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The Redhead and the Bluenette
Oct. 6th, 2014 10:20 amI put this out on Facebook (and, if I can figure out how to say it within the character limit, I may ask it on Twitter,) but, okay, so I'm teaching a class in fan fic to teens in a couple of days as part of the Loft's Youth Writing Conference, so I'm wondering are their some simple things that seem especially prevalent in fan fic writing that people could fix. For instance, in my fandom, I have to put up with people being described by their hair color, "The redhead considered this problem seriously." I can't STAND that (especially when it's some crazy made up color, like BLUEnette).
CJ Cherryh (yes, THAT one) said, "Mirrrors. NEVER let your character describe her/himself via a mirror...for one thing, avoid describing your main character in any meticulous detail...after all, your reader is supposed to identify with same." (She actually came back to add several more, including: "I can give you a string of others, upon which I may be moved to elaborate on my own page: 1. Ya killt ma mudder, ya killt ma fadder.... 2. The Enterprise tour, in which we visit all the stations/houses in the neolithic village/ and meet each person in a nice folksy way before the story starts. 3. man on the beach---the guy who wakes up naked AND amnesiac.... 4. the big gory opening battle, in which we know absolutely no one and really aren't led to like anybody. 5. the Perfect Person---a hero who, like Dudley Doright, has a gleam in his teeth and a dimple that just melts hearts. We instinctively hate such people.")
My friend Sari said: "In a similar vain, trying to come up with a number of different descriptors for someone in one paragraph instead of using pronouns, which do indeed, have a use."
Naomi Kritzer said: "Said-isms. "She exclaimed" "he snorted" "she sighed" "he grumbled." The rule of thumb I gave my daughters is to stick with "said" and "asked" 90% of the time. Once out of ten tags you can use another word, or an adverb. This runs counter to what a lot of kids are taught in English class, but it's really, really good advice."
Other thoughts?
Also, this week is "Spirit Week" (pre-Homecomming, I think,) at Mason's school. Today was mustache day. Is it me, or does Mason, look surprisingly like Jamie from Mythbusters?
Mason:
Jamie from Mythbusters:
Personally, give our kid a beret, and I think it's uncanny, really!
CJ Cherryh (yes, THAT one) said, "Mirrrors. NEVER let your character describe her/himself via a mirror...for one thing, avoid describing your main character in any meticulous detail...after all, your reader is supposed to identify with same." (She actually came back to add several more, including: "I can give you a string of others, upon which I may be moved to elaborate on my own page: 1. Ya killt ma mudder, ya killt ma fadder.... 2. The Enterprise tour, in which we visit all the stations/houses in the neolithic village/ and meet each person in a nice folksy way before the story starts. 3. man on the beach---the guy who wakes up naked AND amnesiac.... 4. the big gory opening battle, in which we know absolutely no one and really aren't led to like anybody. 5. the Perfect Person---a hero who, like Dudley Doright, has a gleam in his teeth and a dimple that just melts hearts. We instinctively hate such people.")
My friend Sari said: "In a similar vain, trying to come up with a number of different descriptors for someone in one paragraph instead of using pronouns, which do indeed, have a use."
Naomi Kritzer said: "Said-isms. "She exclaimed" "he snorted" "she sighed" "he grumbled." The rule of thumb I gave my daughters is to stick with "said" and "asked" 90% of the time. Once out of ten tags you can use another word, or an adverb. This runs counter to what a lot of kids are taught in English class, but it's really, really good advice."
Other thoughts?
Also, this week is "Spirit Week" (pre-Homecomming, I think,) at Mason's school. Today was mustache day. Is it me, or does Mason, look surprisingly like Jamie from Mythbusters?
Mason:
Jamie from Mythbusters:
Personally, give our kid a beret, and I think it's uncanny, really!
Tomorrow, the only thing required for Spirit Week is something "Disney." Mason is going to wear a Star Wars shirt, since Disney recently acquired the rights to the Star Wars universe. Wednesday is "Pink Day" so we went to Good Will yesterday and managed to score not only a fairly masculine hot pink shirt, but also a pair of pink jeans in Mason's size. He also bought a wig, but I'm pretty sure he's going to lose his bottle to wear it:
He was weirdly cute about this wig. Because we don't do a whole lot of gender-shaming, Mason wore the wig around the house for several hours because it made him feel kind of fancy. Eventually he took it off because, "Long hair is a pain. It gets into everything."
