Could you Be a Little More Specific?

[kriadydragon]

I've officially come to absolutely despise the description "and he was injured in the side," "he felt a pain in his side," "he was bleeding from his side," and other variations in which the character was "supposedly" wounded in the side. Because here I am thinking 'okay, so the injury is above the hip or under the ribs or on the ribs or under the armpit' only for the injury to be on the stomach (and, yes, I swear, it always ends up being the stomach. It's practically a guarantee that when a character is injured on the side the actual location is the stomach). Which, maybe I'm wrong, but isn't something you would associate with being considered the side of the body. Now, if it had been a matter of "the right side of the body" okay, I can see that, a little, but most authors just go with "side" and leave it at that, which considering how much "side" the body has to offer can't really be considered a specific location.

And I don't get it. Because how hard is it to name a specific location for an injury? If the injury is on the stomach then say the stomach. Don't give me some vague location when there's no reason to only to offer specifics chapters down the road.

It also got me wondering if anyone else has been soured toward a particular description or word or even trope because of fanfic, or any written media, really. Giggle, belly, comfy, and snuggle are a few more words I have little tolerance for (I once read a published book where I swear the author had a belly fetish. He would not stop using that word whenever he could and it drove me crazy).

Comments

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

It is all because they don't really want to deal with the physical aspects of injury, just gloss over it and move on
to wherever they are taking their story.
If they don't want to cover the details, I am a detail sort of person, then don't bring it up. . .

".. . ..wondering if anyone else has been soured toward a particular description or word or even trope because of fanfic..."

Raises hand high in same direction you have taken this discussion as well as the part about the cutesy words, at least to the writers who use them.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder if it's a matter of forgetting where the injury was located, or maybe holding off on an exact location until they're able to make up their minds about it. Either way, my own experience has been that when a writer likes to be vague on even the most basic details chances are there's a lot more they're going to gloss over.

[black-raven135.livejournal.com]

"..when a writer likes to be vague on even the most basic details chances are there's a lot more they're going to gloss over."

(((NODS)))) often they not only leave details behind but other important aspects e.g. continuity which drives me nuts.
Wait a minute, what happened to??? and many other aspects of making a story line a nightmare.

[(Anonymous)]

If used properly, I don,t have a problem with most words. Repition and wrong use drive me nuts.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's usually repetition and usage that end up being the problem, not really the words themselves. They don't usually bother me until an author starts getting slap-happy with them, worse when the words are not only used a lot but just feel... really out of place.

[kate-everson.livejournal.com]

I totally know what you're talking about. I think it's a lack-of-beta problem, and one of those times where something's totally clear to the writer but doesn't translate to the reader. I also have been confused by this, but have always then taken it to mean the "right side of the front of the body."

The thing that really turns me off in a fic is when a certain expression is used more than once. I read a longfic once where characters told each other practically once a chapter to "never change" after they said something witty. Irksome.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder if, for some people, it's a matter or preferring the comfort over the hurt so wanting to hurry the hurt along. I don't know. I'm a detail junky when it comes to whump so have this tendency to assume fellow whumpers to be the same, so I'm always surprised when they seem to gloss over the injury. There was even one story I read one time in which the author never even mentioned where the injury was located. Seriously, the character was injured and the readers didn't know how or where!

Ugh, repetition drives me crazy, especially when a writer uses the same word three times in the same sentence - something that a quick edit could fix easily.