An Interesting Guide for Fanfic Writers (Written by a Troper)

As though you needed another site to serve as a timesuck (I know you don't), you can send the eggcorns to the Eggcorn Database. I'm quite proud that I found one that they deemed a legitimate eggcorn: "hack-kneed" for "hackneyed".

edited 14th Oct '11 11:29:03 AM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

"That's a grammar error, AFAIK. The tense is inconsistent."

They're both in the past tense.

edited 14th Oct '11 12:42:47 PM by kashchei

And better than thy stroke; why swellest thou then?

"stomping down the hallway" is in present.

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

"-ing" is the progressive form of a verb. It has no tense on its own.

The sentence is still incorrect, though.

I'm not a grammarian, hence thw AFAIK.

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

I don't think it's actually ungrammatical. "She was gone, stomping down the hallway, and slammed the door behind her" has three clauses, but I'm interpreting the second one as a pseudo-parenthetical aside; think of it as an adjectival phrase applied to 'she'. It's perhaps a little awkward, but correct.

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

Yep, it's awkward but correct. Still, the syntax is bumpy enough that rephrasing it would improve the flow.

Wait, would "She was gone and slammed the door behind her" be correct.

Besides, I would rephrase it to take out that "was":

"She turned away and slammed the door behind her."

OR

"She turned away, stomping down the hallway, and slammed the door behind her."

Adjust for context. Slightly better.

edited 14th Oct '11 8:00:48 PM by chihuahua0

I stand corrected.

"I'm not a grammarian, hence thw AFAIK."

So why say anything at all?

And better than thy stroke; why swellest thou then?

Perhaps because they were attempting to contribute what knowledge of the subject they do have, as was requested, instead of whatever it is you're trying to accomplish by behaving in the fashion you are.

Nous restons ici.

I don't know which part of this thread you mistook for being about my behavior, but I can assure you that all I'm trying to accomplish is to demonstrate that you can do more harm than good when giving advice on a subject you know yourself not to be proficient in.

And better than thy stroke; why swellest thou then?

This is, indeed, an interesting guide; thoughtful and containing much good advice. I'll respond only to the points I disagree with...

• This is why you should never recommend Strunk and White.

• The advice to use synonyms instead of "said" is just wrong. In dialogue, what matters is the spoken words; the speech tags are just there to help understand, and should remain nearly invisible, or indeed should be omitted when possible (as indeed you state). "Said" should only be replaced by another verb, or an adverb added, when this contributes something to our understanding of the way the words are spoken that wouldn't otherwise be clear. Far too often one sees redundancies like "No, he didn't!" contradicted John when plain "said" would be far better.

• This:

Only if you don't understand the complexity of the task of assimilating and reproducing a character's voice — and the rest of the section suggests that you do. It's not at all easy. I, speaking just for myself, find it far harder to get a canon character's voice right than the voice of one of my own characters, because I have the advantage of having invented the latter. So don't insult people who struggle with it. Feel free, of course, to pick at those who don't even try.

This is a minor nitpick, but other than the Dog Latin and two punctuation errors (no comma after "Albus" and a missing hyphen in "wizarding-world doors") there's no bad, let alone hideous, grammar in the example.

No, there are not. The words come from Latin mille (thousand) and annus (year) so must be spelled with a double L and a double N. Any other spelling, though common, is incorrect.

"Fewer" refers to things that only exist in integer units.

• The section on British usage is pretty accurate, but we do in fact say "Merry Christmas". A Sherlock Holmes story used "knock someone up" with the meaning you mention, but I don't think it's meant that for a long time now.

Avoid bold. It jumps out from the page and has no distinctive use. Use italics for emphasised single words, (inside quote marks) for aggressive or emphatic speech, and (without quote marks) for dialogue-like lines that are thought rather than spoken. I use underlines for emphasised words within italic text, but I'm aware this is non-standard; the standard convention is to de-italicise the word.

Otouto. And you might mention that older siblings call their younger siblings by name rather than use these words, so the words virtually never show up in English-language text (any time when X refers to "Y's younger sister" there's no reason not to put "younger sister" in English).

