentence structure plays a big role in smoothness of reading. If in context, we knew Lisa had been standing around waiting for a dress then we could know for sure that's who is slipping the dress over her head. The answer is in the action…
Lisa snatched the dress from Annabelle's hand and slipped it over her head.
Who is doing the action? Lisa. In this sentence, all of the action is in Lisa's court. Lisa is our subject, snatching is our verb, from Annabelle's hand is a prepositional phrase, slipped is a whole new action verb, and over her head is another prepositional phrase. But if the sentence stands on its own, we can't be really sure whose head Lisa is slipping the dress over. To whom does that possessive pronoun belong?
Context:
Shivering, Lisa stood in her bra and panties. Annabelle said it shouldn't take more than a few minutes to grab a dress and make it back in here. It had been more than five already. (Through the context we have figured out Annabelle is nowhere around and we are gallivanting along in Lisa's head. Also, Lisa doesn't have any clothes on and she's cold.)
The doorknob turned and Annabelle strolled into the room. "Here it is! Sorry it took so long. I ran into Phillip in the hallway and he asked about you."
Lisa snatched the dress from Annabelle's hand and slipped it over her head. "I can't believe he dumped that whole bowl on me."
Ok, we had no need to resort to that very flat, Jane, Dick, and Spot routine in those first sentences> Annabelle handed her red dress to Lisa. She slipped the red dress over her head.
Common sense/context says Lisa will put the dress on her own head.
And pronouns have overstayed their welcome my head today. I will come back to this later.
I swear to you I have encountered these things in my writing.
Sometime during your writing career, you have heard or you will hear the next bit of advice. Any pronoun you use will reflect back to the last person or object spoken about. I'm gonna leave off on the object for now and talk about the person. This is simply not true in fiction writing. I'm sorry, but it's not. You can open your books you have at home and find this is not true yourself. Writing fiction stories is not and will never be like writing a formal report for work, college, or highschool. The rules change, they're flexed, and there are bigger needs involved. It's a bit more relaxed, actually.
Before I go further I just want to say that if you are riding that literal high horse today, you can slide on down at this moment. If you don't feel like doing this, then please pass us by.
Fiction is not literal. Not good fiction that is. One should stumble a bit; the characters should misunderstand each other a few times. This is what's called real people. (Btw, in the past two paragraphs, I've written one sentence fragment, and one passive sentence. I should be shot. Good thing fiction writing is not so formal.)
Pronouns have all these different uses and names. We have the subjective pronoun, which is the pronoun we use for the subject of the sentence. We then have the objective pronoun, which is used as the object of the sentence or the prepositional phrase. Then one must decide whether what you have is an indirect object or a direct object.
Next, we have possessive pronouns and those relative ones too. And at this moment if you're like me, your eyes just glazed over, a mental block went up, and you're groaning with a panic-stricken air about you…
If we were going to write us a fine, fat report or essay for Professor Gripes-a-Lot, then sure panic is allowed. We're not though, so we should be fine.
In fiction writing, we have this thing called context (aka: common sense). This means the word literal is gone from our vocabulary and what we need worry about is clarity. I know, just plug your ears to the ones still on their literal horse. If they pull out their pitchforks, let me know.
Why the heck should you care about the pronoun use? Well, because we saw Spot run and Dick chased after Spot and Jane fell on top of Dick. Then Spot slobbered all over Jane's toes and Dick thought Spot's slobber on Jane's toes was very funny. But Jane didn't so Jane slapped Dick and Dick fell onto Spot and squashed Spot's tongue. Jane hit Dick again. Dick said, "Stop that, Jane. That is not funny."
And that was in first grade. Now, we have common sense.
Objective pronouns within context:
Here's a place where we would be doing the Jane, Spot, Dick thing: Bill passed the plate to Bob. In this sentence we could use an objective pronoun and no one is going to be confused. Bill passed the plate to him.
