Personal Preferences

You know anything subjective is hard to predict. I have seen nothing but good reviews for two of my books, most in the 4 to 5 star range. Two days ago I ran across a review on a personal site that had a 1 star rating. When I see that kind of thing happen, I can only go to personal preferences for that type of difference from different sets of eyes reading the exact same material.

How much does personal preference affect what you decide to write and for that matter, how you write it? If you don't curse, do you shy away from using those words in dialogue? In general how does personal preference affect what you write and what you read?

Quote :

How much does personal preference affect what
you decide to write and for that matter, how you write it? If you don't
curse, do you shy away from using those words in dialogue? In general
how does personal preference affect what you write and what you read?

DT, you come up with some of most interesting topics, and this one is at first glance is easy, but probably one of the most difficult any author has to face. I have to agree with Stephen King when he says that the prime rule is to be honest with your readers and tell the truth. If a character is foul-mouthed, then his dialogue has to reflect that. Readers, as a rule, aren’t stupid and will recognize the difference. It is our duty to tone it down to a respectable level, but we must be honest.

Since both the novels I have written have been targeted for young adults and up, I keep that in mind when writing dialogue. The curse words are nothing they haven’t heard or probably used themselves, but to overdo them is just not necessary (in my opinion).

Phil, I often offend my own sensibilities when I write certain scenes. I felt vindicated when a reviewer call my book Fools' Heaven a real and gritty depiction of what it was trying to represent.

I have know some very profane people who were very colorful. I have a shell of a book involving such a character and it is not difficult to write the dialogue, but it is difficult for me to leave it in.

I know what you mean about having difficulty leaving it in, DT. When I
write 'dirty', I try to add some humor at the same time - like writing
it in dialect. Takes the edge off...

I don't write anything I woudl be uncomfortable reading aloud to anyone.

It often depends upon your market. The mystery magazines I sell to will allow an occasional mild oath. Any major one and you are sure of a rejection. I don't feel it is necessary to use much down-to-earth language to get the point across and portray characters. If, for example, you are writing about the military, use of actual speaking practices would make a story unreadable.

Interesting, because that's EXACTLY what would get me to read such a book. And why people like "authentic cop procedurals" and stuff, I think.

But speaking of "MilitSpeak", I once wrote a story that was composed of about 75% military acronyms. Anybody in the Army could read it without problem; anybody with no military service would be almost completely baffled by phrases like, "The The CQ found the AWOL EM behind the BOQ, doing his TDY all over the AO."

The title of the story, by the way, was FTA

I read Gizmodo and SlashDot, by the way--news feed for techno geeks. And am continually confused by the uber-nerd acronyms. I had to look up MMG today (everybody else knowing that it means Massively Multiplayer Game)

So somebody could probably do a story using that whole universe of abbreviations. But I don't think they're as global as military descriptions because they just refer to field, whereas the military famously owns your ass and therefore has proprietary designations that cover your personal and even inner self.

Always could depend on those Charge of Quarters to spoil the fun, couldn't you?

That's what the NCOIC always says.

What's interesting is what of this stuff enters the common lexicon and what doesn't.

AWOL is standard American. (And SNAFU/FUBAR, I'd say)

Some copspeak like APB and MO is common parlance, others not.

GI is another one. I get a kick out ouf a few expressions still hanging around from WWII. Sad sack (last two words omitted today). Sack, meaning a place to sleep, with the first word now omitted. And my favorite, the song Bless 'em All. There was no "bless" in the original version.