Cynical Romantic

Was just having a similar discussion on another forum. Some general points that emerged from that discussion: *Don't coddle your audience. If there's a specific environment - country, location, context - and it has its own slang, as long as it's accurate, go ahead and use it. You don't need to explain every little reference. Readers will get most of it on their own, and they can look up the rest if they're so inclined. For example, if your story is set in a military context, use the terms and acronyms that your characters would actually use in real life when talking to each other. Nobody says things out in longhand unless they're talking to a civilian, so don't make the mistake of having a character do that. Don't sacrifice realism for reader hand-holding. It's like the difference between going to France and immersing yourself in French culture, and going to France with an English tour guide who just takes you to the tourist attractions. If you treat your readers as though they need a tour guide, your writing will come off like the "beginner's guide to...". Instead, challenge them. Give them the opportunity to have that fly-on-the-wall PoV, where things are happening as they would, and not merely for the reader's benefit. *Sometimes a few hints or suggestions of an accent can be more effective than writing out slang in longhand. For instance, let's say your story is set in the American South. Writing out drawl in every single sentence spoken by your characters makes for a painstakingly tedious read. Instead, interject some hints of local flavour, enough to allow the reader to "hear" the drawl in their heads, and make sure the writing is comprehensible enough on the page beyond that. How much is enough? Experiment till you get it right. *Don't throw in slang just for the sake of "show-and-tell". In other words, it should feel natural, not "look at how much research I've done, Mom!". *Speaking of research, do it. Unless it's an environment you're intimately familiar with - and I mean, at the time period of the story and with the same age as the characters - then spend some time in the environment listening to speech patterns.

Interesting topic. It's all just shorthand, though. Labels based on society's stereotypes, which are bound to be offensive by their very nature. Hell, as a woman, I could argue that I find the term "effeminate" offensive, because it means "female-acting", which implies that all women act a certain way, which, of course, is not true either. But, bottom line: If you're looking for inoffensive political correctness and you're on Craigslist, you're probably in the wrong place.

What, no comments about the draft?

I say, do what works for you. Just a cautionary note: If you're writing a long piece over time, and you write the end first, go back and give it a rewrite at the end. Otherwise, it will risk looking amateurish in comparison as your writing matures. (Witness JK Rowling's infamous HP epilogue, case in point).

A whole novel? By you? Oh, I must read this! I must!

The Hockey Hall of Fame is awesome, though it shouldn't be located in Toronto when it clearly belongs in Montreal. Just sayin'. Aside from that, Toronto pretty much sucks. For more on this topic, see this thread.

Bryan Adams, Jim Carrey, Michael J. Fox, and the Sutherlands aren't from Quebec. And I said Oscar Peterson.

A tip regarding "top sites" or "bookmarks": I use Delicious to store my bookmarks. Then, if I need my computer to be public-friendly, I can just sign out, and sign back in later and all my bookmarks are right back waiting for me.

I thought it served Hossa right, and couldn't resist a little 'HA-ha', Nelson-style.

... 42???

I'd predicted Detroit but had been cheering on Pittsburgh in this series. So, yay Pittsburgh! And, yay Maxime Talbot!

Yeah, that's the problem with using the less popular browsers. They have some great features, but many developers (and I can tell you this from experience) are less than diligent about testing their sites and applications adequately for all of them. So, while you'll see very few bugs on Firefox for most sites, and Microsoft-platform / asp.net sites will generally work really well in IE, the others such as Chrome and Opera are a bit of a crapshoot.

Well, anyone who aspires to be as dumb as Carrie Prejean deserves what they get. Honestly, far from being jealous or intimidated by people like that, I just feel sorry for them.

Our currency is the same. And no, we will not keep Celine to ourselves. In fact, Vegas can have her, and good riddance. As far as I'm concerned, she should stay there.

Ho-hum. And is it just me, or is it tough to pick a horse in the Carrie Prejean / Donald Trump showdown?

Tuesday's game was exciting, I'll give you that. But I'm pretty much ready for hockey to be over. This repeat of last year's finals is just boring.

I know lots of people who work for Microsoft and freely admit to hating Vista. They really must've paid you well.

The only true founders are the First Nations. Other than that, you're either a colonial or an immigrant, just like the rest of us. Join the club.

As a Montrealer, I have to say I think I'd probably shoot myself if I had to live in any of those 10 places listed. But hey, if you live there and like it, then by all means, enjoy...

Easy solution to that: Don't use Vista. It sucks. 'Nuff said.

I'm from Quebec and I humbly request that you do *not* forgive us for Celine Dion. Seriously, inflicting her shrill shrieking voice on the world is an unforgivable sin, and I am ashamed of it and you should be, too. As atonement for this sin, we offer you: Arcade Fire, Cirque du Soleil, Denys Arcand, Sam Roberts, Leonard Cohen, Mordecai Richler, Oscar Peterson, Elisha Cuthbert (okay, debatable contribution there, but Sean Avery's comments about her were amusing)... and poutine.

I use Firefox. I have all the other browsers too (the business I'm in, I'm always keeping them around for testing purposes). But I've come to realise that most sites work best in Firefox because most developers are using it and hence develop for it. By the way, w3schools May 2009 browser statistics: Firefox: 47.7% IE7: 21.3% IE6: 14.5% Chrome: 5.5% IE8: 5.2% Safari: 3.0% Opera: 2.2% Firefox overtook IE as the most popular browser and it looks to be gaining ground.

One important point about writing alternate histories: Thinking about all the things that would likely not change much, even despite your major pivot. I've never liked alternate-history books that were so implausible as to suggest that, for instance, one character sneezing at a different time would throw all of history off course. Whether that's possible or not from a strictly metaphysical point of view, it's unlikely from a human nature point of view if you're talking practicality. In other words "what's this got to do with the price of tea in China?"

A few common traps to avoid: 1) Allowing the "write what you know" adage to imprison you. Seriously, it can be the best possible piece of advice for a writer just starting out, but on the whole, I think it's the worst advice a writer can internalize because it limits you. It forces you to believe that you can only tell stories that you know, and it discounts the very valuable role of research just at the point when you should be learning it. 2) Succumbing to the temptation to play "tour guide", or "show-and-tell". Yes, we get that it's your hometown and you're proud of it and you want to show it off. But if you spend half your story referring to specific places and locales just because you want your readers to know just how awesome your hometown is, then your writing is just going to come across as amateurish. A particularly common trap is using the "outsider" character as a plot device to sneak in all this stuff about your location. It's better if you just assume that your characters take their surroundings for granted, and only make reference to them where it's relevant to the plot. 3) Letting your research show. Research should allow you to give a "feeling" of a place, to make it come alive as if it were real. It shouldn't be an excuse to write pages and pages of useless detail. By all means, do your in-depth research. But then, close your eyes and imagine yourself in the place and ask the right questions. It's less about the history and geography and layout of a place, and more about how it sounds and looks and smells. What does the air feel like after it rained? What's the difference between a place that is fast-paced and a place that is slow and steady? What does the desert glare feel like in your eyes? What are your characters feeling? 4) Neglecting the small details. Writing a place is like writing a character's accent; you don't want to write it out longhand, but instead, you want to inject small details to give a "hint" or a "flavour". The little things really do count. Paris, for instance, may not be so much about the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower as it is about the metro worker who makes a snide remark, or the character's coworker who wears just a little bit too much perfume. Small details, mentioned in passing, can remind a reader of where you are located without taking over the story.

A couple of suggestions: The Human Condition Alex and Zach