Being a Better Writer: References and Pop Culture · 3:29pm May 9th, 2017
Hello readers, and welcome back to another post of Being a Better Writer, coming to you bright and early this Tuesday morning.
Yeah, Tuesday. Mondays shifts at my part-time job again. Just a fair heads-up, I’ve got a Monday shift next week too, so next week’s BaBW post will also be delayed. It happens. And I need the money, so …
Oh, and I apologize in advance if this post seems a little scatter-brained. I’ve not been sleeping well lately, and that’s probably had a detrimental effect on my writing.
Right. Back to the topic at hand. Which is a request topic from one of you readers! And an interesting one at that, one I wouldn’t have likely come to on my own. See, this reader asked after right and wrong ways to do pop culture references in a book. And while yes, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about this … it’s not a topic I would have thought to discuss until it was posed!
This is why reader questions are always good to hear. Sometimes there’s just a topic I wouldn’t have ever considered on my own, but someone else has. And in this case, it’s a topic that’s worth talking about.
So, references and pop culture … Where do we start? Well, how about some definitions and clarifications for those who aren’t quite certain what I mean when I talk about these terms?
Head on to check your references at Unusual Things
Hm, this does raise an interesting question regarding the fourth wall you may want to take a crack at. Essentially, it boils down to one word:
media.comicbook.com/2016/09/deadpool-poster-198257-1280x0.jpg
How do characters like him who completely shatter the normal rules work, and how can you make use of it if you feel so inclined? You might also want to generalize it to other rulebreakers like Q since the fundamentals of the problem seem similar at least on the surface, although that might wind up being more material than you can deal with in one blog post.