subtitle: I know this is silly compared to a lot of other stuff but.....
*
1. Opening lines that are too dumb to live.
(e.g.: "[She] literally walked into the bar...." I mean NSS. If she
figuratively did so, she'd be daydreaming, right?) I mean, where was
their beta reader? Where was their muse? On vacation?
And no, from context the author clearly did not mean that the character
came into contact with the bar by accident while entering
the establishment (or ran into the doorframe while entering the bar,
or...) If she had then people would have been laughing and pointing.
This was not the case.)
*
2. Improper sentence construction. I don't mean the occasional
its/it's/its' issue or even sound-alike replacements, misspellings or
anything that's simply the result of nor proofing well enough, but
sentences that make the author (and his/her characters) sound like an
ignorant space alien. (Most of these authors are supposedly native
speakers of English. I've only run into two who were obviously NNS.
One was from somewhere in the Balkans and the other was, IIRC, from
France. I give them props for even trying, but everyone else I just ...
Leigh Claffey wrote:
... a long rant about bad fanfic.
Have you ever looked into critique.org?
It's part of the sffwa organization and is a writing
group for beginners?
I'm kinda inactive at the moment but I think you might
apply your critical talents to good use there. It
requires a free membership but you'll get to look
over stories from the good to the appalling.
>3a. American characters do not speak with a British accent (and
>vice-versa). If you're on the other side of the pond from where the
>story takes place and you can't personally get your mind around...
>> 3a. American characters do not speak with a British accent (and
>> vice-versa). If you're on the other side of the pond from where the
>> story takes place and you can't personally get your mind around the
>> differences then, for the love of all that is holy to you, get a beta
>> reader who speaks the language and let them guide you.
>> I can't remember how many stories I've read where where the setting and
>> characters are in America, it has not been established that this is some
>> AU universe where the Brits won the war, and yet there are jumpers being
>> worn all over the place and people go around sounding like they've just
>> come off a weeklong (and apparently sleepless) Jeeves &
>> Wooster/Upstairs-Downstairs/My Fair Lady/Blackadder/Dr. Who marathon
>> (especially irksome is when the show is SG-1 and two of the characters
>> are Jack O'Neil and Teal'c.).
>
> It isn't just amateurs who are guilty of this. Alistair MacLean
> committed one of the most egregious examples, in _Breakheart Pass_. ...
On Jul 30, 10:18 pm, Denny Wheeler TANSTAAFL.zipcon.net.INVALID> wrote:
>
Maybe now it would be. I just read an Agatha Christie novel with a
couple of American characters - and she gave them the broadest
possible, gee-willikers, aw-shucks, hayseed sort of accent/mannerisms,
despite the fact that they were supposed to be "cultivated" Americans
traveling abroad.
>
> Maybe now it would be. I just read an Agatha Christie novel with a
> couple of American characters - and she gave them the broadest
> possible, gee-willikers, aw-shucks, hayseed sort of accent/mannerisms,
> despite the fact that they were supposed to be "cultivated" Americans
> traveling abroad.
>
> LM
>
And?
That's probably how "cultivated" Americans travelling abroad sounded
to her.
>>> 3a. American characters do not speak with a British accent (and
>>> vice-versa). If you're on the other side of the pond from where the
>>> story takes place and you can't personally get your mind around the
>>> differences then, for the love of all that is holy to you, get a beta
>>> reader who speaks the language and let them guide you.
>>> I can't remember how many stories I've read where where the setting and
>>> characters are in America, it has not been established that this is some
>>> AU universe where the Brits won the war, and yet there are jumpers being
>>> worn all over the place and people go around sounding like they've just
>>> come off a weeklong (and apparently sleepless) Jeeves &
>>> Wooster/Upstairs-Downstairs/My Fair Lady/Blackadder/Dr. Who marathon
>>> (especially irksome is when the show is SG-1 and two of the characters
>>> are Jack O'Neil and Teal'c.).
>
>> It isn't just amateurs who are guilty of this. Alistair MacLean ...
>>
>> Maybe now it would be. I just read an Agatha Christie novel with a
>> couple of American characters - and she gave them the broadest
>> possible, gee-willikers, aw-shucks, hayseed sort of accent/mannerisms,
>> despite the fact that they were supposed to be "cultivated" Americans
>> traveling abroad.
>>
>> LM
>>
>> Maybe now it would be. I just read an Agatha Christie novel with a
>> couple of American characters - and she gave them the broadest
>> possible, gee-willikers, aw-shucks, hayseed sort of accent/mannerisms,
>> despite the fact that they were supposed to be "cultivated" Americans
>> traveling abroad.
