Liadin Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 To me it becomes a long and then and then and then and then repetition. There's nothing wrong with using variations in description. Instead of using Cantabile as an anchor for every sentence that contains and action by you, one can alternate with simple words like "he", or "the old man", "the forumgoer", "the troubled grandfather" or a number of others. I wish I could think of a specific example in a book so I could quote it, as I'm not sure I'm getting my point across properly.Just pronouns works fine when there's no more of one person per gender in the scene, but it gets ridiculous when an author tries to avoid using the character's name by using multiple stand-ins. If you call Bob first "the young man" then "the red-haired man" then "the man by the door" and then "the man with the gun" all in the same scene, it looks silly and I start to wonder how many people you're talking about. As long as a character's name isn't used when a pronoun could substitute, repeated use of the name isn't jarring at all to me.So who is this mythical person who refuses to like books unless there's copious amounts of swearing, blood and rape involved? Shryke's posts earlier in the thread seemed to imply that. I suspect that in reality most posters who express these views are actually closer to MinDonner's sensible opinion: it's where sex/swearing/whatever is obviously being avoided, not simply not present, that it irritates. LotR didn't need sex, but its absence from the Mistborn trilogy felt weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galactus Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Things that make me crazy, and I've posted this before:When a rule is established, only for the main character(s) to be able to break them due to their super-special awesomeness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sariel Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 You always know that if magic trick X is impossible the main character will always manage X just as all seems lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galactus Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 You always know that if magic trick X is impossible the main character will always manage X just as all seems lost.Yes. Precisely. And it drives me bonkers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinDonner Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 But nobody gets to talk to the King like that and live. Nobody! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exa Inova Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 At the end of Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind (yea i liked the series) there is so many unanswered questions. What was the prophesy Nathan(I think thats his name) was talking about? What happens if Richard and Khalan have a male baby?You are either too young to understand or hate life and should die altogether.The only thing you should know is that the important human themes have been dealt with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yagathai Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 To really geek out on yall, your not the first to think this. Corran Horn in the expanded universe figured this out and used it quite effectively. Apparently he was the first in hundreds of thousands of years to come up with it, but still...The Emperor does it a lot in his fight with the Jedi Council at the end of Episode 3. Watch that duel again. He kills a bunch of poor bastards with sneaky lightsaber extending/retracting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Exa Inova Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 The Emperor does it a lot in his fight with the Jedi Council at the end of Episode 3. Watch that duel again. He kills a bunch of poor bastards with sneaky lightsaber extending/retracting.Really?'You tubed this fucker and to me he does some real slo mo retracting and trusting. Those 3 jedi's went out like punks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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