if you're getting discouraged on the very first page of a book, you're either reading a very bad book or else you have way bigger problems in your life.
Author Habits That Annoy You
- Thread starter Captain Dax
- Start date
If you're writing for a TV show character, maybe you unwittingly think in terms of close-ups. A clenched jaw is easy shorthand for stress, repressed frustration, self-control of anger, etc.
I've seen it -- and used it -- outside of Trek. It's pretty common.
No, I don't think any less visually in my original writing than in my tie-in writing.
Isn't it just a little easier to picture a person you've already seen, looking as they already have, doing something they've already done?
I generally have mental images of the characters I write whether they've been onscreen or not. Sometimes I mentally cast an actor in a role, sometimes I just imagine a certain physical type.
Besides, there are only so many ways that human beings show emotion with body language, and they'd be pretty much the same for everyone regardless of what they look like. So I don't see what the ability to visualize the character has to do with it. It's just a matter of drawing on a known repertoire of textual descriptions of body language. "He quirked a brow," "Her eyes widened," "She pursed her lips," "His shoulders tensed," etc.
I suppose you could get into their head: "Kirk visualized crushing the man into a fine powder, but his countenance gave nothing away."
Or something like this @ 3:43: ("Cliff. It's time for you and me to...interface.")
Or something like this @ 3:43: ("Cliff. It's time for you and me to...interface.")
Last edited:
In my own opus-in-progress, given that I typeset as I go, and can generate a print-ready PDF on extremely short notice, I can paginate as I damn well please.
And I can't think of a single instance in which I've said anything about anybody's jaw. I suspect that I could do a Norton Utilities search on the entire disk volume where my writings live, and count the number of times "jaw" comes up on one hand, with fingers left over.
(I just did precisely that, and was very surprised by the result. The word does indeed come up, far more often than I'd imagined, but generally in reference to jaws dropping, and/or "slack-jawed" stares.)
And I can't think of a single instance in which I've said anything about anybody's jaw. I suspect that I could do a Norton Utilities search on the entire disk volume where my writings live, and count the number of times "jaw" comes up on one hand, with fingers left over.
(I just did precisely that, and was very surprised by the result. The word does indeed come up, far more often than I'd imagined, but generally in reference to jaws dropping, and/or "slack-jawed" stares.)
As I said, pagination isn't up to the author except in self-publishing. Generally the only thing I do with regard to pagination is to disable it on the first page of a manuscript, since that's standard format (which means the first page number to appear is page 2).
Okay, try this -- how many hits do you find referring to brows raising or knitting, or eyes widening or narrowing, or people sighing or gasping or puffing? Are they really less frequent than references to jaws clenching or setting, or is that just the one you happened to notice? There are only so many ways to describe body language, and it's only sensible to use every tool in the kit.
Admiral Motti refers to Vader as a 'Sith Lord' in a deleted scene, so yeah probably in the script.
Seriously. I like CLB's stuff because of the hard SF elements!
Suffice it to say, if you get inside the character's mind, they can even have a stoic mien, as long as you paint a vivid word picture of their thoughts.
In regards to repetitive uses of phrases:
It's annoying when books that are part of a series aren't clearly ID'd as such, or when a series that's a sequel to a previously written series doesn't say so. I've borrowed library books only to learn it's book 2, which means I have to request book 1, which will take a while because they don't own book one...
It's annoying when books that are part of a series aren't clearly ID'd as such, or when a series that's a sequel to a previously written series doesn't say so. I've borrowed library books only to learn it's book 2, which means I have to request book 1, which will take a while because they don't own book one...
That reminds me of how, back in high school, I started there the year it opened, and they actually did have a couple of Star Trek novels in the books they had. Specifically, there were a couple of the Dark Matters trilogy, but seemingly not the whole set - I only ever recall seeing like two of the three, and I felt fairly confident about being the only student at the school who was particularly invested in reading the Trek novels, and had my own copies.
Sometimes libraries will have once had all the books in a series, then when they prune their collection, they possibly go by year/popularity and weed out book 2 but still own book 1 and 3. Or they buy book 2 without owning book 1 ever.
To each his own. I liked "The Latter Fire."
And yet no one noticed that he wrote “repition” which is not a word.
Last edited:
Yeah, this bugs me too.It's annoying when books that are part of a series aren't clearly ID'd as such, or when a series that's a sequel to a previously written series doesn't say so. I've borrowed library books only to learn it's book 2, which means I have to request book 1, which will take a while because they don't own book one...
James Swallow is one of my favorite Trek writers, Synthesis and Day of the Vipers were absolutely fantastic, and while not quite at that level I also enjoyed pretty much everything I've read by him.
It's annoying when books that are part of a series aren't clearly ID'd as such, or when a series that's a sequel to a previously written series doesn't say so. I've borrowed library books only to learn it's book 2, which means I have to request book 1, which will take a while because they don't own book one...
Wouldn’t that be the fault of the publisher not the writer?
Similar threads
