And Now a Gripe

[alaterdate]

People who read on AO3 tend to say things like "I back out of a fic if there's SPAG issues and especially if the paragraphs are too dense." (I read a lot of fandom secrets. I have seen this sentiment on so many secrets about AO3.)

I simply do not understand this sentiment and also I am offended as the king of typos and as a long paragraph enjoyer. Honestly ever since I started using that site I've had difficulty with trying to format my writing into the site's "style." I dislike breaking up my paragraphs. Sometimes a thematic idea spans more than just a few lines, okay.

Not that I'm going to post it on AO3 (for reasons beyond this post), but I'm editing a fic right now and I still keep thinking about where to chop it up. There are perfectly good reasons to divide lines, one of them not being because it's "too long."

Relatedly-ish. I cannot stand the way French novels do dialogue. Why is the actual dialog and the tags and/or actions in one ambiguous long line (Yes, yes, the tenses delineate I know, I just don't clock them that quickly). (Maybe it's also a newer style or just with translations that there's no guillemets? Emmanuel Carrère's La Moustache has guillemets, but I haven't seen them in other books so far.) It drives me crazy. However, I'm not a little weak ass about it.

I have made it a mission to bring this frustration to English readers in another fic I am working on where when they talk in French I am going to use this horrible style of punctuation. Also not gonna post that one on AO3, but to anyone who would absolutely hate this and leave I have but one response:

— Then perish, I say as the room is suddenly tinted red. Your focus is brought to the look of apathy in my eyes. Die mad about it.

Comments

[kalloway]

— Then perish, I say as the room is suddenly tinted red. Your focus is brought to the look of apathy in my eyes. Die mad about it.

That's beautiful.

[alaterdate]

Thank you <3

[javert]

I know this is kind of an old post, but as a native French speaker I had a good laugh reading it 😭 I feel you!!! As someone who wrote in English almost exclusively for a while and only got back to writing in French a couple of years ago. I'd gotten so used to formatting English dialogue, I'd forgotten how weird French dialogue works... My strongest gripe is that you can't have characters do things in the middle of talking without going to a new line, otherwise it becomes too confusing to follow. At the same time, I kind of like the simplicity of the em-dash and nothing else... Très épuré, as they say...

Re: the guillemets situation, maybe you've figured this out since then so feel free to disregard this part if so! It indeed is the old style of punctuating dialogue. I have gripes about this way too, though, and I know other French people do also. The one I usually see people get stuck on is that punctuation in dialogue goes outside the guillemets, which looks absolutely weird and wrong!! Like what the hell is this:

« Comment ça va ? demanda Sophie.
— Très bien », répondit Jean.

(Ignore my horrible improvised dialogue attempt, LMAO.) Doesn't that look incorrect??? TBH it's for that reason that I personally stick to the dashes only... You get used to it after a while. Just need to train yourself to think about writing dialogue differently...

Anyway. Good luck with French o7

[alaterdate]

I'm glad I could give you a laugh!

you can't have characters do things in the middle of talking without going to a new line, otherwise it becomes too confusing to follow

The novel I was reading when I made this post didn't make a new line for actions! It even just put actions of other characters into someone's dialogue line 😭. It might be because it's a translation tho.

Here's an example:

— Votre Majesté Impériale, commença le chancelier Henri Morrac. D'un geste, Célène leur enjoignit de se redresser. Nous sommes honorés de votre visite.

It threw me off whenever there were lines like this. But I persist.

That does look pretty weird with the guillemets 😲 This bit », looks kinda ugly lmao. The dashes are definitely more fashionable; I do love em dashes. I also started reading a novel originally written in French & it does separate actions with a line break, which is easier to read, but I do see how you lose the mid-dialogue actions so common in modern English fiction. Thank you for the insights & the luck!

[javert]

I will admit I haven't read novels in French in a looong time at this point (I completely fell off reading, alas... I should get back to it...) but it doesn't really surprise me that they would do this, especially for translations... It's way too confusing, though 😭 I'd rather go to a new line even if it breaks the flow of the action...

Yeah, the comma right outside the guillemet is just so bad. I know French fic writers who otherwise are very strict about following grammar and orthography rules but will ignore that one lmao. I remember when I first got back into writing French, I always had to double check where to put commas and other punctuation when using guillemets... I still do TBH. French has so many rules...