Comments on: Gobbledygook

By: Shelley Munro

Shelley Munro — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:41:34 +0000

Christina – that’s another good point about pronunciation. I hate not knowing how to pronounce a word or name. It really jerks me out of the story.

By: Shelley Munro

Shelley Munro — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:39:34 +0000

Kaye – incorporating explanations into dialogue is a good way of doing it, as long as the explanation is fairly simple that is.

Amy – good idea. That gives a “foreign” type feel yet is easy for the reader to understand.

Nancy – world building isn’t that terrifying. Every book includes world building to some extent, no matter if it is historical, sci-fi or contemporary.

By: Shelley Munro

Shelley Munro — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:36:28 +0000

Eleni – I think JR Ward does it well. It’s fairly easy to understand the language she uses. I personally don’t like glossaries, although a lot of readers find them useful. I prefer to have things simplified and hate to stop to look something up.

Voronda – there’s one writer I read who uses a lot of made-up words etc. Although I enjoy her books, it always takes me a good chapter to get into the story and gain my footing. A chapter is about my limit. If I’m not grounded by then, I give up and move onto the next book.

By: Christina Phillips

Christina Phillips — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:33:05 +0000

I tend to aim on the lighter side if i need to mention technical jargon, and also use names that are easy to pronouce – I find if I’m reading and characters have very strangely spelt names, I trip over them and it can jerk me from the story. I’m also lucky with my CPs as if something doesn’t make sense or is incomprehensible to anyone who doesn’t live inside my brain, they are very quick to point it out to me!!

By: Nancy Henderson

Nancy Henderson — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:08:53 +0000

I love reading about new worlds, different sets of rules for that world. World building in writing is always terrifying for me, but then somehow it always works out. I’m still not sure how that is yet. LOL

By: Amy Gallow

Amy Gallow — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:25:05 +0000

I foreignize names by spelling them differently–Dale becomes Dael, Cameron becomes Kamran, etc., whilst technical jargon is established contextually or is self explanatory.
World building on the other hand fascinates me, allowing me to play the game of “What if?” with enough technical understanding to make my guesses feasible.
I enjoy it, and hope my readers do too.

By: Kaye Manro

Kaye Manro — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:41:45 +0000

I totally agree with what you are saying, Shelley. I write a bit of sci fi too. So far, I’ve tended to go light on the foreign words, but do have a just little science type jargon, mostly to set the scenes and for effect. (What the heck is a particulate eradicator anyway? My hero answers that for the heroine in dialogue.) I always thought that overdoing unknown words and language (even typical science fiction type words) wouldn’t work unless explained or made clear in the context of the story. After all, we are trying to add flavor, not confuse the reader. And as a reader, I don’t like to be thrown out of the story by odd words/language. Just the right touch is best in my opinion. I’ve also seen this overuse of language and words in some historical fiction as well, and it pulls me right out of the story.

Thanks for this great post. Now I’m off to read Interplanetary Love and Fallen Idol Can’t believe I missed those!

By: Voronda

Voronda — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:52:09 +0000

I agree with Eleni a writer that provides a glossarie in every book is invaluable. I love Ward,Dane, Franklin, Leigh,Feehan and others that actually explain to you how things work in real time or there is an explanation of the word or the world is invaluable. If I am in 2028 what happened to earth as I know it? How does the new world fuction and what the heck is a nometer? If the book is confusioning I soon put it down

By: Eleni Konstantine

Eleni Konstantine — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:00:25 +0000

I love world-building and I love making up new names for people and places. But so it can be understood, I give a word that can be interpreted in context. I always think of Star Trek where they throw references – you are as snarky as a blah blah blah. And you know the blah blah blah is snarky, even though you don’t know what that is. I love glossaries in front of books like JR Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series.