The_Lord_J- *chuckle* Glad to hear you don't mind "accepting change" a little bit. What you've let me read has been wonderfully entertaining and I think your story is a great addition to the world of W/T fic. What you've told me in your post is that I'm doing what every beta should try to do, help the writer take their work a step further. Thanks for that.
Patches-
Quote:
The question is, for me at least, how the heck do you resolve it; how does one balance proper pronoun use, avoid overuse and annoyingly ambiguous sentences without peppering the passage (and getting hit for alliteration no-no’s) with proper nouns?
My short answer would be a beta. Or two. Or three.
Sometimes I find myself sitting and writing and rewriting a sentence and then finally I give up and send it to raspberryhat or anirtakenigma and they both send me back two or three great suggestions and I think, "Why didn't I think of that?" Sometimes you just need a different set of eyes.
My longer answer would be a non-answer: I understand. These days I beta much more than I write, but I do understand the pronoun game and all its frustrations. I guess what's best to remember though is that every writer deals with pronoun ambiguity unless they write something about just one man and one woman interacting with no one else ever present. This is my personal rule of thumb:
When in doubt, use a name and send it to the beta. Which I guess brings me back to my short answer.
Seriously though, I've been working with a writer who used generics too often and when I pointed it out to her she started going too far the other way at times. I would get sentences with "Willow" and "Tara" over and over again. From a beta stand point though, that was much easier to work with.
It becomes a matter of holding the point of view. If Tara speaks and the next sentence is her action, then I can use first her name and then a pronoun without creating confusion. Simplistic example? Certainly, but as good a starting place as any.
When in doubt, use a name.
Send it to your beta.
Mix names and pronouns to hold a point of view.