You might also mention that many (most?) Japanese schools teach on Saturdays as well; ignoring this seems to be a very common mistake.

That's "in medias res".

• Chapter size. A chapter doesn't necessarily have to contain several scenes; for instance, if you are sticking with the POV of your heroes and have just one scene from the POV of your villains, it may be most effective as a separate chapter. (See Chapter 8 of Mattimeo in the Redwall series.)

I wouldn't say "never" with Strunk and White, but it's true a lot of their grammar points are hogwash. I maintain that a lot of their stylistic advice is sound, though as always, you should take it less as a rule and more as a consideration.

Thanks for the all fish!

When the guide says adhere to canon, does that mean that AU is off-limits territory now? D:

Even when your hope is gone, move along, move along just to make it through

The way I remember 'less' vs. 'fewer' (and the associated) is always "We need (this much/less) flour, and (this many/fewer) eggs."

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

I think it's more adhere to canon unless it's part of the fic's premise.

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

"No, there are not. The words come from Latin mille (thousand) and annus (year) so must be spelled with a double L and a double N. Any other spelling, though common, is incorrect."

As a loanword spelling is already subject to change from the original derivatives. There is no final authority on the correct use of English. Sufficiently common and established usage is enough to create an acceptable spelling in the absence of a regulating authority. Claiming you have some sort of final authority on the subject is disingenuous at best.

(As an aside, my spellcheck recognizes no spelling of millenia with any number of Ns and Ls as correct for some reason.)

edited 16th Oct '11 4:50:42 PM by Night

Nous restons ici.

My mnemonic for many/much is very, very simple:

If you can say "20," you can say "many."

But there is a regulating authority for English, albeit a loosely defined one: it consists of the body of professional writers, proof-readers and editors and the usage guides they write. I don't claim the right to speak on behalf of this body, but I have been a member of it for some time and read many of these style guides, and in my experience I have never seen anyone except LooneyToons' guide claim that "millenium" is an acceptable spelling. It may be common in amateur writing, but it's still seen as an error in professional writing.

LooneyToons' guide is already heavily on the prescriptivist side, helpfully advising against other usages such as "per say" and "for all intensive purposes" that are likewise seen as errors by the professional community. Even amateur writers are well advised to avoid these errors, because (1) if you ever decide to go professional, editors will see these errors as danger signals, and if there are too many, will advise you to go back and change them before you submit again; (2) even if you never go professional, if you publish on a site such as fanfiction.net then at least some of your potential audience — including, quite possibly, those who could be most helpful to you in improving your standard — will be judging you by the standards of professional English anyway.

edited 17th Oct '11 10:06:22 AM by Vilui

Wait, some people actually spell "intents and purposes" as "intensive purposes"?

I'm strongly against corporal punishment, and I still want to rap them across the knuckles with a wooden ruler. (Sadly, I've seen "per say" so many times it's lost its impact.)

"As a loanword spelling is already subject to change from the original derivatives."

Only if the word is being transliterated. Otherwise, stick to the original spelling.

And better than thy stroke; why swellest thou then?

Wow. Get distracted by other priorities for a few days, and you miss a whole lot of traffic.

I don't have the time to really go into all the new posts at the moment — I need to read them in depth and think about whatever's been said — but I will note that the "stomping" bit is from something someone sent me, and is not yet part of "my" writing — that entire passage is there more as a reminder and note of things to include. And after all the argument over the sentence in question, I'm certainly going to not include it.

More when I get a chance to read more closely. In advance, though, thank you all for the comments — as I note several times in the document, I make my own mistakes all the time, and it behooves me to pay attention when someone catches anything I missed.

404 url not found

fail, i cant read it

edited 20th Oct '11 5:19:51 AM by jasonwill2

as of the 2nd of Nov. has 6 weeks for a broken collar bone to heal and types 1 handed and slowly

Which link did you click? The one in the original post? Or one of the several that followed after my website moved?

@Loony Toons Christ, that's a Big Fucking Text. Must've taken you forever to write!

edited 20th Oct '11 7:06:07 AM by dRoy

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.