Avoiding Professor Higgins

[BobbyBrandt]

I am curious how most VE's handle pronouns and other grammar "rules".

Frequently, when readers criticizes the 'her/she' type pronoun usage in a story, they neglect to consider the instance referenced is in character dialog rather than the narrative.

They are reading written words and applying grammar rules for writing versus speaking.

If anyone has read Winston Groom's novel, "Forrest Gump" they would appreciate the challenges a writer has in trying to make a character who doesn't speak "The King's English" come to life and remain true to the role portrayed in the story.

So, VE's, do you differentiate between dialog and narrative when correcting grammar?

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

There are a lot more illustrious editors here than me, but I know I absolutely treat the two differently. The first example to come to mind is sentence fragments. In narration, complete sentences are a must. But, real people speak in fragments all the time.

I believe dialogue should either be naturalistic, or there should be a narrative reason that it's not. For example, an android or a hyper-educated recluse could be forgiven for speaking in only complete sentences and never using contractions, but if your regular Joe college student is saying "can not" and "would have" all the time, he'd better secretly be an alien infiltrating the humans in your story.

I realize I combined a couple different issues there, but I believe my point stands.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I agree with Nouh_Bdee - the narrative should follow accepted grammar conventions and punctuation, because they're tools that aid comprehension and should be there but invisible.

Dialogue, though, is different, because you're trying to emulate real speech. Even so, I think a light touch is better than laying it on with a trowel. Subtle hints, and don't force it. Overdo anything, and it becomes a pastiche, artificial.

 

[SisterJezabel]

I'm with those above too! The narrative I now scan very closely and have started using Grammarly. Dialogue however I tend to ignore Grammarly's suggestions and try and make it as real as it would be spoken. That being said, I really don't like lines such as:

"Oooooooh, yeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssss, oooooooooooooooh, wooooooooow, haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarddddddddddeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrr" she wined as he pumped into her.

I would rather narration there- her moans and sighs indicated he was on the right path, and she was keen to be as vocal as possible blah blah blah...

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Ooh, Jezabel, that's pretty great. Should we start a little thread contest for who can write the best worst dialogue?