06 July 2008 @ 01:46 pm
Fanfiction: Spell Check Is NOT Your Friend  
I have been reading fan fiction, mostly Torchwood and Doctor Who, for about a year now, and have gotten many hours of pleasure from the work of you talented folk. It's amazing how much time and attention you devote to these characters and how much effort you put in developing actual storylines and exploring emotion. Even those of you whose specialty is smut (don't be ashamed when you're so good at it!) work hard at making the... ahem... action... have emotional underpinings that are true to character.

So, working on the assumption that you want to keep on getting better and I want to keep reading really good fan fiction, a bit of advice: spellcheck (or spell check, depending on the program) is not your friend. 

The problem is that the English language is heavily burdened with homophones, and those little suckers will trip you every time. "Bear" sounds the same as "bare" but they do not mean the same; unfortunately, "bear" is a real word, so it will merrily pass under spell check's threshold, and you will have Jack being "bear" for Ianto's benefit, which would kill the mood faster than a dunking in iced water. In the same vein, check the differences between "lie" and "lye" (big one, I promise you, and one wouldn't be anywhere as much fun as the other). 

This last one leads me to "lied" and "laid". I know that "to lie lazily in bed" is one of Jack and Ianto's favorite pastimes, but "they lied in bed" makes them... not gentlemen. English conjugation is complex and irregular verbs abundant. For example, the past simple of "lie" is "lay" and the present participle is "lying" (yes, the same as for "to tell untruth"; I told you it was complicated!) .  Meanwhile, "laid" can be used as a past simple, but it does distort the sentence somewhat. So... check them out before you use them. There are plenty of websites that are extremely helpful in these matters.

My advice is, a good beta helps, but if you don't want to go that route, become familiar with those words that are likely to trip you.  Your fiction will be the better for it.

Now, excuse me, I'm going to go find a good "Jack and Ianto are bare" fic...




 
 
 
Current Mood: frustrated
 
 
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[identity profile] merucha.livejournal.com on August 10th, 2008 12:33 pm (UTC)
English is not my first language either but I do have the advantage of being able to pick up languages like popcorn -- I read about five well at this point and could probably do reasonably well speaking four. It's a visualization thing; words and sentences look wrong to me if they are mispelled and mistructured.

I really rant because it's not that difficult to pick up the basics -- I've had my copy of Elements of Style for a gazillion years now and use it constantly. I still slip up from time to time, so if I have a problem with something I will run it past someone. I've had a couple of offers for betaing and if I ever think I'm slipping below my own standards, believe me, I'm calling for help!



Edited 2008-08-10 01:47 pm (UTC)