Alloy of Law Typo list

[PeterAhlstrom he/him]

Many writers consider using anything other than said to be a bad idea, and adverbs are right out. See Elmore Leonard's 10 rules of writing, and "said bookisms."

Edited September 22, 2013 by PeterAhlstrom

[Ete'ni]

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Edited June 10, 2014 by Ete'ni

[PhilV he/him]

One thing I've heard (possibly from Writing Excuses) is that readers typically skip over the dialogue tags anyway, once we figure out who is speaking. So in a way, a different verb or adverb with each one can be distracting. It also goes against "show, don't tell".

But I suppose it's a personal preference. I haven't seen many examples of that in published works.

[Ete'ni]

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Edited June 10, 2014 by Ete'ni

[Kurkistan he/him]

I, for one, have never noticed nor been annoyed by a prevalence of "saying".

 

On a related note: Chill, Aetae.

[Ete'ni]

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Edited June 10, 2014 by Ete'ni

[WeiryWriter he/him]

Brandon talks about said book-isms

(starting at around 9:00).  Basically said is used because it is invisible, it doesn't derail readers from "dialogue reading mode" like most tags do.  I'm sorry if you don't like it but it is the industry standard and you're going to have to get used to it.  The overwhelming majority of writers and editors prefer said, and I don't see that changing.

[GreyPilgrim he/him]

I am sorry if I have angered anyone. I was not aware that it is something that authors and editors prefer. Thank you for pointing this out to me.

[happyman he/him]

Yes, ironically, this subject is something writers think quite a bit about, and they have decided that using just "said" is good enough for most uses.  If the reader is paying attention to the tags, the argument goes, then they aren't paying enough attention to the dialogue.

 

I have no idea whether this is really good or bad, but I do know that explicitly avoiding using "said" can make for some really, really distracting prose.  I've also read lots of works where "said" is the default go-to word and which were otherwise good to great.  I would make the argument that you shouldn't use said only if the replacement is actually better.

[Levian]

Figured someone should start one of these.

Page 202

Two instances of 'chromium' instead of 'cadmium,' which confused the heck out of me for a minute.

 

Whew, glad I checked this! I was just about to post a thread asking if it was a mistake after scratching my head for a bit and reading a few more pages to see if there would be some clarification 

[Zas678 he/him]

I'm fairly certain that this has already been taken care of, but in HoA, in Chapter 4 on page 42, it mentions the Canzi religion, which seems really similar to the Cazzi religion mentioned in other places that talks about the sanctity of the body and such. Is this a typo, or was this a seperate religion?

 

EDIT- Never mind! It looks like Cazzi was the typo on the Wiki, and Canzi is canon. 

 

DOUBLE EDIT- Well, it looks like it's Cazzi in Book 1, then Canzi in Book 3. Which is canon? Or are we just going to say they're both names for the same thing?

[Sir Anthony]

Possible problem with the Steel Alphabet character for 256. (Affects broadsheet numbers)

I noticed that all the Odd numerals (associated with pulling/pure metals) have the dots outside or circumferential to the crescents.

And all the Even numerals (associated with pushing/alloy metals) have the dots inside the crescents. It's a lovely pattern for a base-16 number and magic system with push-pull and internal-external duality.

Except this pattern is broken by the character for 256 (16x16, analogous to our base-10 number 100).
The number 4096 (16x16x16, analogous to 1,000) follows the pattern again.

I believe that 256, as a highly important even number (power of 2), should have its dot somewhere inside the crescent. 

Edited February 15, 2025 by Sir Anthony