Bearieblues - Waves In March

In writing, epithets ("the taller man"/"the blonde"/etc) are inherently dehumanizing, in that they remove a character's name and identity, and instead focus on this other quality.

Which can be an extremely effective device within narration!

They can work very well for characters whose names the narrator doesn't know yet (especially to differentiate between two or more). How specific the epithet is can signal to the reader how important the character is going to be later on, and whether they should dedicate bandwidth to remembering them for later ("the bearded man" is much less likely to show up again than "the man with the angel tattoo")

They can indicate when characters stop being as an individual and instead embody their Role, like a detective choosing to think of their lover simply as The Thief when arresting them, or a royal character being referred to as The Queen when she's acting on behalf of the state

They can reveal the narrator's biases by repeatedly drawing attention to a particular quality that singles them out in the narrator's mind

But these only work if the epithet used is how the narrator primarily identifies that character. Which is why it's so jarring to see a lot of common epithets in intimate moments-- because it conveys that the main character is primarily thinking of their lover/best friend/etc in terms of their height or age or hair color.

Something coquettish 🕊️ 💕

May Prompts 🌺

Word prompts to use for doodling or writing

strawberries

adventure

golden hour

lake house

picnic

mayflower

nostalgia

homecoming

juice box

farmer’s market

morning light

birdsong

drive-in theater

island

photographs

riptide

coffee-to-go

tree house

instrument

cerulean

porch

animal shelter

lemonade

potted plant

spirit

milkshake

orchids

field

petrichor

sketching

memory lane

Bothersome beast, comforting friend

u get me. i hope u stick around:)

Falling Stars Observed from the Balloon, illustration by Albert Tissandier for the second edition of James Glaisher's Travels in the Air, 1871

summer moments

strolling thru the streets of bali, may 2023

𝙷𝚞𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