Nekosmuse is my new god.

[icarus]

amethyst_lupin pointed me in the direction of a great meta by nekosmuse The Ten Commandments of Fanfiction.

Thou shalt never use epithets. Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou. If I never see Draco referred to 'the blond' or Ron called 'the redhead' again, it will be too soon.

Thou shalt use warnings. Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou. I cracked open a fic the other day and halfway through it - Surprise! - was the rape scene. Ack. I still have that unpleasant image in my mind, and I'm glaring at author and never want to read them again.

I shalt not spoil the rest. Enjoy!

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's true. But the post is still quite funny and I think accurate in that new writers abuse epithets terribly. I think another way writers abuse epithets is that they use a characteristic to denote the character that doesn't add to the story.

For example, calling Gandalf "Stormcrow," well, that brings a lot to the Lord of the Rings. The sarcasm and the very different view of Gandalf's help is eye-opening. Or calling Aragorn 'the ranger' as in 'the ranger sought ahead for a way through the marsh,' that's useful. It makes sense that the character whose POV we're seeing would think of Aragorn as a ranger in that context.

But very often epithet abusers will have the POV character think of Draco as 'the blond' in an intimate situation. That doesn't work. It adds nothing to the story, and it's too distant for that moment.

I've used epithets in situations where we don't know anything about the character except their appearance. The brown-haired guy sitting next to Harry in Cursed Artefacts For Sale. I chose that epithet with care. It tells you something about Harry's attitude towards the auction: he doesn't care, he doesn't view the others as competition; he's seeing the auction through a rather mundane perspective.

Let's see... where else... oh yeah - the second part of Reunion, Name Dropping. I use it because I use a vary limited outside perspective, witnessing two men meet outside a fine restaurant, one dark-haired, the other blonde. The reader already knows that Draco was going to meet with Snape, but since the story pertained a lot to gossip and appearances it makes sense to start out with how this appears.

Primer to the Dark Arts, Harry thinks about Snape (right after the relationship had begun), oh what was it? Something to the effect of 'the man was paranoid.' The epithet there signals that Harry has started to think of Snape as a man, not as his teacher.

So I'm agreeing with you. In a rambling sort of way. :) Epithets can add layers of meaning, but I hate it when they're laid on with a trowel, pointless, or inappropriate.

Icarus