Nathan Bransford - The Forums

When/how are these appropriate/inappropriate?

(Area I am looking closely at today.)

To be or not to be: that is the question.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

I really tried.

Ah gosh shucks, that's a tough call. In my sense of useful to be verb usages many narrative attributes are implicated. For instance, overt or covert narrator or somewhere in between, subjective or objective attitude holder or somewhere in between, close or remote narrative distance or somewhere in between, singular or multiple reader surrogates, perception or cognition internally to a narrative or from an external frame or somewhere in between, and the recitation of tell--diegesis--or make believe reporting of events from within a narrative's internal setting, or show--mimesis.

Examples: If a covert narrator reports Darius is a softhead, then it's a recitation given by the narrator, it's perhaps a tell from an external attitude holder's frame of reference. If a viewpoint character is the attitude holder who says Darius is a softhead, then it's a covert narrator's report given as if from within the narrative's framework, thus a show depicting an aural sensation. All of the above are implicated in those examples.

I only use 'em if nothin' else is working works.

I prefer to avoid them when I can. They lend themselves to telling instead of showing, can easily slip into passive voice, and generally have less impact than other verbs.