Things That Annoy Me, But Shouldn't

Okay, I understand if it serves a purpose within the story logic, but The Handmaid's Tale contains no psychic conversation.

 

As opposed to thinking out loud, I suppose. It does seem redundant when you point it out though.

 

To me, "she thought out loud" is just as silly, because if the character is speaking, then it's no longer a thought. There are other more interesting verbs to use like "mused" which kind of implies the same thing, right?

I can understand "said to herself" or something similar, because one can speak to oneself or to others. I don't know. It's just always stood out to me as a silly addition. I'm sure, though, if I looked at the horrendous work of my past, I'd find some examples of it.

 

I started reading this book a few months back and was blown away by Atwood's almost poetic prose - her writing is so beautiful it almost distracts from the story. Unfortunately my love of fiction died about a quarter of the way through and I never finished it.

That said I do agree the expression is a poor one.

 

I have an old-school Erotica that is a pain to get through.
Mainly for how the author has no idea how an erection works.
Long, hard, and floppy? Yep not going to take this serious in
the slightest, even if it involves a poor Jewish lady in a Nazi
camp. That description of a cock is just sad and laughable.

 

Per the Wikipedia article on John Holmes:

 

Redundant or not, it is a commonly used expression. "He thought" just kind of hangs there if you're in close third and it's how the character would phrase it.

 

It all really does come down to food, sex, and booze in this place, doesn't it? And as a subset, porn.

ETA: I don't find it annoying, BTW.

 

And loofahs. Don't forget loofahs.

 

...which interestingly came up in a dirty discussion.

 

Of course, you wouldn't use one if you were already clean, would you?

 

Well I know lots of stuff about Metal, but alas it is not so popular
a topic of discussion. Gotta love a guitar tuned to A.

 

What do you mean it just hangs there? I'm genuinely confused. How is it any different from he said, he asked, he laughed, he grinned, he mused, etc.?

 

There's a difference between grammatically correct and commonly used expressions. Commonly used expressions keep writing from sounding stiff and overly formal, especially when writing conversationally, as in essays or memoir non-fiction, or in close third in fiction. Suggested reading: The Grammar Book for You and I Oops Me.

I say hangs "unfinished" because the commonly used expression in some regions is "thought to myself." From a grammatical standpoint, yes, you are correct. But if the narrator or character is from a region where that wouldn't be the phrase that would be used, I always break the rule rather than break character.

ETA; Example: A narrator from the Midwest or South in the US would add the "to myself." It would look strange for that person to just say "thought."

 

A phrase my grandpa uses a lot is, "I thought to myself, I thought, self, [whatever the thought is]." It's a redundant but charming Southernism. But I wouldn't use it in typical narrative, same way I wouldn't use my own propensity to couch concepts in 'like' and 'y'know' and 'kind-of-sort-of'. I think 'thought to myself/himself/etc' might be one of those more voice-specific quirks that's worked its way into less character-focused narratives.

It's this, like, y'know, kinda thing where you might think to yourself, "What am I doing, here, throwing in all these dumb meaningless junk words?" Like, I know it's all just padding, and sure, like it's totally how I talk in the irl. But should I let it infiltrate my like, general stock narrative voice? Iuno. Say I'm writing a Millennial in a really tight, close-in-there POV -- then sure, totally, deploy the super intense character-y narrative with all the junk padding words and rambling it takes to feel appropriate and like, give an impression of that character's sort of thought processes and stuff.

But if I'm not writing a character with that style of distinctive voice ... why would I use "thought to themself"?

And for the record, I'm mostly just thinking aloud, here

 

My mother is pure Midwest, but she does that doubling thing all the time. "So Jennifer says to me, she says 'I think we should have pie."

 

Oh, yeah, I've definitely heard that kind of thing elsewhere. It's the addition of that one more 'self' that I've never heard anyone but my grandpa do. "I said to myself, I said, self, we should have some pie." To be fair, it might just be that he's much more likely to be talking to himself than anyone else ...

 

Out of universe references to Coruscant.

It's Trantor, dammit.

 

@big soft moose , that should annoy you. Annoys me, too. By slapping that paint on what had been a lovely piece of furniture, they've completely stripped it of its future value as an antique and raised the prices on unaltered pieces...which we now have to search harder for.

 

My mom got an old piano from the neighbors when I was a kid. Spent the best part of a summer stripping the crappy cracked white paint off of it and re-staining the wood. Looked gorgeous when she was done.

 

When I'm working my butt off at work and have to bring my kids with me and they keep telling me that they are bored. I wish I was bored!!! But I'm too busy working my fingers to the bone! Now get a damn imagination and find something to do for the love of God!!!!! Haha. Actually it annoys me when anyone tells me they are bored. It shouldn't, but it does. It just seems like a spoiled attitude to have.

 

We need a sister forum to this one... Things that Annoy me and Should annoy you as well... such as the Trump forum.

 

Ach, I post here - and for a while and not very successfully - I posted elsewhere. But from Wednesday they are, the other place, are making it a closed forum and charging £30 a month. Can you believe £30 a month?

They attract an older demographic, and promote workshops 'publish your novel' that kind of stuff for the over 40s, edging vanity press...but £30 a month? Money in CW, I dunno, charlatans.