four new rambles

[arduinna]

After reading one too many stories full of epithets, I started writing an essay/ramble/rant thing about "elegant variation", which expanded into these cheesily named things:

Variety Is the Spice of Life... and I Need Some Tums (This one's sort of the 'base' essay.)

Purple Fanfic's (total lack of) Majesty

Epithets: Fandom's Designated Hitters

'Said' Is Not a Four-Letter Word

And, thanks to a bunch of friends who chimed in with examples from their fandoms, I pulled together a list of epithet examples from all over, just for fun:

Epithets

Comments

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

reading out loud!!! heck, that's the number 1 rule i tell my comp students (and some years above as well :-) if it's important for argumentative writing, it is much, much *more* important to fiction.

are there really people out there who don't? [then again, duh! *g* 5 minutes on ffnet will prove to me all the things i couldn't possibly imagine anyone doing...alas...it's funny, i spend so much time theoretically defending the "teenie" right to write and celebrating their creativity and the fact that they *are* writing...and yet i myself couldn't fathom showing anything like that even to a close friend and certainly want to stay as far away as i can from having to read it!!!]

anyway, great essay...i wish we could give a little housewarming prezzie to every new fanficcer...read these 5 essays before you write, these 5 before you interact on MLs or LJ, and these 5 before you think about metaing...if only! oh well, the good ole days of initiation and mentorship :-)

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

are there really people out there who don't?

*waves hand* I think it's good advice, I'll pass it on as good advice when talking about writing, but I don't do it myself. I'm all about the good writing habits in theory...

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

do you subvocalize? i don't always have to read it out loud as much as concentrate on the sound rather than the meaning of it (b/c i just cannot read your prose and nor believe that someone didn't edit it with ermphasis on style/sound rather than story/sense... :-)

[flambeau.livejournal.com]

I think for me, actually shaping the words in my head (and I nearly always construct the entire sentence before I write it down, or sometimes more than one sentence, to get the rhythm right) serves the same purpose.

Then, of course, someone comes along and moves the commas. *g*

[aka-arduinna.livejournal.com]

reading out loud!!! *snip* are there really people out there who don't?

Well. Me. *g* I tell other people to, but I don't -- but that's because I do hear it as I write, right down to punctuation. Anything I miss when I'm writing, I catch on the editing pass. Then the betas take over.

Clearly, though, a whole lotta people can't hear what they're writing without using their actual ears to do it, and they don't bother with it.

and yet i myself couldn't fathom showing anything like that even to a close friend and certainly want to stay as far away as i can from having to read it!!!

No. Kidding. I'm all in favor of people writing whatever and whenever they want (go them!) but ye gods -- just because it's written doesn't mean it has to be shared. It's like thinking that just because you like singing in the shower, you should go sing on a street corner for everyone else's enjoyment, regardless of whether you can actually sing.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

oh, i've actually gotten better at 'hearing' it in my mind, though my final reads will still be loud (esp. for conference paper, b/c there is nothing more awekward than stumbling over your own prose :-)

and betas...if i could only get my students to use someone else's eyes...if fandom were to teach them anything, i'd love for that to become more common, but then look at ffnet...i don't think many betas live over there...

LOL at the singing analogy...i think i'll have to borrow that sometime :D

i'll be curious to see how your lj resistence will hold out...it's the fandom smack of the new millenium :-)