Every time she wants to use a construction like "she had not thought of that aspect" or "he had not heard of such a thing," instead of saying "she hadn't" or "he hadn't," she says "she'd not" and "he'd not." She does the same thing with "would" constructions: "She'd not be going to the store after all."
And no, she's not a British author. Maybe she was raised in the UK, I don't know, but she's writing as an American, using American spellings and slang, for an American audience, and the story's set in an American city.
Technically, the phraseology is correct. There's nothing wrong with it. But every single time I see it, I want to scream and throw my Kindle against the wall. How is it possible that her editor didn't tell her to fix it?
Yes, I realize this is picky, but it's precisely the kind of reason that you need to be more than a grammar nerd to be a writer and/or editor. You have to have an actual ear for language and for story. Fiction's a different beast than non-fiction, too, with different requirements and conventions. I see so many people these days hanging out their shingles as "book doctors" or "editors" and I always wonder...are you just a grammar nerd, or do you have fiction chops?
Please, writers out there, I beg of you...don't toss me out of your story with preventable verbal tics. Get them fixed or I won't pick up your next book--my Kindle's too valuable to slam it into the wall!
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6 comments:
I think I've mentioned before that I tend to start every other sentence with the word "so" and I include the word "just" several times in each paragraph. I let it go on until the first draft is done. Then I do a search JUST SO I can remove them!
It's hard to be aware of your tics as a writer but once you know 'em, they gotta go.
Laura, "s/he'd not" would drive me nuts too. You're right, of course. Her editor should have spotted this.
My worst habit has to do with punctuation,not language. Ellipses appear like mouse droppings on every page.
Oh, Terrie, "just" is my downfall, too, along with "very".
Anita, I'm not so much an ellipse gal, but the em dashes slash through my prose until I weed them out.
Like Terrie I am free with just and so but I try hard to keep that stuff out of the final draft. Though if I'm honest my grammar is horrendous.
While collaborating on a YA paranormal I've noticed that the 'queen' of the magical people speaks in stilted phrases like the one you mention, Laura. We're in first draft so I know they'll get weeded out, but meanwhile it's like nails on a chalkboard. Must have a chat with my collaborators.
I'm a "so" and "just" girl. Weird thing is as a copy sub by day they're the first words I slash. But when you're writing you "just" have to write.
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