"He": Options for figuring out who the hell "he" is and what "he" is doing in slash fiction

[tasyfa]

The majority of Green Day fic is slash, and that means that all the pronouns in any given fic are going to be "he". (When written in third person, anyway; it's less complicated in first or second person, obviously.) It can get very confusing very quickly, even more so if it's an OT3 piece! The writer needs to make sure that the reader is certain at

Comments

[blue_midget]

Thanks for this - I find myself using terms like 'bassist' and 'the older man' far too often, even though I know I should avoid it. :/

I'm having problems with dialogue too, my mind goes blank when I try to think about what they would say.

[tasyfa]

Oh I've done it too, honey. lol. I think everyone has, and it's become a fallback when you get stuck. That's why we thought offering some specific other options might be helpful, cos you don't always think about what else you *could* do in the middle.

[bonegardens]

This is very helpful. :)

[luthien123]

Yes, very helpful. All these things frustrate me exceedingly when writing - Oh wow I can't use "he" again, but what the hell can I use instead? What would actually work best for the story?- It's often so easy to be lazy, and so hard to come up with that perfect pronoun replacer. But you gave a lot of great insight, especially with the need for the adjectives and music-related nouns to fit with the story. Works so much better.

Also the bit about description/location is nice. That's another to work on *sigh*. Very helpful. I want to try this writing exercise... though I gotta get the bunnies hoping in that direction.