Ramblings on Fic and Characterization
I went on a J-squared reading binge late last week, and found myself running up against two issues that seem to hit me again and again in fanfic in general.
The first is British bleed into American settings, that just throws me right out of the story. One minute it's all good, and then a snigger or have a go or for f**k's sake or wonky or the like ( Read more... )
The first is British bleed into American settings, that just throws me right out of the story. One minute it's all good, and then a snigger or have a go or for f**k's sake or wonky or the like ( Read more... )
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Actually no-- there are more sources of BAD out there than you can believe. The 'werejaguar' *chokes on own tongue* is courtesy of a Christine Warren.
And while I don't remember the details of the other dreadful books, the writers were all female, so still not him.
For men, there's sometimes also the "telegraph-style" of writing. In. Really short sentences. Sometimes choppy.
;)
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Yes, there are some truly bad writing out there, I'll be sure to look up Christine Warren so I can avoid her.
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Oh my god-- you've actually seen that book too? *dies*
I immediately forgot all of the details of it, like the cats' names. Because that first page was horrifying enough. Good. Lord.
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And Canadian authors are another source of this kind of thing, because they get both American and British influence, and are even less aware I think of which falls on which side of the "fence."
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For fuck's sake = for god's sake
Even if a few people use the above in rare cases, they're just not part of the regular American vernacular. So they tend to stick out like a sore thumb.
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I actually think that if someone had a "how to Brit up your story" listing, it could be helpful in the reverse, too. For flagging down, among other things, words that don't quite have equivalent connotations over here. There are some that have their own unique flavor as slang that are 'missing' on the other side of the pond.
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Except "honest" is probably the wrong word here, because I'm sure these characters or actors were after all at some point the inspiration of the fic, but, well. Complicated.
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In some cases, they'd make for really good stories, too. I mean, these are often fantastic authors who can really tell a story. It's just that the choice to write a character who is really NOT the person they're supposed to be modelled on often doesn't work for someone like me.
Because I'm sure these characters or actors were after all at some point the inspiration of the fic, but, well. Complicated.
Someone back in college, a composition major who wrote a lot of atonal music, was given an assignment to write something "in the style of Mozart." The result was in no way like Mozart at all, BUT... it was the most listenable thing he'd ever written.
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I guess that's the thing, because for me they really haven't. Even if the occasional person says them once in awhile, they're not part of the common vernacular, and they stick out to me as sounding 'wrong.'
But, and I can only speak for myself here, characterization and writing is a very "voice-dependent" thing for me, and I mean that literally. If I can't hear the character's voice saying those lines in my head (including the narrative being of similar flavor), then I won't write it and I'll tend not to 'believe' it.
I also know people who say "anyways," which has definitely crept into the vernacular, but I sure don't want to read it in a fic as part of the narrative, since it's not a real word. *is double picky*
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Ah, but I've never come across them personally until I started reading fics by Brits.
I grew up on the West Coast, and have lived in various parts of it. And the bulk of what we hear on television and in movies is the West Coast vernacular (minus some of our stupider slang). Other regional variances tend to sound 'foreign' in that context, at least to me. They're distracting when they sound wrong.
but if it's within the 'voice' of the character to commonly use such a word then it reads strange to me if they only used proper English.Oh, I agree with you-- but the language needs to sound like the character. Bobby's kind of gruff, and I'd expect the narrative surrounding him to sound similar. Or it could be a more distant and refined POV narrative, but once the story goes inside Bobby's head or lets him speak, I expect it to sound like Bobby ( ... )
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