The other day I was reading something, I forget what now but one of the characters "rolled her eyes" at another character. While I realize this is a standard thing, I still get the image of someone taking their eyes out and rolling them across the floor. And, makes me wonder if the other character caught them and gave 'em back.:-) Remember the pirate with the wooden eye in the movies? His went rolling several times.
Or their eyes met. Did they greet each other and shake little eye hands? Or he held her eyes. Ewwww...
Same thing with throwing body parts. For example, Jane threw her hand into the air. Again, I know what the author means but did she catch it when it came back down and how did she get it off in the first place?
Yes, these are kinda petty and probably more my own personal issues but we're writers. We should be able to say things better.
What do you think? Is it alright for someone to roll their eyes and so forth?
5 comments:
Rolling of the eyes is such a teen thing, though. It's like any description - use it too much and it becomes stale and trite. A little? Sure, go ahead. Just make sure to wipe up the eye juice trail afterwards.
Ha ha...we talk about this a lot in my writer's group. I personally don't mind, as long as it's used in moderation, like anything else.
I think part of the reason people do it is lack of a better way to say it.
Great post...can't wait to hear what other people think.
When I was writing a piece for a writers conference I used "her eyes traveled" and I got a hand slap for that.
I really don't mind the whole eye rolling thing (says someone who rolls her eyes 50 times a day), but when a writer says, "her eyes fell to the floor", that's a bit too far for me. Her gaze, not her eyes fell.
Cheryl
Oh...I forgot the eyes fell to the floor line. Hope they didn't break.:-)
But makes perfect sense when writing from a zombie viewpoint! Lol. Ahem, sorry. I haven't had enough caffeine today.
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