Mike Cooper's THE DOWNSIDE pubbed last week to great reviews. One of the things that drew me to Mike's work is how he seamlessly integrates compelling details with a high octane plot.
Here's Mike's article in Lit Reactor about making jargon and tech work for you rather than against you in your novel.
8 comments:
Using The *Big* Words: Five Tips On Making Jargon And Tech Work For Your Writing, Rather Than Against It
Vacation AND a bonus post! Loved the article because arcane language has always fascinated me--the insularity we enforce to keep others out of our worlds. His examples were great BTW.
Bravo, Mike Cooper (and Janet Reid).
Yay, a bonus post! Terrific article. Mike's examples were so vivid...something I must make note of in my own writing.
What kind of vacation is this? TWO blog articles?? You should take vacations more often, Your Highness!
Great article from Mike. Thanks for sharing. :)
I almost missed this article, until it showed up in my inbox this morning. Thanks for posting this, Janet. Some really good information here.
Yes, every type of job has its jargon. In real life, though, I hate jargon. Oh, it's fine in the workplace, but never let it out into public. II once worked in communications for a charity. I had a fit when the head of communications actually put a huge headline out about 'making the ask'. That's jargon in charitable work for requesting anything, especially donations. My boss and supervisor both thought it was fine. I thought it was crass and showed charities in a poor light by jargonizing something so emotionally charged.
Thank you! this is a big issue in my current WIP.
For anyone interested in a YA example, Marie Lu's new book Warcross does this quite well too. Lots of coding and video game jargon, but she makes it work.
I was tracking with him until "throw away the thesaurus".
I don't get crazy with it, but it definitely has its uses, such as when I find I have used the same word three times in a paragraph and I've been editing for three hours and I need a another word for "three".
Other than that, I love this. ESPECIALLY the gun bits. That's a pet peeve. So many get it wrong.
"Roger stuck a fresh clip into his fully automatic Glock 19 handgun and then rapidly shot the three escaping looters in the legs, dropping them right where he hit them."
That has enough errors for an entire book in one sentence, but sentences (or scenes) as egregiously broken oft run rampant throughout a novel (or TV show or movie).
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