A writing dilemma

[terajk]

 So I'm working on my not_primetime  fic and I've run into a problem, which is: I heartily dislike epithets in writing, but everyone is the same gender and it's awkward using names all the time. (And the first draft isn't even finished; but my brain is all: "If we fix this now, it'll be easier to work on later as it will suck less.")

I'm sure the answer is "Compromise on your hatred of epithets, you goofus," but I'm not ready to call total amnesty on it. *ponders*

Comments

[rydra_wong]

FWIW, I have been told that names (like pronouns and like "said") look neutral to the reader; it's not going to read nearly as awkwardly as it feels.

[nenena]

Using names is only "awkward" if you're used to reading fanfic.

Read a few paragraphs of a bestselling novel. Or try describing the plot of a movie out loud to someone. I think you'll find out very quickly that using names all the time is totally natural.

[troisroyaumes]

Yeah, I'd agree that it's better to avoid epithets and just keep repeating names. It doesn't sound as awkward as you think.

[melannen]

The key to epithet use that mostly works is to keep them in-character for your POV character. POV character wouldn't describe their sweetheart as "the blonde woman." Would perfectly reasonably describe her as "my sweetheart" once a page or so, though. (And, hey, if he has two sweethearts in the same scene and he's getting sick of dealing with them, he might in fact start thinking of them as 'the blonde one' and 'the brown-haired one'. The main issue I have with the most common epithet use in fanfic is when people tag someone by their basic outward characteristics and nothing else - the effect is dehumanizing, and it only works if you *want* your POV to be dehumanizing. Basically, make the epithets do work and know what work they're doing, make them say something about the characters' relationships to each other, not just fill space in a sentence.

If all you need to do is fill space in a sentence, and sometimes you need to just fill space, because if every noun phrase is doing that much work it gets exhausting to read, I agree with the above: names do become invisible after awhile.

[jeshyr]

This is really really good advice melannen! I've been reading Shannara books lately and their crappy awful bad epithet use has me so frustrated I actually wrote a post about it and how the racism and sexism frustrated me! I hadn't really realised about the de-humanising effect though but upon reflection you're 100% right.

I think occasional epithets are OK, sure, but names and/or pronouns are usually much better!

[recessional]

I always wonder whether I'm GOOD at using epithets, or if secretly everyone hates my writing. *amused*

[terajk]

From my end, it's the former :D

My hatred of epithets comes from a very specific thing in Ranma 1/2 fandom. In the manga, Ryoga's introduction chapter is called "The Hunter." His introduction episode in the anime is called: "Enter Ryoga, the Eternal Lost Boy." Which is fine (if oddly spoilery), except that sometimes in fic "lost boy" is Ryoga's epithet, even when he is not actually lost. (Note to writers: using a character's disability as their epithet throughout only works if your POV character is a total asshole.)

[gemais]

There's nothing wrong with keep using names and pronouns. If the description was relevant to the scene in some way, a few epithets wouldn't stand out too much.