writer pet peeve
Feb. 19th, 2009 07:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orangerfulSo I'm listening to Stephen King's new short story collection Just After Sunset in my car, after coming to the conclusion that I did not have the driving attention span to listen to an entire novel. I'm up to the second story, and while I'm enjoying the book so far, I've been reminded of a couple of issues I have with King's style.
Now, I drop the occasional f-bomb every now and then, but sometimes I feel like King just tosses in a swear word every now and then for no apparent reason. And I'm fine with them coming out of character's mouths (especially if they are being attacked by crazy people/monsters/ghosts etc) but I find it very distracting when the "narrator" portion of the story has a random swear word. It doesn't flow with the third person style that he uses a lot of the time. If it was first person, or that weird combo where you know it's third but it feels like first, that would be fine, but a lot of times it just feels forced, like maybe he has a certain quota he likes to meet for each book. And "fuck" is such a harsh word, not one that people use peppered in conversation the way the do "shit" and "damn" (though if Inside the Actor's Studio taught me anything, it is that it is everyone's favorite swear word).
But whatever, the book is really enjoyable so far. The introduction was read by Stephen King and he reads it just like he's talking to you. The first story I had actually already read when we flew to Florida for Thanksgiving, but the voice actor who read it did a great job of bringing a large cast of characters to life. The woman reading The Gingerbread Girl is also doing a really good. I get to find out how that story ends tomorrow!
Now, I drop the occasional f-bomb every now and then, but sometimes I feel like King just tosses in a swear word every now and then for no apparent reason. And I'm fine with them coming out of character's mouths (especially if they are being attacked by crazy people/monsters/ghosts etc) but I find it very distracting when the "narrator" portion of the story has a random swear word. It doesn't flow with the third person style that he uses a lot of the time. If it was first person, or that weird combo where you know it's third but it feels like first, that would be fine, but a lot of times it just feels forced, like maybe he has a certain quota he likes to meet for each book. And "fuck" is such a harsh word, not one that people use peppered in conversation the way the do "shit" and "damn" (though if Inside the Actor's Studio taught me anything, it is that it is everyone's favorite swear word).
But whatever, the book is really enjoyable so far. The introduction was read by Stephen King and he reads it just like he's talking to you. The first story I had actually already read when we flew to Florida for Thanksgiving, but the voice actor who read it did a great job of bringing a large cast of characters to life. The woman reading The Gingerbread Girl is also doing a really good. I get to find out how that story ends tomorrow!
