Fiction Scribe

I apologize for the lateness of this post, ladies and gentlemen.

Getting right to it…

My lovely pet peeve #11. I was having a writing discussion with someone the other day and a related subject (I won’t say which because it’s an upcoming pet peeve) made me think of this pet peeve:

Telling me what I already know.

I’m guilty of it myself from time to time, but that doesn’t mean one of my higher annoyances on the list isn’t someone telling me what I already know. I’m not a writer who gives much description, so that’s probably what gives my eye a bit of special radar for this.

Some examples.

Salty or watery tears. Why is something so small annoying? Because all of humanity has salty tears. Tears are salt water draining from your eyes. If your character is somehow crying powdered Mountain Dew all over the place, by all means let me know, but don’t tell me about someone’s salty or watery tears. I’ve cried before; I know what they’re like.

The same goes with the blue sky or the blue ocean. Firstly, I have to wonder if people who writer “blue ocrean” have actually seen the ocean. The ocean isn’t just blue. There are greens, blues, and even some purples if you look at things the right way on the right kind of day. I absolutely adore the ocean. Don’t tell me it’s blue. One, it’s not just, and two, blue is too broad a color range for the bits that do fall under it.

Along the same lines, don’t use “her eyes were as blue as the ocean.” No. Blue as the sky, yes. (Though I’d prefer you to be a bit more specific than “the sky” for that one.) Sea green is good too.

Be descriptive, but don’t be obvious. I know the sky is blue. If your sky isn’t blue, please do tell me a bit about it. Go ahead and tell me about the sky in relation to how it makes your character feel, but emphasize the character and not the stuff about the sky I already know.