He hoped the Jedi wasn’t in the town, so they could get out of there fast.

i wrote 1000 words over the last 3 days!! hopefully i will keep this up :)

i’ve been thinking about what my problem is with epithets, because i definitely have a problem with them, which is why i basically never use them. an epithet, if you don’t know the fancy words we use to refer to other words, is basically a descriptor that’s used as a stand-in for a name or pronoun. the classic fandom example is “the bluenette”, although maybe that was more widespread ten years ago. or maybe i just read different fic now.

anyway, my problem with epithets comes down to how i think of POV writing. i write almost exclusively in limited third person, which means i use names and pronouns and descriptors like we’re all just standing there watching what’s happening like a movie, but i pick on character to be the POV character and describe them from the inside - how their own body feels rather than how it looks, what they notice about the world around them rather than what’s actually there - and i don’t use any information in narration that they don’t have.

that bit about describing what the POV character notices about the world rather than what’s actually there is where this comes from. when i write in limited third person, i think of it as giving the reader a glimpse into the POV character’s thoughts, just phrased in a slightly more viewer-friendly manner. if the POV character doesn’t actually think of another character in a specific way, then i don’t use it as an epithet. it actually breaks my immersion when other authors don’t follow this rule - i have a way of turning my analytical writer brain off when i’m reading so i can enjoy it regardless of how skilled the author is, but some things i can’t turn off, like noticing misspellings or accidental usage of the wrong word, and epithets. apparently.

using star wars as an example, and i promise i’m not vagueing any author or fic in particular: if a jedi who’s known obi-wan all his life is talking to him, and the narration is using limited third person with the other jedi as the POV character, the use of epithets like “the red-haired man” or “the shorter man” jars me out of the story. epithets that describe physical traits can be useful to the reader, but if it isn’t the first time the characters are meeting, they’re unlikely to be focused on each other’s appearance. in the above scenario, i might use epithets like “the youngster” (since this jedi is older than obi-wan and knew him when he was little), “the [jedi] master” (since this jedi is likely either proud or jealous of obi-wan’s accomplishment in becoming a master at such a young age), or “the general” (i’m sure all the jedi have feelings about becoming generals).

but like i said, i mostly don’t use epithets at all. the narrative purpose i use them for is different than what i think most people use them for - that is to say, distinguishing between who’s saying/doing what in a scene, without overuse of names or pronouns. i get where people are coming from with this, but i actually don’t think it’s possible to overuse names and pronouns. i mean, it’s definitely possible to overuse pronouns alone, causing your readers to lose track of who’s doing what; but pronouns combined with names, i don’t think you can overuse. it’s just like the word “said”, as opposed to other dialogue tags - it communicates the minimum amount of information, and it’s usually “invisible” to the readers, in that they absorb the information it contains and move on without paying any more attention to it. pronouns and names do the same, and readers also tend to kind of skip over them in favor of the more interesting parts of the sentence.

instead, i use epithets to communicate something about the POV character, and about the character they’re interacting with. how does the POV character think about the character they’re interacting with? are they affectionate? derogatory? creepily attentive? respectful? do they not even see this person as a person, but instead as a piece of moving furniture? and the subject of the epithet - how are they acting? is there an unusual element to their appearance? in that same scenario from earlier, the other jedi might use the epithet “youngster” for obi-wan if the context of the interaction is the jedi temple and obi-wan is relaxed and smiling, but they might use the epithet “general” instead if the context is a battle and obi-wan is giving orders and adjusting his armor.

it’s a really small thing, on the whole, how an author uses epithets. i really, genuinely do not hold it against a fanfic author if they’re using epithets in a way i don’t agree with; maybe they’re less skilled at writing than me, or they have less experience, or they’re more experienced and better than me and they’re going for a specific effect. i am so serious about fanfic being a space for people to explore without judgement, no matter if they’re exploring a story or world, an emotion or trauma, or something else entirely. i just. i just have Opinions. about writing. because i’m a writer. it happens.