Snick's cranky writing tip of the day
Dec. 12th, 2010 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snick_backupIt drive me crazy when a character is described as 'snarking.'
See? If the dialogue is actually snarky, then I the reader know without being told; if it isn't, then being told it was just points up the author's failure to deliver and/or self-evaluate. Plus it feels self-conscious, and in most cases self-consciousness in humor is fatal.
Same goes for "she quipped," "he joked," etc. (Except, snark feels even just a little bit worse because it's colloquial and relatively new, which makes it stick out even more.)
"Whenever I'm down in the dumps, I buy a new hat," said Liesel.
"I always wondered where you got those hats," snarked Ettie.
See? If the dialogue is actually snarky, then I the reader know without being told; if it isn't, then being told it was just points up the author's failure to deliver and/or self-evaluate. Plus it feels self-conscious, and in most cases self-consciousness in humor is fatal.
Same goes for "she quipped," "he joked," etc. (Except, snark feels even just a little bit worse because it's colloquial and relatively new, which makes it stick out even more.)