If in the context of the story, we have two men talking and eating common sense would tell us to whom the plate was passed. It's doubtful Bill would pass a plate to himself. Ah, but what is that? That is called a reflexive pronoun and would be the correct pronoun to use if Bill passed a plate to himself. It would be incorrect to use the objective pronoun of him if Bill is passing the plate to himself. Therefore, it's apparent the rule of the pronoun taking the place of the last person mentioned is entirely wrong. Life does not work that way. Likewise, I would very much like to know how that action is accomplished. Does he pick up a plate, then hold it out from him, then pass it to his other hand? If he was going to do all this then wouldn't it be easier to just grab the plate?
Subjective pronouns in context:
Animals and the pronouns used for them. Oh, gah. There are things animals can't do. Like grab things, unless it's a monkey. They can't talk. Animals can't gently slide a finger down the girl's arm either. So if your male MC just slid off the back end of his donkey, then " he" can very well be used when he takes hold of your female MC's hand.
John slid off the back end of his donkey. He frowned, looking around him, then took hold of her hand. "Do you think they're in there?"
Context and common sense says the donkey can't do this. All will be clear on who is doing the hand grabbing, frowning, and talking. But for those that aren't clear on this and perhaps think the donkey used his teeth to grab hold of the female MC's hand, well, what a surprise they will have when the female MC doesn't scream out in pain. I'm quite sure they were holding their breaths over it too. Now they can relax. It wasn't the donkey. Come to think on it, did we even mention whether the donkey was a female or male? I also wonder whether anyone was wondering if the subjective use of the pronoun, "they" up there in those sentences was confusing and maybe the people wondering thought perhaps I was referring to the donkey, male MC, and female MC holding their breaths.
Here is a list of subjective pronouns in singular form: he, she, I, you, it. Here is a list of subjective pronouns in the plural form: we, you, they.
Most everyone I'm sure wasn't confused over the 'they'. This is because in context I'd defaulted they to anyone wondering. I had not established the male MC, female MC, or donkey as a group, nor had I referred to them as a "they" anytime before. The group established in that paragraph was anyone wondering. Your very intelligent mind will automatically tell you this.
Possessive pronoun usage and clarity:
Annabelle handed her red dress to Lisa. She slipped the red dress over her head.
These two sentences are pretty clear, but are they? If we go by the old rule of the pronoun picking up the last person mentioned then we know Lisa is the one slipping the dress over her head. Yet, sentence structure plays a big role in smoothness of reading. If in context, we knew Lisa had been standing around waiting for a dress then we could know for sure that's who is slipping the dress over her head. The answer is in the action…
Lisa snatched the dress from Annabelle's hand and slipped it over her head.
Who is doing the action? Lisa. In this sentence, all of the action is in Lisa's court. Lisa is our subject, snatching is our verb, from Annabelle's hand is a prepositional phrase, slipped is a whole new action verb, and over her head is another prepositional phrase. But if the sentence stands on its own, we can't be really sure whose head Lisa is slipping the dress over. To whom does that possessive pronoun belong?
Context:
Shivering, Lisa stood in her bra and panties. Annabelle said it shouldn't take more than a few minutes to grab a dress and make it back in here. It had been more than five already. (Through the context we have figured out Annabelle is nowhere around and we are gallivanting along in Lisa's head. Also, Lisa doesn't have any clothes on and she's cold.)
The doorknob turned and Annabelle strolled into the room. "Here it is! Sorry it took so long. I ran into Phillip in the hallway and he asked about you."
Lisa snatched the dress from Annabelle's hand and slipped it over her head. "I can't believe he dumped that whole bowl on me."
Ok, we had no need to resort to that very flat, Jane, Dick, and Spot routine in those first sentences> Annabelle handed her red dress to Lisa. She slipped the red dress over her head.
Common sense/context says Lisa will put the dress on her own head.
And pronouns have overstayed their welcome my head today. I will come back to this later.