Fanfic writing post from author Diane Duane

[roane]

I don't know if any of you may have seen this today on Tumblr, but author Diane Duane is a Sherlock fan and apparently a pretty avid reader of fanfic. She made a post called Johnlock fanfic: On Balloon Words, Idiom!cest, and the Building of Better Smut. Although she's writing specifically about Sherlock fic, I think a lot of what she has to say could apply to any fanfic, or really, any writing.

Heh, here she tackles one of my fanfic pet peeves:

When you’re in one character’s point of view in the middle of a descriptive scene, you can make a pretty strong case that the descriptors used for other characters the POV character is interacting with should be the POV character’s descriptors, not those you might associate with omniscient-narrator mode or some similar “uninflected” third-person writing voice.

This being the case: it would make me intensely happy (should anyone be interested in doing that) if people would please lose the continual use of epithets when writing from one primary character’s POV, especially in intimate circumstances. “The doctor.” “The Army doctor.” “The consulting detective.” And the ones that particularly get up my nose: “The taller man” / “the shorter man” / “the older man” / “the younger man” / etc. etc. ad nauseam.

Comments

[wintergrey]

Guh. Diane Duane==ALL MY LOVE.

[bay_alexison]

Looked through most of it and have to say, some great advice there. LOL I know I used a couple of the overused phrases, know I know which ones I shouldn't used haha.

[roane]

Oh, I was kind of mortified. "Hey, I do that, I do that..." :P

[bay_alexison]

Oh wow, don't know how I typed that. >.>; I was suppose to say, "LOL I used a couple of the ovreused phrases, and now I know which ones I shouldn't used haha." *HEADDESKS*

[linaewen]

Yes, yes!! And epithets that refer to hair color!! :-D

Since I admire Diane Duane's work, I will now go read the article and see what she says about the things I do -- I may not refer to my characters by their hair color, but I'm sure I do other things that should be stopped immediately. ;-)

[gramarye1971]

I have to say that even though epithets are absolutely overused, there is a suitable use for them, and I wish that Diane Duane had given an example of how they can be used properly. Not as a substitute for characters' names, not as a workaround version of Thesaurus Syndrome, but as a way to emphasise a certain aspect of a character that is important to immediate point of the story. Without the example, her comments sound more scolding than helpful to me.

[roane]

I can see that, and she does say she's gonna sound possibly harsh. That said, as someone else who's reading a lot of John/Sherlock fanfic, believe me when I say, epithet usage is RAMPANT AND OUT OF CONTROL there. I cannot ever think of a time when using 'the Army doctor' or 'the consulting detective' is appropriate in a sex scene, which is what she was referring to. I kinda don't blame her for scolding there, because god knows I've felt like it. :)

[gramarye1971]

My primary fandom at the moment also suffers from epithet overload, so I'm all for pointing out the worst excesses. I think I'm just a bit irked by the way the message is phrased and the fact that there aren't any helpful suggestions to show how they can be used to have the right effect. The use of epithets it's like any writing rule/guideline: you have to know how to use it properly before you can bend it to suit your needs. ^_^

(And totally off topic, the kitty in your icon is very cute.)

[riceishere]

Thanks for this! I was definitely cringing at the Balloon words section because my god I use an awful lot of those. And no, they aren't limited to the Sherlock fandom. They are everywhere. Harsh indeed, but so very very helpful.

[i_paint_the_sky]

Epithets drive me crazy. I was editing a friend's story and it was full of them and I just wanted to pull my hair out, especially when her response when asked was that "everyone does it." THIS DOES NOT MEAN IT IS GOOD WRITING!

That said, I do think it can work well but for me, it really depends on POV. If you are going to have someone referred to as "the [insert epithet here]" then it needs to be something that POV character (assuming there is one) would think of that person as. "The Captain," for example, is usually going to be perfectly acceptable. The fic I was editing was for Firefly and had this one. But it also had Mal think of Inara as "the Companion" which to me doesn't quite seem right to me as far as characterization (IMO he thinks of her as a companion but, despite what he says, I don't think he would define her as just that in his head).