[ SECRET POST #2937 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2937 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 056 secrets from Secret Submission Post #420.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, but on the other hand, if I deliberately write something that could have several meanings but I've missed the most obvious interpretation because I was being too complicated I'd like to know about it before I post.

That's the sort of thing that's impossible to pick up yourself because you're not expecting it. It's not really about catering for three year olds. Just acknowledging that other people read things differently, a factor perhaps being their knowledge level.

[(Anonymous)]

But it's impossible to cater for every single level of knowledge, every single possible interpretation of something. Otherwise you really are bringing your work down to the lowest common denominator, and its quality is going to suffer as a result. Certainly its creativity, its thoughtfulness, its potential.

YMMV, but I don't really care if there are going to be some readers who don't 'get' my work. They'll always exist and even if I send it to a hundred different betas of a hundred different reading and comprehension levels, it'll still fly over someone's head. Plenty do get it, and I'm more than satisfied with that.

[(Anonymous)]

It wasn't so much that it would fly over their heads, but that it would have a completely different meaning to some readers. As a writer, I would want to know, or else I'm the one who would look an idiot.

For example, I'm currently watching Korra, which is all about tribes of benders. In British English "bender" means something completely different than in American English.

You can imagine how the Avatar film played in cinemas here. "You are a great bender like your father before you!" met with many disbelieving titters. Not surprisingly, it didn't do great business.

[(Anonymous)]

But within the context of the universe as it's set up, you accept the different meaning.

Should the writers have used another term just because some Brits (I am one, btw, and never once made the sniggery connection while I was watching ATLA) use the term in a slang context? And which slang context? The gay context? The "going on a bender" context?

You can't cater to everyone. You make your choice for what works for your story.

The Avatar film didn't do good business because it was crap not because all of us were sitting in the audience giggling like ten year olds at "bender".

[(Anonymous)]

DA

This was probably more valuable before people began reading obcsure offence into even the most innocent things. Before people set out looking for things to tear into that simply don't exist.

"It could be interpreted differently" loses all it's value and usefulness when you don't even know whether your critic is genuine or just a militant SJW who's decided to hate you just because your character's last name is White.