Weird Things That Affect My Writing

[hells_half_acre]

So, I've noticed a few things about my writing as I've been working on The Novel Project. For your entertainment, here they are:

1. Even when I'm writing "bad guy" dialogue I still can't bring myself to use homophobic slurs. Like...I just can't type them. It's weird, because I think I wouldn't have trouble writing racist things, and I've had no problem having them use the word "retard"...but, for some reason I just can't bring myself to type that word that means cigarette in the UK. :P Which is really ridiculous, because I used to say it all the time myself when I was around 13 and didn't know any better.* Anyway, so, my bad guys are surprisingly tolerant assholes.

2. Every time I use the word "she", I think of my grandmother saying "Who's she, the cat's mother?" And then I want to replace it with the woman's name.

3. After reading and writing mostly stories involving only men, I tend to use full names rather than pronouns, even in scenes where there is only one boy and one girl. At least one of my readers finds it annoying, but I just can't stop. :P

4. Even though I'm a huge supporter of the evolution of language, now that I KNOW "alright" isn't a word, I have a really hard time spelling it that way...but, "all right" looks ridiculous to me...so I'm constantly using "okay" instead.

I'm sure there are more...but these are the main ones. 

*I was never homophobic. I just didn't understand that joining my friends in using homophobic language wasn't helping society.

Comments

[franztastisch]

Haha I can't even remember if I am the one who finds it a little irritating when you use everyones names all the time. I think it might me though, right? :P

Now! On to yor dislike of the word we often used to describe cigarettes. See, I do only use it in reference to cigarettes - which, I find weird to type because 1. I don't type it often and 2. most people I know refer to them as "smoke/smokes" and/or "fags". The word I have trouble with is actually it's long form - faggot - because that I associate more with homophobic language than fag. But it's also weird because my dad talks about faggots - but in relation to faggots of wood for the fire. So I have many problems with that word. :P

Oddly enough I also have a weird issue with the word lesbian. I just tend to refer to gay girls as.. well, gay. But that's an odd me thing. I guess.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Haha, yeah, it's you. ;)

See, I can use the word fag, if I know I'm referring to a cigarette...or I'm being purposefully cheeky, like Crowley's awesome line "Fancy a fag and a chat?" But as soon as I know I'm writing it (even from the perspective of someone else) as an insult and derogatory term...I just can't.

The way your dad uses the long-form...well, thank goodness we have the word "kindling" over here, because yeah...I really hate the long-form of the word.

Language is a funny thing. :P

As for lesbians...yeah, that's an odd you thing. ;) I think I have heard other people who prefer to just use "gay" for everyone, though, so I doubt you're alone. Actually, I'm sure people on the island of Lesbos wish that people would use "gay" for everyone.

[franztastisch]

Oh we have kindling as well. But dad uses faggots sometimes as well. Though to be fair, it's not like he uses it often. I just remember that he does sometimes because I don't like it. Maybe there's a subtle difference between the two? I don't know.

Haha "fancy a fag and a chat" Half the reason I love Crowley is how he uses British slang/colloquialisms. The other half being, of course, tha the's played by Mark Sheppard. :P

I dunno. Maybe it's because there's no change in terms for straight girls. Or maybe I'm just odd. :P

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

I loved Crowley for the same reason(s). Also, he once called someone "Ducky" which...yeah, I absolutely love that. It was something the Newfoundlanders used to do that I found endearing.

[franztastisch]

Oh God, what was that thing he said that I loved so much? "Tenner says you can't"? Something like that. And I was like... YEY BRITISHISMS.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

I can't remember the line either - but man, I would not say no to more of that guy. ;)

[franztastisch]

I don't trust anyone who would, to be honest. :P

[mekina.livejournal.com]

About that word, the one for cigarettes, I know two people who are always saying it, using it to refer to gay people. I find it offensive myself, and I encourage them to stop, but they don't see why they shouldn't say it. I don't know, I just don't like it.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what my friends (and I) were like when I was 13. "It's just a word" etc... it helps that since then I've studied the holocaust, which began with words and really teaches you the power of them. Also, I met people who were gay and closeted who had friends going around using that word as an insult for everyone they didn't like...and well, I could see the damage it was doing to their closeted friend without them even realizing (because they didn't know).

The way I handled it then was I just said, "I don't care if you use that word when I'm not around, but when I'm around, could you please try not to. Try to use a different word, just for me." And well, that worked (at least when they were around me), but I had the benefit of being a pretty girl and the person using the word being a guy who wanted to make the pretty girl happy. :P

But yeah, I think the biggest difference was made the day they found out that they had been using a derogatory term for their best friend. :P

[et-tu-lj.livejournal.com]

I haven't had a story where derogatory language would have been appropriate, but I think I'd probably be the same way. Most of the time I find myself writing from the POV of the character who'd be hurt by such words so I can write it in order to show the reaction to it, but I'd struggle with it if I couldn't show the internal reaction. Tbh, I have trouble using even made up slurs like mudblood, which gets annoying when writing internal Death Eater politics. *sigh*

I know exactly what you mean about getting used to writing all male scenes and having to be OCD about your pronouns. Though for me it's something I have to pay close attention to, so when I actually have a man and a woman talking it's horribly liberating and exciting. I get carried away and use nothing but pronouns for the whole scene because I CAN. lol

"All right" bothers me endlessly. I use "alright" in dialogue if the character's relaxed and informal. If they're uptight and I can't justify it I use "okay" or something else instead, to avoid "all right." So that choice becomes part of the style bible for each character because I'm hyperconscious of it every time.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Yeah...in the chapter of The Novel Project going out this week (or possibly two weeks from now), I think I eventually just had to use the word "fruitcake" instead of the other word, because....yeah, I just couldn't do it. :P

But that's the odd part, because I'm fine with mudblood and even racial derogatory terms - but, maybe it's like you said, I can only do it from certain perspectives and in certain circumstances - and the part of my novel where I needed to us the word, there wasn't a point made about the reaction...so it would have just been...out there.

Though for me it's something I have to pay close attention to, so when I actually have a man and a woman talking it's horribly liberating and exciting. I get carried away and use nothing but pronouns for the whole scene because I CAN. lol

It's funny, because before I got into fanfiction, I used to write a lot of short stories where I didn't use names AT all...it was either all "I" and "you" or all "he" and "she". It's like I'm either one extreme or the other :P

I just wish some authority somewhere would make "alright" an officially recognized and grammatically correct word so that I could stop being so self-conscious about it. :P But yeah, I'm the same as you...I think I do end up putting "alright" for a lot of my informal characters in fanfiction, and then just use "okay" the rest of the time.

[et-tu-lj.livejournal.com]

I used to write a lot of short stories where I didn't use names AT all

I still do that, even in fanfiction. I like playing with reader expectation, so it plays against whichever character they think it is, or can be read in more than one way. Makes it hard to fill in header info though. lol

I told you I was digging around

[marikanola.livejournal.com]

I had a friend go on a rant how he hated reading "he made his way.." as in "he made he way to the bathroom" or "he made his way across the room" It was lengthy and passionate ... and I have never written "he made his way" since ... You Granny's "Who is she? The cat's mother?" reminded me of that.

Re: I told you I was digging around

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

It's bizarre how these things work their way into our heads and become kind of odd ingrained habits. :P

I also once read a quote by Stephen King or someone who said that you should always just use "said" when writing dialogue and nothing else - and now I drive my readers absolutely crazy by not being varied enough in my dialogue verbs. You just can't win.