random fanfic pet peeve...

[ratcreature]

I don't think of myself as a particularly picky reader, but sometimes I'm thrown out of a story by random mistakes in details that don't even matter much for the story. For example I was just reading a HP story, set around Christmas, as so many of them are around this time of year, and quite enjoyed it, only to come across a line where the POV character remarked that is was "past five and getting dark" or something to that effect. But the story takes place in London in the middle of December, so obviously it would already be dark by then, seeing how sunset there would be a bit before four in the afternoon and even with some remaining twilight after sunset that still means it's plain dark after five. And it's not as if you couldn't look up sunrise and sunset times on the net either, if you're unfamiliar with just how little daylight you get in Northern Europe during winter.

I have no idea why errors that aren't even particularly relevant bother me in written fiction, when I can completely overlook things like that places don't look "correct" on tv, like because they filmed in a different location or things like that. I guess it could be that with tv I just accept some built-in limitations, but written words don't have that excuse.

Comments

[catmoran.livejournal.com]

That's the sort of detail that totally wouldn't occur to someone who's lived at more or less the same latitude their whole life.

Getting a beta reader who's familiar with the area(s) the story takes place is invaluable, but not always easy enough to do.

[ratcreature]

But why? I mean, I have lived my whole life in the same place, except for some vacations, and I don't think that sunset during winter in Texas or wherever is as early as here. It is further South, so obviously they have more daylight.

It's not like some local cultural detail or peculiarity that would never occur to you to guess. For example, before seeing it for myself I would have never guessed that salty popcorn was more common than sweet popcorn in movie theaters in the US, because for me "popcorn" meant sweet popcorn with caramelized sugar. Missing that kind of local detail I understand, but not overlooking things that logically have to be different in different places.

[brownbetty]

Well, maybe if you lived on the equator where the length of days doesn't change at all it wouldn't occur to you?

[ban-sidhe.livejournal.com]

But why? I mean, I have lived my whole life in the same place, except for some vacations, and I don't think that sunset during winter in Texas or wherever is as early as here. It is further South, so obviously they have more daylight.

Why? One part ignorance to one part arrogance to one part lack of an experienced beta as little glitches like that can be the hardest to find. Add in that if the writer is an American kid, in my experience, most of them haven't the faintest idea how far north G.Britan is, much less how far away from the equator they are. When I was teaching I was always shocked by how much of what I considered basic and fundamental knowledge seemed to come as a surprise to my students.

[ratcreature]

Okay, I can see how someone could think Britain was further south. In reverse was kind of surprised when I first realized how far south New York is, because it's like about the same latitude as Rome or something, but I expected it to be further north what with being colder in winter and with snow and such, a realiziation that was shortly followed by a moment of "omg, I hope global warming won't damage the gulf stream!!" (and whatever else makes it so nice and cosy here in northern Europe) flailing. *g*

[brownbetty]

I don't know, but I discovered that I could overlook the improbably anatomy and ironmongery in Red Sonja, but the misuse of stirrup technology turned me off completely. I think we all have these things.

[ratcreature]

True, these things are personal quirks. For example I'm usually not bothered by bad physics, even if it's blatant. OTOH looking up the time of a sunset really takes a lot less research than ironmongery, I suspect, so there are different levels of sloppiness too.

Perhaps with this particular thing it's just because I was reading in the afternoon, and it was already dark again, and I was like "hey, you do not get that much daylight at this latitude!" that I was so disgruntled about it... *g*

[brownbetty]

Man, if only it was getting dark at five!