martainducreff:writers of the world: please stop using epithets in your writing, trust me “the...

martainducreff:

writers of the world: please stop using epithets in your writing, trust me “the blonde army doctor”, “the curly haired detective”, “the blue-eyed man” etc. do not sound as good in writing as they may sound in your head

instead, use the characters’ names, they’re there for a reason and it’ll make your writing much more crisp, tight, to the point, and still entertaining

Yes, I see this a lot in fan fiction, and when you work with a real editor, that’s the first thing they’d strike. This is not acceptable in nearly any real editing style guide (which I didn’t knew until a few years ago!). Even though it may seem to you that use are using the word ‘John’ or ‘Sherlock’ a lot, to the reader’s mind it is less confusing and becomes nearly invisible.