(no subject)

[hope]

OH GOD, SERIOUSLY PEOPLE.

NO ‘the elder’. NO ‘the younger’. NO THE GODDAMN ‘SHORTER MAN’ or ‘TALLEST WINCHESTER’, FER FRICK’S SAKE.

- It’s OK to use their names. MORE than OK.

- YOU DO NOT, I repeat NOT need to start substituting words like ‘his’ for things like ‘the taller, hazel-eyed Winchester’. I GET IT. I GET WHO YOU MEAN.

- Honestly, some of the sentences you are writing DON’T HAVE ANY NAMES IN THEM. And when there are only two of them? I CAN TELL WHO YOU’RE REFERRING TO. Especially when it’s something like “He sighs, then makes sure Sam’s watching as THE ELDER WINCHESTER rips the heart out of WHOEVER THOUGHT THAT IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO WRITE LIKE THAT.”

JESUS. Save us.

Comments

[shehasathree]

because the most important thing about any character is the colour of their hair.

i think i have read a line where this worked a grand total of *once* (which means that me and my eyes have been subjected to this particular fictic manymany times.)

[shehasathree]

uh, that came out wrong.
but, yeah: ugh.

[piccalo.livejournal.com]

YES!

thank you.

>;O

i HATE that, i seriously seriously HATE IT. and people do it so much. it can be a perfectly nice little story, then: "Orli, the taller man, pulled the younger man to him, laying his cheek atop the soft, clove scented black hair of his crying lover." or some such. too much description also makes me want to pummel things.

[maleyka.livejournal.com]

YES. THANK YOU.

I hate that particular "technique" with a wild and searing passion. Does the subject's hair color have anything to do with what's going on? No? And is the character from whose PoV you're writing likely to mentally refer to his brother as "the taller Winchester"? No? THEN STOP DOING THAT.

[wolfling]

I think it's partly a response people have when they start writing scenes with two guys and suddenly the pronouns aren't as descriptive any more.

Occasionally, very occasionally something like that can work, but it's generally not a good idea.

You can sometimes get away with occasionally throwing in something like "his brother" when you need to clarify, but that works because a) it's about as simple a descriptor as you can get and b) it's from inside your pov character's head and not imposed from the outside such as "the tall shaggy haired younger Winchester". In the latter case, "Sam" is much easier to write. ;)

[kikiduck.livejournal.com]

WORD.