"I guess so," said the blond ex-tin man in the duster...

[verilyverity]

What is up with the burly detectivism in Tin Man?  Never have I encountered a fandom so dead set on replacing characters' names and pronouns with ridiculous sounding proxies.  And passive voice!  With a verb that takes an object!  How can that even sound right to an author?

ETA: Ye gods and little fishes!  *stares at ballooning comments*

Comments

[erinm_4600]

*gigglesnort*

Maybe it's there to break up the monotony of 'Cain said this, Cain did that, Cain looked all hot-'

I mean.... yeah

[verilyverity]

That's not monotonous, though. That's proper narrative. And if they're writing fic as one long string of declarative sentences, replacing Cain's name with something stupid isn't going to do them much good.

[erinm_4600]

I agree.

[verilyverity]

Yeah, I suspect I may be preaching to the choir.

[erinm_4600]

eh...
*is guilty of said-offence*

[verilyverity]

Really? So how come you do it? *is curious*

[erinm_4600]

I think it stems from the drilling of DON'T write this:

He said this and he did that and he was here on this day...
He also did this and he said...
He was here and there and everywhere...

Granted, this was more in reference to writing obituaries for four years, but I do the same thing with "said."

For some reason, it just seems like I have used the word too much and I need to always find other words. I know that "said" is a perfectly good word... but I can't deal with over-repetition.

Now, I'm not saying I do it ALL THE TIME... just the occaisional "..she looked up at her Tin Man.." or "..the younger Princess said.."

[verilyverity]

So you don't believe in colourless words? At all? *picks some more*

[erinm_4600]

shocked as you may be, I'm now lost....

o.O

[verilyverity]

Colourless words are words that blend into the wallpaper. they include pronouns and certain verbs like "say" in its simple past form and various iterations of "to be," when acting an ancilliary role in phrasal verbs. This is not an official definition, but it's generally understood that such words cannot be overused.

[erinm_4600]

*wishes I had my thesauras icon*

:D

You are such a nerd...
But you're my nerd...

[verilyverity]

*adjusts pocket protector*

*whips out pile of thesauri*

Do you prefer Oxford, Cambridge, Webster's or Roget?

[erinm_4600]

*snort*

Actually it's blue and says:
Thesaurus: the most synonymus of the dinosaurs

[verilyverity]

I WANT THAT ONE!

[erinm_4600]

it's a 200x200... so it looks a little funny when resized for LJ

:(

[erinm_4600]