We rite good.
Grammar and fanfic. (Yeah, I'm going there.) Is proper grammar necessary to a story? Nope. Does it help? Hell, yeah. I'm not talking about stylistic quirks -- I'm way too fond of fragments and compound sentences, and I don't think I've ever written a fic without at least one dash! I also have a tragic addiction to adverbs. We all make writing choices based on the narrative style we want to create; some of my favorite stories and authors show a gleeful disregard for Strunk & White. ;)
I'm talking about just plain sloppy grammar and usage that yanks you right out of a story. God knows I've made plenty of errors, and problems can slip past even the best beta readers. Since I'm bored this afternoon, I thought I'd make a list of some of my own peeves, though several are related more to composition than grammar.
1. If you're writing a scene from one character's POV, don't randomly switch to another POV for a few sentences and then switch back. Stay consistent. If you want to show what the other person is thinking, add a scene break and continue from there.
2. "Y'all" is a contraction of "you" and "all", so the apostrophe goes after "y", not "a". ("Ya'll" makes my eyes bleed.)
3. Ship names like Galactica and Serenity should be italicized. To be fair, most people don't know this rule, so I usually handwave it.
4. Semicolons! Yes, they're tricky, but the basic rules aren't too difficult. Purdue's Online Writing Lab has a good tutorial.
5. Unless the fic includes a cast of thousands, we can easily figure out who's saying or doing what. Mentioning their names every other line gets old really fast.
So, what are your grammar peeves? I'd love to compile a long list of all those little problems we notice over and over again, and I'm sure I could learn something from it. Bonus points if it relateds to smutfic -- those types of errors are always fun to read. :)
I'm talking about just plain sloppy grammar and usage that yanks you right out of a story. God knows I've made plenty of errors, and problems can slip past even the best beta readers. Since I'm bored this afternoon, I thought I'd make a list of some of my own peeves, though several are related more to composition than grammar.
1. If you're writing a scene from one character's POV, don't randomly switch to another POV for a few sentences and then switch back. Stay consistent. If you want to show what the other person is thinking, add a scene break and continue from there.
2. "Y'all" is a contraction of "you" and "all", so the apostrophe goes after "y", not "a". ("Ya'll" makes my eyes bleed.)
3. Ship names like Galactica and Serenity should be italicized. To be fair, most people don't know this rule, so I usually handwave it.
4. Semicolons! Yes, they're tricky, but the basic rules aren't too difficult. Purdue's Online Writing Lab has a good tutorial.
5. Unless the fic includes a cast of thousands, we can easily figure out who's saying or doing what. Mentioning their names every other line gets old really fast.
So, what are your grammar peeves? I'd love to compile a long list of all those little problems we notice over and over again, and I'm sure I could learn something from it. Bonus points if it relateds to smutfic -- those types of errors are always fun to read. :)