Quote:Inquisitive Raven wrote:All manner of misused words in the mouth of a non-character narrative voice will bounce me completely out of my SOD. And the wrong slang/informal speech for the culture will do it just as fast. Your Harry Potter example is very typical of what sets me off -- I'm very familiar with what British speech patterns of all social levels sound like, and Potter kids talking like Americans is a fail as far as I'm concerned. In addition to the "Harry Potter advice" section of my writer's guide, I've also been working up a general Britspeak guide for these situations -- 18K and counting -- but it's not ready for primetime yet.
The Winchester brothers would not refer to the storage compartment at the rear of the Impala as the "boot." Harry Potter characters would not use "pissed" to mean "angry" or "upset" and they definitely wouldn't use the phrase "pissed off." I've seen both. Ironically, the Potter example was a BTVS crossover, and the phrase was never used by or applied to the main BTVS character, the only character who could be expected to use "pissed" in that way. Yeah, the third person narrative voice used the phrase.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.