Libby

Pix and Gabe are brilliant, 100% delightful characters who will entice any reader. Well done, Kate! I’m looking forward to reading The Shadow Deception.

Thank you, Ath.

Thank you for sorting this out, Ath. It has made me think more carefully about verbs 🙂

In the end, voice is probably the most important thing. If the character or narrator would use a linking verb, there should be one included.

I wondered if the transitive quality of accustomed was playing a part but couldn’t get my head round whether it was or not. This is where my thin knowledge of grammar fails me. I’m also easily lost when having to consider how one word can fulfil different grammatical functions which might overlap.
With accustomed, maybe it comes down to how an…[Read more]

I sympathise!

I’ll stay sitting on this fence 🙂
And I’ll chuck in a quote. ‘The ear is not accustomed to exercise constantly its functions of hearing, it is accustomed to stillness.’
J. Ruskin, Modern Painters vol. I. 60
Lucky Ruskin.

In which ‘opened to darkness’ is adjectival. Sometimes you want a straightforward active verb and sometimes you don’t.

My eyes opened to darkness.
My eyes were opened to darkness.

But I think there could be a grammar question in there, Ath. This is where I show my uncertainties about active v passive but accustomed on its own is active. In a compound with an auxiliary verb it’s more passive I think. ‘My eyes became accustomed.’ The OED says, ‘In passive use sometimes approaching the stative adjective; cf. accustomed adj.’

I don’t think it has a problem though it perhaps sounds old fashioned, which could be the intention. In a contemporary story I’d be more likely to say, ‘As my eyes adapted to …’.

Being a bit Zen seems to be the way to approach them. Relaxed but focused? Though I’ve yet to achieve this with a pitch.