POLL: Grammar 'Distraction' Question

Yeah, that's not me. I went ahead and submitted a DMCA takedown request to webnovel. If you don't mind, report the story, and you can just select spam or something and put the written reason as 'This is not the author' Thanks for letting me know!

Author Kaizer Wolf

Cultivator_nerd_ https://m.webnovel.com/book/innocent-devil's-harem_22745646406299005

Who is the author? Do you have a link? I posted the story up to 14: Chapter 4-3 I believe a while back, but stopped at that point.

Author Kaizer Wolf

Not really relevant to the discussion but are you aware innocent devils harem is getting posted on webnovel?

Lol, yeah, that would annoy me a bit too, though I'd probably just gloss over it if I was enjoying the story. Really just depends how often that kind of thing came up, for me personally, but thankfully that particular word isn't used too often anyway (the need to describe the dragging of something, etc.)

Author Kaizer Wolf

Well, cummed is a word (uncommon spelling of the slang), just not as commonly used in written literature as the word 'came.' As far as real life, in my experience (living in the US), I've mostly heard the actual pronunciation as the person verbally saying 'cummed' in past tense, such as 'She cummed hard' as opposed to 'She came hard.' That being said, check out these three sentences, preferably read it out loud to yourself, and tell me which one sounds most correct to you? 1) She came the hardest she’d ever came in her entire life. 2) She cummed the hardest she’d ever cummed in her entire life. 3) (both) She came the hardest the she’d ever cummed in her entire life. Maybe the first one will still sound right to you, but I feel like if you read it out loud, it begins to sound off (imo).

Author Kaizer Wolf

So I’ve seen both in pretty much equal amounts. But cummed always looks off. It just has this weird false past-tense vibe to it. It looks like it’s fake when I read it.

Justin

Long as you get the tense right, I don't even care which you use

Dakkenblah

On a related note, the only word some authors use that I do find distracting is the use of the word "drug" for the past tense for drag instead of "dragged".

Sam J

I feel like the word distracting is kind of throwing me off of. Honestly I just don’t see why you would ever say cummed instead of came. I just think in my head “ is that even a real word “. For example if I’m talking and someone said that word in place of came I would correct then and then laugh my ass off. That being said the people I imagine talking to in this scenario cannot grow 13’-14’ tall, have magic powers, and a harem of likewise powered women.

Darrion

Makes sense. I do it different than most erotica authors, so that makes perfect sense, considering I'm sure you've seen 'came' a lot more. But then tell me, what have you seen more of in your personal experience? Come, coming, came? Or cum, cumming, came? (asking because there are some who still insist that 'cum' isn't even a word, and that the only correct form is 'come' to mean the noun of semen)

Author Kaizer Wolf

LOL! But they're both 'technically' okay. XD

Author Kaizer Wolf

In regards to 'limiting yourself to keeping in line with what you've always done' -- I'm not saying I do that, or that I won't change something if it's truly wrong. But there are so many things that are actually just 'preference,' and this particular one is my preference (which is why I'm just asking if it's overly distracting or not). Plus, I think that 'cummed' will become more common (though that's purely an opinion). Even just 20 years ago and 'cum' wasn't recognized as a word by most 'authorities' (like dictionaries and writers). Shoot, even 10 years ago, it wasn't really recognized, even though more erotica authors had begun adapting it into their writing. And now, in the 2020's, cum is the preferred word used in writing, though some still use 'come' (and some still insist that 'come' is the only correct way). But in another 10 or 20 years? I'd be willing to bet that you'll see cummed more often, and that everyone will feel like it's more normal than 'came.' But that's a slow process. When most writers are using 'came,' and that's what you're used to seeing, it feels more right. But read erotica written before 2000, and it's a lot of come, coming, came. Anyway, point is, I'm not opposed to changing how I do things if it's truly 'incorrect' (as opposed to preference). And there are actually a lot of 'rules' I break on purpose, in favor of telling a good story. Trust me when I say that if you'd ever seen the very first 200,000 words I wrote, it was horrible (at least in my opinion). My writing style has changed a lot over the years, and I have made plenty of mistakes along the way (that people have pointed out, and caused me to make a change). But with this, I just prefer cummed personally, and just want to make sure it's not distracting to most people.

Author Kaizer Wolf

For me, it’s mostly a “what the-? Oh” kind of thing. It isn’t that it’s too distracting to derail the context of the story, but it does interrupt my train of thought

Justin

You could switch the word you use going forward without editing the past chapters since "cummed" isn't inaccurate, it's just not what many prefer. Limiting yourself to always keeping in line with what you've always done will limit your growth as an author, which seems like a much bigger deal in cases like this.

hawkshe .

Now, if you had regularly used, for example, "irregardless" in place of "regardless" or "irrespective," *that* I would have found distracting.

Termac

I probably won't switch to anything different either way (especially since I'd have to go back and change the whole story in order to keep it consistent). Rather, I just wanted to make sure my use wasn't distracting (which, so far, it's looking like most people don't mind or otherwise just don't care). My only goal is to tell a good story, hence the question. So long as it's not distracting, and doesn't hinder the story, then I'm just going to go with the same use.

Author Kaizer Wolf

Right. I've seen a lot of come, coming, came, as well as cum, cumming, came -- it's very common. I'm more asking about that second part you said: Is it distracting? (which you did answer) My main goal is to tell a good story. And to do that, I break a lot of 'traditional rules' writers are 'supposed' to follow, because all I care about is telling a good story. Thus, in favor of that goal, all I care about in this sense is just ensuring that I'm not doing something that his highly distracting to most people (so far, it's looking like most don't care, which is about what I expected).

Author Kaizer Wolf

It ultimately depends on the tone when you are writing. If there is a spot that seems wrong, but works, just use the common baseline like ‘came’ and it won’t be too jarring. It actually might help the tone and prose.

Witherdale

That's perfectly fine. I'm not asking so much about preference. I'm asking if it's distracting when you read, or if you're like 'whatever, this is fine, what's next?' as you're going through a chapter.

Author Kaizer Wolf

Prefer ’came’ Cum, cumming, came.

Witherdale

I'm more used to seeing cum/cumming/came too, but I don't really mind if anyone uses something else, so long as it stays in the appropriate tense and doesn't change every other sentence.

Sh4doo

"Cummed" doesn't bother me too much, but I prefer "came" in the past tense, with cum/cumming in the other ones. I find "come/coming" so much worse though, so please do not switch to those.

hawkshe .