Crystal Sunshyne
Member
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You don't have to apologize for that :) It's definitely not your fault that English lacks the perfect commonly accepted singular animate gender neutral pronoun. There are invented pronouns like 'zie' (which personally I enjoy because I have a fondness for invented words -- actually now that I think of it, aren't all words invented? Or at least the evolved forms of previously invented words?) but in formal writing I suppose, unless there were a gender neutral sense in which to use 'he' or 'she', your choice is between 'it' and 'they. As you mentioned, both have disadvantages: 'they' implies plurality, while 'it' is generally used for inanimate things. You could consider choosing one pronoun in order to be consistent throughout the story, but I can't say which one would be better so maybe it's fine to alternate as you are doing. It might cause the occasional slightly confusing sentence like this one though: quote:
Since they had appeared in the boy's room, it figured that it had something to do with him. There may be a better way to phrase this so 'it' is less grammatically ambiguous. Also, here: quote:
Its form was vaguely humanoid, though entirely white in appearance and glowing with a faint light. It couldn't be told whether they were male or female; their hair You have a sentence that starts with 'its', referring to the being, just before a sentence that begins with the abstract 'it'. Maybe it's clear enough as it is, but it could be something to consider rewording. The other thing I was going to mention was the reflexive pronoun, but actually I think the way you used 'themselves' is good. (Trying not to think about 'themself', which I'm sure a grammarian would disapprove of... Why are all the options that make the most sense non-standard?) So I may have overthought this a little... Sorry it took me a while to get back to you. Anyway, mostly what bothered me wasn't anything about the way you wrote but just the way English grammar deals with this subject in general. I hope you keep writing because I would like to learn more about word/world traveling and find out if Alex is able to bring back something real for his sister :)
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