Quote:
Originally Posted by WPotocki
How many people do you know that speak like Shakespeare? Yeah, me, neither.
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HA! You got me laughing good on that one. No s**t people don't speak like that. Sit in a busy diner and listen.
I've had one other challenge, too, which is a first-person narrator. It gets tricky -- the narration IS that character's thoughts. Make him 'think' like Shakespeare, and well, the dude is out of character, eh?
You're right -- not one neat reason, or answer to all problems with prose.
I boil it down to clarity. If the result is incomprehensible (or a gross usage mistake like its for it's, etc.) then the sentence needs to be rewritten. But not just because it's funky. In fiction, we call that "flavor" sometimes. And a bland casserole lacking any spices, is well, boring. The last thing we want. Technical or academic documents can be as boring as they like, and they often are, putting most of us to sleep unless we really dig the subject. You can't get away with that in fiction. Bore the reader and it's all over.