{"id":284528,"date":"2018-09-10T17:06:43","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T17:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2018\/09\/10\/dsudis-rehlia-undertailsoulsex-cimness\/"},"modified":"2018-09-10T17:06:43","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T17:06:43","slug":"dsudis-rehlia-undertailsoulsex-cimness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2018\/09\/10\/dsudis-rehlia-undertailsoulsex-cimness\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

dsudis<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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rehlia<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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undertailsoulsex<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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cimness<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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futureevilscientist<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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roane72<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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worldwithinworld<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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When you are writing a story and refer to a character by a physical trait, occupation, age, or any other attribute, rather than that character\u2019s name, you are bringing the reader\u2019s attention to that particular attribute. That can be used quite effectively to help your reader to focus on key details with just a few words. However, if the fact that the character is\u00a0\u201cthe blond,\u201d \u201cthe magician,\u201d \u201cthe older woman,\u201d etc. is not relevant to that moment in the story, this will only distract the reader from the purpose of the scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If your only reason for referring to a character this way is to avoid using his or her name or a pronoun too much, don\u2019t do it<\/i>. You\u2019re fixing a problem that actually isn\u2019t one. Just go ahead and use the name or pronoun again. It\u2019ll be good.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Someone finally spelled out the REASON for using epithets, and the reasons NOT to.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In addition to that:<\/p>\n

If the character you are referring to in such a way is THE VIEWPOINT CHARACTER, likewise, don\u2019t do it. I.e. if you\u2019re writing in third person but the narration is through their eyes, or what is also called \u201cthird person deep POV\u201d. If the narration is filtered through the character\u2019s perception, then a very external, impersonal description will be jarring. It\u2019s the same, and just as bad, as writing \u201cMy bright blue eyes returned his gaze\u201d in first person.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Furthermore,\u00a0<\/p>\n

if the story is actually told through the eyes of one particular viewpoint character even though it\u2019s in the third person, and in their voice<\/i>, as is very often the case, then you shouldn\u2019t refer to the characters in ways that character wouldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

In other words, if the third-person narrator is Harry Potter, when Dumbledore appears, it says\u00a0\u201cDumbledore appears\u201d, not\u00a0\u201cAlbus appears\u201d. Bucky Barnes would think of Steve Rogers as\u00a0\u201cSteve\u201d, where another character might think of him as\u00a0\u201cCap\u201d. Chekov might think of Kirk as\u00a0\u201cthe captain\u201d, but Bones thinks of him as\u00a0\u201cJim\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, there are real situations where you, I, or anybody might think of another person as\u00a0\u201cthe other man\u201d,\u00a0\u201cthe taller man\u201d, or\u00a0\u201cthe doctor\u201d: usually when you don\u2019t know their names, like when there are two tap-dancers and a ballerina in a routine and one of the men lifts the ballerina and then she reaches out and grabs the other man\u2019s hand; or when there was a group of people talking at the hospital and they all worked there, but the doctor was the one who told them what to do. These are all perfectly natural and normal. Similarly, sometimes I think of my GP as\u00a0\u201cthe doctor\u201d even though I know her name, or one of my coworkers as\u00a0\u201cthe taller man\u201d even though I know his. But I definitely never think of my long-term life partner as\u00a0\u201cthe green-eyed woman\u201d or one of my best friends as\u00a0\u201cthe taller person\u201d or anything like that. It\u2019s not a sensible adjective for your brain to choose in that situation – it\u2019s too impersonal for someone you\u2019re so intimately acquainted with. Also, even if someone was having a one night stand or a drunken hookup with a stranger, they probably wouldn\u2019t think of that person as\u00a0\u201cthe other man\u201d: you only think of\u00a0\u2018other\u2019 when you\u2019re distinguishing two things and you don\u2019t have to go to any special effort to distinguish your partner from yourself to yourself.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is something that I pretty consistently have to advise for those I beta edit for.\u00a0 (It doesn\u2019t help that I relied on epithets a lot in the earlier sections of my main fic because I was getting into the swing of things.)\u00a0 I am reblogging this so fanfic writers can use this as a reference.<\/p>\n

A good rule of thumb: a character\u2019s familiarity with another character decreases the need for an epithet (and most times you really don\u2019t need one at all).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Good writing advice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I think there does come a point when a character\u2019s familiarity actually wraps around and does make epithets relevant again, and it\u2019s when referring to a relationship. (I remember in a short story that I\u2019ve otherwise entirely forgotten, a ~modern~ woman saying that she had her nephew call her by her first name, and the POV character thinking how sad it was to put the distance of a name between family members\u2013and there\u2019s something to that.)<\/p>\n

Most of the time when I\u2019m writing a character interacting with their parent or grandparent, the parent isn\u2019t referred to by name in narration\u2013because most characters don\u2019t think of parents and grandparents by their first name\u2013but as \u201chis mother\u201d or\u00a0\u201chis father\u201d or\u00a0\u201cher mom\u201d or\u00a0\u201cher dad\u201d\u2013and this can be used to very compactly convey information about the nature of the relationship, because there\u2019s a big difference between\u00a0\u201cmy Grandmother Hardison\u201d and\u00a0\u201cmy Nana\u201d or between\u00a0\u201cthe Count my father\u201d and\u00a0\u201cmy Da.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And if the character is a different kind of family member\u2013a sibling, a child, a spouse\u2013then the moments when a character thinks not of \u201cErik\u201d but \u201chis cousin,\u201d not of Thor but\u00a0\u201chis brother,\u201d can be used for great effect. The author just needs to be aware of when they\u2019re particularly highlighting the relationship and when that\u2019s not what they need to draw attention to.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

dsudis: rehlia: undertailsoulsex: cimness: futureevilscientist: roane72: worldwithinworld: When you are writing a story and refer to a character by a physical trait, occupation, age, or any other attribute, rather than that character\u2019s name, you are bringing the reader\u2019s attention to that particular attribute. That can be used quite effectively to help your reader to focus … <\/p>\n

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