Who am I Reading About?

This happens more often than it should. I'll read a short story that's supposed to portray some kind of romantic episode, but I'm left wanting.

Why?

I'll tell you why. The author didn't bother to name her characters. That's right, I endured dialog and action following a pair of pronouns through some scene.

Writers, please, please, please do not do this to your readers. Name your characters, and make them real. Names help to evoke a connection between readers and your characters. Pronouns are just specimens, regarded with aloofness that says: "I'll quit any sentence now, thank you."

I know why you writers make stories with pronouns. I really do. You'd rather not put in the effort it takes to develop your characters. That kind of thought is painful and sometimes self-revealing.

You'd rather not put in that effort, so you write me a story about a couple of pronouns. Let me tell you something. If you can't name your characters and develop them enough to make them real, then you have a couple of options.

One is to quit writing. I don't recommend that.

Another option is write plot-driven stories. Believe me, that's no escape. Even characters in plot-driven stories need names and some development.

There are probably other options, but hey, face it. If you are writing stories about pronouns, think about what you are doing. Give your reader something interesting to read, okay?

A Handy Little Writing Tip: Be Wary of "The"

Practically anyone with editing experience will tell you that one particular noun signal is misused quite often. Of course I am talking about this word: "The".

"A", "an", and "the" are noun signals which have varying degrees of specificity. So often, I see a writer use "the" when he or she should have used "a". Here's an example.

Jack picked up the pencil.

Standing alone, "a" could replace "the" in this sentence, and it might be more accurate. Context, however, may dictate otherwise. If Jack's pencil was mentioned earlier, the example might be correct. This leads to another misuse of our noun signal.

Susan filed the fingernail.

While grammatically correct, the sentence might be more accurate if we replace "the" with "her". Don't use a noun signal if you can use a possessive pronoun instead. As before, context should guide the decision.

Sometimes our nasty little noun signal is used unnecessarily. Look at this example:

The fireworks filled the sky.

We don't need that first instance of "the".

So, if you write, take some of your work and do a search for occurrences of "the". About 30% of the time, you can eliminate the word or change it to something more accurate.