Things to beware #2: Murmuring

[thistlechaser]

Okay, writers of the world, I missed a memo somewhere, didn't I? For some reason "murmur" is now the in thing to do? Doesn't matter if it's appropriate or not, we should just shove it in everywhere we can?

One of those not-zombie trilogy books I read a couple weeks back, the girl addressed her army in a murmur. They heard her to the back ranks.

Book after book, fanfic after fanfic, characters are murmuring endlessly, and murmuring or whispering where it does not fit at all. Is it supposed to lend a dramatic air to things?

Fanfic I'm reading now, two grown men are in a fistfight. During it, one murmured to the other "Fuck you!". This fanfic is written with someone who has a strong grasp of physics (or at least can fake it well), she has to know what murmur means!

Be loud, be proud! Don't murmur unless it fits the scene!

Comments

[kriatyrr.livejournal.com]

If it is even possible to murmur "fuck you" it certainly isn't possible to murmur it with an exclamation mark.

I can't remember when I last read a book where someone didn't hear someone else due to how they were speaking. Everyone has superhuman hearing in books these days. ::sigh::

and I prefer to have subtitles on movies that are in languages I understand. Not that I need a translation, I just can't always hear what they are saying.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd love to see that in a story! Sometimes I have trouble hearing someone speaking in a normal tone of voice, let alne if they murmured!

Blah.

[teslanomaly]

Inigo Montoya said it best. "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means!"

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

In the case of the girl leading the army, yeah, I'd buy that.

In the case of this fanfic, I've read 40 chapters so far (about two book), and no one had murmured once. I don't recall even a whisper (or if there was a whisper, not out of place). Starting with chapter 41, everyone is whispering or murmuring! I swear, there really must have been a memo.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

That's rather like Captain Aubrey murmuring his orders during a storm or a battle.

Love, C.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha, yes. The problems go pretty high up!