Read the disclaimer before you comment; any comments being argumentative or referring to things I already covered in the disclaimer will be deleted.

This chapter includes... 3 pet peeves

These pet peeves are my opinion, so please don't be distraught if these apply to you. I'm not saying they're objectively wrong, these are just things in stories that bother me.

1.

Okay, I have a huge pet peeve when it comes to worldbuilding.

And that pet peeve is when an author blurs out the name of a place instead of just saying a place or making up a name.

I.e.,

"Meet me at xxxx restaurant."

It makes me so mad. It takes me out of the story and is so unnecessary. Literally just smash your keys to get a random word and that's a better solution than blurring it out.

Blurring it out breaks immersion. You're not going to dox anyone if you mention a restaurant in Germany, or in Korea, or in America. It's simply good worldbuilding when you give places names. It gives them more distinction and meaning, even if they're only in the story for a single scene.

It comes off as lazy when the author doesn't come up with something or Google a restaurant that is in the area the main characters are living.

Not only does it take five seconds tops, but it doesn't even need to be real. You can make up the most random, obnoxious name that has ever blessed the Earth, but it's still better than blurring out the name.

Just think of Hawkins from Stranger Things. That's not a real place, the writers made it up. Imagine if instead it was called "xxxx town in xxxx state." Do you see why that would break immersion? You're also missing out on interesting names that might become iconic. Just look at Hawkins now, it's referenced everywhere!

2.

Another pet peeve is language.

I'm sure based on my name, you can tell I am a BTS fan. My readers already know this, but those coming from other avenues may not.

I read a lot of BTS fanfics. I cannot tell you how many times authors have used Korean wrong, or used Korean in a weird way.

For example, the book will take place in South Korea, but only sometimes they're speaking Korean.

What?

And it's never explained why the characters sometimes speak Korean and sometimes speak English. Obviously this doesn't apply to all BTS fics, but there are so many that use Korean likely to make it sound better or look more aesthetic or to be "true" to the people they're writing about (BTS).

Dude, it's fiction. You don't need to make it realistic. Especially when 9 times out of 10, the Korean is wrong.

Let me give a better example.

So let's say Story A is a BTS fanfic following the boys in Seoul, South Korea. The book is written in English, so naturally, everything is in English. Except for certain words.

And no, I don't mean words like 형 (hyung), which sound the same in English. Hyung is a term for "older brother," so it is a term used specifically by younger men talking to older men.

For example, Jungkook calls every member of BTS "hyung" because he is younger than all of them.

But hyung isn't what I mean.

I mean words like 엄마 (eomma) and 안녕하세요 (annyeonghaseyo).

My guys, mom in English is not eomma. Hi in English is not annyeonghaseyo. Hyung is still hyung in English since it's a very specific term.

If sometimes the characters are saying "Hi," but other times they're saying 안녕하세요, do you see why it doesn't make much sense? It's one thing if it's explained, but it never is.

Why are they not speaking Korean all the time? When you're using words that sound the same in English, like hyung, it's not a big deal because it sounds the same in English. But if you have one or two Korean words per sentence, and the rest is in English, then it makes me confused. What language are they speaking???? Why are they not speaking Korean in Seoul, South Korea???? 

I'll see sentences like this:

"안녕하세요, my name is Jimin."

When if we were being true to Korean, it would be something like this:

"안녕하세요? 제 이름은 지민입니다."

There are other ways to say what your name is in Korean, but I'm just giving an example. It's the one my 선생님 (seonsaengnim/professor) prefers us to use at the start of every semester.

Or it should just be:

"Hi, my name is Jimin."

Long story short: Annyeonghaseyo sounds completely different from hi. Eomma sounds different from mom. Just write in English and pretend they're speaking Korean, it's fiction, no one's gonna care.

If you don't understand a language and you aren't willing to research it, simply don't use it.

Korean is a language that is deeply rooted in culture. Terms like oppa, hyung, and more are parts of Korean culture.

You risk being disrespectful to Korean culture by using the language without doing an ounce of research on it.

And y'know I encourage people who are actually learning Korean to write in Korean. It helps you learn. The difference is these authors obviously are only using it for aesthetic purposes. I would have no problem with that if the authors did a bit more research on the Korean language. Please just do your research.

I have no interest in giving Korean lessons, but I will say this: remember formality is a thing in Korean. There isn't just one speech style, there are several.

One of the most common errors I see are authors having their characters speak 반말 (banmal/informal speech/half-speech) to people they absolutely should not be speaking banmal to.

If you're going to use Korean, make sure you research the different speech styles first.

Also, I never used rom to learn Korean. My 선생님 never recommended it since she feels rom doesn't quite capture how Korean is pronounced. 

For those who don't know, rom is short for romanization, which is a pronunciation guide for Korean. So for 선생님, the seonsaengnim is the romanization.

If there were any misspells with the rom, please ignore them. I don't have any interest in learning rom, it only messes me up and I don't understand it.

3.

My last pet peeve is exposition dumping.

I'll talk more in-detail about this in my upcoming pacing chapter, but please do not exposition dump.

There are so many amazing ways to give exposition to the audience. The best way, in my opinion, is to do it through dialogue. The best authors give exposition in an intriguing manner that makes you learn multiple things at once in a way that's not overwhelming.

Okay, that was a word sandwich.

Let's break it down.

Exposition dumps tend to be long sections of writing that exist for the sole purpose of giving exposition. This can be done via description or even dialogue.

A recent example is The Idol episode 5, after the time skip and the people are talking. They're just giving exposition so the audience is caught up. It's lazy writing.

The best authors do multiple things at once.

For example, instead of simply saying "His hair was black," you can also compare and contrast his hair with certain things. If he's wearing a dark suit, consider saying, "His hair was as dark as his suit..." It describes two things at once.

When writing, think about how much you can put in one sentence without it feeling like too much.

Exposition is a must for storytelling, but try not to do dumps of it. It bogs the pacing and, quite frankly, it's not interesting.

~End~

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