Writing poll! Opinions wanted!

[partly]

Come one, come all! Short writing/style poll. Only five questions. I know you all have opinions... I want to know what they are.


[Poll #1253124]

Comments

[finabair.livejournal.com]

I happen to think two spaces is better than one, because it is the original rule, but enough people ignore it that I think one space can be acceptable nowadays. Although largely you wind up with one space now because html and bbc don't recognize two spaces in a row unless you use hard spaces, which is a code, and nobody has the time or patience to type that at the end of every sentence; most of them wouldn't even know how. ( , only I usually type it in lower case. It'll be interesting to see if LJ leaves the code alone or makes it into a space here.)

"Gave a smile" can sound casual, so whether it's appropriate to use depends on the tone of the writing. But I think it's a necessary phrase because it also is a great way to indicate the degree of personal connection between the smiler and the smilee. Yes, you could say "She smiled at him briefly" rather than "She gave him a small smile" but it's not quite the same, IMO. The former is less personal sounding. And as for the last ticky box, anyone saying that has a very unfortunate view of the world. Smiles are ALWAYS gifts**, and many gifts are non-tangible, and anyone who thinks otherwise sounds to me to be very poor in spirit.

If first person point of view is done right, it's smashing. I think it is slightly harder to use effectively than third person, but look at the Dresden Files. It wouldn't WORK the same in third person. I do, however, prefer my first person narratives to be used to convey the personality of that first person (such as Dresden; everything is written wry and hard-boiled, and you therefore understand Dresden that much better.)

I think people bristle at quotes at the start of a chapter because a lot of amateurs do use them poorly, almost as a crutch in many cases, and they focus so much on molding the story to the quotes they want that they lose track of the actual story they're telling.

But I looked forward to the quotes at the start of each chapter in Robert Lynn Asprin's books. And Anne McCaffrey uses them to great effect as well, often to give us tidbits like the actual words to the song mentioned somewhere in the book (not necessarily even in that chapter) or as lyrics to a song written about the book's events to tell us how this story will be heard by future generations in that world. And RA Salvatore often puts journal entry-style blurbs from one of his characters at the start of, or between, chapters of the story. Kristen Britain's second book contained journal entries from a historical character at the starts of some chapters, entries which informed the reader in a timely fashion to help them interpret the contents of the chapters - and towards the end of the book, the POV character reads the journal in question, thus putting her on the same page as the audience all in one fell swoop. I think it worked beautifully. So no. Definitely not amateur, but again, requires skill to do. (Not to mention skill to critique. Blanket statements are easy; telling someone why something isn't working IN THEIR WORK is HARD and takes a thorough understanding of cause-and-effect in writing.)


Is there somebody out there who needs hulk-smashing?

**ETA: Except, of course, for nasty smiles.