Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2014-11-10 06:27 pm
tenlittlebullets) wrote2014-11-10 06:27 pm
Entry tags:
Dialogue pet peeves I didn't even realize I had until just now
(Archived from a Tumblr post at http://shinelikethunder.tumblr.com/post/102251767226/dialogue-pet-peeves-i-didnt-even-realize-i-had)
- The Winter Soldier gets like half a dozen very short lines in the entire movie that’s named after him, and even that is enough to tell that he doesn’t talk like a robot. Or a small child. JFC.
- Sam Wilson doesn’t speak fluent DSM-IV when he’s bonding with Steve over their Shared Life Experiences, no matter how traumatic those experiences might’ve been. He speaks plain old everyday English. He talks about beds that are too soft and being stuck there just to watch your wingman go down in flames and figuring out how to carry the stuff you’ve brought back with you. He talks about the shit that terms like ‘traumatic’ were coined to describe. This is probably why Steve bonds so easily with Sam. It’s definitely why turning Sam into the Designated Avengers Therapist robs him of a lot of his charm: once he’s tossing around terms like trauma and triggers and ~boundaries~ and giving everyone glib advice on how to proceed, he loses the show-don’t-tell angle that made him so approachable in the first place.
- On a related note, if you’re looking for a way to avoid the “making Sam’s existence all about Steve and Steve’s problems” pitfall, canon actually hands you a pretty good one. Sam doesn’t get Steve to open up by poking and prodding at him. He offers up bits of his own life that he thinks Steve might be able to relate to. He’s not even really trying to get anyone to open up, at least not for its own sake–what he’s doing is seeking out common ground, and he does it by opening up about some of his own problems and experiences when he suspects the response might be “holy shit, me too.”
#the more i run into it and the more i think about it #the more i want to dig my heels in and just say it: #psych terminology porn IS YOUR ENEMY AS A WRITER #IT IS THE ULTIMATE IN TELLING NOT SHOWING #write about the messy individual human experiences those terms were coined to describe
- The Winter Soldier gets like half a dozen very short lines in the entire movie that’s named after him, and even that is enough to tell that he doesn’t talk like a robot. Or a small child. JFC.
- Sam Wilson doesn’t speak fluent DSM-IV when he’s bonding with Steve over their Shared Life Experiences, no matter how traumatic those experiences might’ve been. He speaks plain old everyday English. He talks about beds that are too soft and being stuck there just to watch your wingman go down in flames and figuring out how to carry the stuff you’ve brought back with you. He talks about the shit that terms like ‘traumatic’ were coined to describe. This is probably why Steve bonds so easily with Sam. It’s definitely why turning Sam into the Designated Avengers Therapist robs him of a lot of his charm: once he’s tossing around terms like trauma and triggers and ~boundaries~ and giving everyone glib advice on how to proceed, he loses the show-don’t-tell angle that made him so approachable in the first place.
- On a related note, if you’re looking for a way to avoid the “making Sam’s existence all about Steve and Steve’s problems” pitfall, canon actually hands you a pretty good one. Sam doesn’t get Steve to open up by poking and prodding at him. He offers up bits of his own life that he thinks Steve might be able to relate to. He’s not even really trying to get anyone to open up, at least not for its own sake–what he’s doing is seeking out common ground, and he does it by opening up about some of his own problems and experiences when he suspects the response might be “holy shit, me too.”
#the more i run into it and the more i think about it #the more i want to dig my heels in and just say it: #psych terminology porn IS YOUR ENEMY AS A WRITER #IT IS THE ULTIMATE IN TELLING NOT SHOWING #write about the messy individual human experiences those terms were coined to describe
no subject
It's not because I believe in the sanctity of psych lay ignorance or compliance; I'm perfectly willing to write justified or unjustified distrust for psych professionals. But I can't really imagine writing a character who is diagnosed with a specific label, or even labels symptoms.
I probably just like the process of characters trying to fit words that shouldn't have ever had to cover a situation to it too much. The suffering-in-confusion angst is my favorite thing. See: Bucky saying "You were a soldier too" to Steve in my latest WIP. Like, no bb, Steve did not have that done to him!
I remember a Bucky recovery type fic that used psych terminology well, and it was specifically about the process of discovering words for things. I don't remember what it was called. I look up "bucky 'worry stone' site:archiveofourown.org" and find that it is lilies with full hands by the inimitable refusals. I think it retains its impact because it uses the psych terminology as a sort of... resting place on the journey, rather than using it to describe or stand in for the journey itself.
Idk, I'm probably getting off topic, but, fuck, mental illness narratives. They're the shit.