![]() ![]() 'Who turned out the lights?' Tom asked darkly. 'I don't know what groceries to buy,' Tom said listlessly. 'Careful with the chainsaw,' Tom said offhandedly. 'Lay your guns down,' Tom said disarmingly. 'I'm no good at darts,' Tom said aimlessly. 'Will you lend me your pencil sharpener?' Tom asked bluntly. Some examples I've come across from others include the following. Tom Swifties are a great fun way of sharpening our wit, and perhaps if we come up with enough of them, it might help us to weed out our own speech tags and adverbs, seeing how silly they are when taken to the extreme. The mood should be evident from what was said, without having to tell us that it was spoken snidely, sincerely, tearfully, mournfully or any other way. We simply don't need to be spoon fed the way in which a character delivers dialogue. They handicap a story to snail pace as our eyes skim over the page. Many editors now advise us to use them sparingly. The art of the Tom Swifty came to include adverbs, which were also way over-used in the stories. ![]() 'I've decided to come back to the group,' Tom rejoined. 'There are one hundred lollies in the jar,' Tom recounted. Nowadays, decent editors recommend that writers simply use 'said.' The fact that Tom Swift authors were teased about not doing so proves the point.Īnyway, the critics of Tom Swift started parodies of the way the characters spoke, turning sentences into double meaning puns. It's a gem, which enables readers' attention to flow and not be jarred from the story with every line of dialogue. It's not a sign of laziness and lack of creativity. They never twigged what a neat little word 'said' is. Even I remember my Primary School class being told by teachers to think of something more descriptive than 'said'. No doubt the authors thought this assortment of words added colour to their stories. He declared, stammered, barked, exclaimed, sobbed, ejaculated, grinned, mumbled and sang, just for a start. They were better businessmen than authors, because the books were poked fun at by readers for the variety of speech tags they put in their hero's mouth. ![]() Down the track, a variety of authors were employed to keep churning them out. Different authors, including Edward Stratemeyer himself, sat at their desks creating Tom Swift stories. Ostensibly written by an author named Victor Appleton, they came from the E.L. He was a young scientist who had adventures with the technology he created. Tom Swift was the hero of a series of dime novels published early in the twentieth century. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |