#nash advises

[seenashwrite]

No need to announce “P.O.V.”, I promise...

...because, watch:

.

I threw back the shot, but my focus wasn’t on the burn as the whiskey slipped down my throat - the only thing on my mind was the woman at the end of the bar, the one whose laugh kept reaching my ears.

“Dean!” Sam said irritably, giving my arm a whap.

I set down the glass, gave him a look, and snapped right back at him. “What?”

.

See? Abracadabra. It’s Dean’s P.O.V. 

[seenashwrite]

@soloarcana mentioned you in a post “How to Care for Your Winchesters”

Where can I adopt my very own Winchesters? How are they in a pack environment? @seenashwrite @missjackil @winchesterprincessbride

The only advice I can impart is that the one you’ll note as the “leader of the pack” is particularly voracious with regard to bacon - I mean, all of them are, but we’re talking red alert with this one, it’s a don’t-feed-the-Mogwai-after-midnight situation, absolute mayhem, pay no attention to the innocence he’ll display and cajoling he’ll attempt, it’s not worth it. He’s sneaky. Gird your fridge.

[seenashwrite]

Oh, sous chefs - Imma need you to get on out of my kitchen.

(Kindly don’t ask me for details, if you would, as there’s no way for me to send this one to Subtle Town, it’s too specific)

An open letter to peeps who can’t seem to call up originality on their own:

[sighs] [again] Let’s go with food metaphors, as I am hungry.

There are some of us writers ‘round these parts that specialize in cranking out the bread-n-butter on the reg. This is good. This is needed. This holds true in the professional writing world and movies and TV and whatnots. Audiences need tried-and-trues to come back to every now and then.

Then there are some of us - same in the pro world - that on the reg turn concepts on their heads. Same slab of beef, but different recipe, more often than not tossing spices of one-off words/turns-of-phrase in the mix. This is good. This is needed. Audiences need to have their brains shaken up every now and then.

It’s tough to smother a unique recipe in (perfectly acceptable) store-bought gravy to the point where the texture and ingredients and seasoning are hidden - several, if not many, of your dinner guests will taste it and know. Ergo, it’s “safer” to snitch from the one-offs, from concepts, vs. a plot point in its entirety.

Understand this: When one of my buds who are familiar with my tone/phrasing/cadence/etc. both in stories and in convos are munching on a perfectly acceptable bowl of comforting mashed potatoes, and find themselves thinking “Oh hey, where did that handful of bacon crumbles come from? __ doesn’t typically make with the bacon. And isn’t that a helluva lot like the brown-sugar-and-honey oven-baked bacon Nash served not but __ days ago? I mean, not as tasty, but pretty close?” 

Well. Ya busted. You’re reeeeally busted the bigger your dinner party (follower count) is, and you double-down when all those lovely food critics give you star ratings (reblogs).

And I don’t know what to say about it, other than at first I had to assume subconscious pick-ups on your part. When it happened subsequent times, I also chose this mindset, however made a point to peruse your stuff more often, despite it largely not being my jam. When I’m doing this randomly yet I’m seeing it more, and every time it is published after mine, I gotta ask...

If you cannot manage to write stories without “picking up” other peoples’ personality and wit, stop reading other peoples’ stories and posts.

And specifically? My stories and posts. My advice? I mean, you dig my shtick, so I figure this’ll be of interest. If you find yourself jotting notes down randomly, thinking, “Ooooh, that’s good, where on *earth* did that come from?!” take a sec to check yourself.

If you can’t pinpoint within a reasonable degree what it was that inspired the turn-of-phrase or the concept or whatever, it may not be YOURS. 

It’s likely not a crop that’s spontaneously sprouted in your mind, it’s more likely some specialized seeds have blown over from a neighboring farm. And if that’s the case, and that farmer starts getting pissed? Particularly when your customer base was already gigantic?

Then, baby, I hate to break it to ya, but, uh - you’re eventually gonna have a long row to hoe.

[seenashwrite]

About Soliciting Feedback: A Quick Note from Nash

The topic of feedback has come up “out of public eye” between myself and several others quite a bit over the past couple months for whatever reason, and I was asked to do a detailed post on this topic at some point (one with strategies, examples, advisement based on my personal experiences, etc.), so I have some things collected in draft form for the future, but wanted to take a moment to throw something out there - certainly, take it or leave it.

When we openly seek input - for a personal matter, or on something we’ve created - and people give it, sometimes that input is going to arrive with  inelegant phrasing, more so when it’s via written response, and double time if in a limited space (i.e., an Ask).

There could be a maturity gap which adds to disjointed communication. There could be a language barrier that adds to inappropriate wording. There could be an educational chasm that adds to lack of specificity. There could be an emotional component that adds to lack of clarity. 

To kick back with defensiveness and our own poor responses to feedback that isn’t structured in the top-tier manner we’d like is a guaranteed way to put ourselves into an echo chamber where our faults and missteps are never revealed, and we create a space that screams “Only praise is allowed! The rest of y’all can kiss my ass!” 

To be sure, some input will land on the “criticism” side of things vs. the “critique” side of things, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing of value there. If we aren’t willing to take the sour with the sweet? We should stop including the population at large and only get input from our nearest and dearest.

Because when we draw people in with the invitation, tell them we want to include them in the conversation, the catch is we can’t control the manner in which the opinions and feelings people have are expressed; what we can control are our responses.

Point is: We asked for it. We got it.

[seenashwrite]

(1/2)I've completely lost my ability to focus right now, except for hearing Dean saying, "You're awesome, sweetheart," on a loop. I've reread your many treatises on the subject, finally finding the one where someone asked you, "If not sweetheart, then what?" You seemed to believe that he would use "baby" or "sweetiepie" because of his love of his car and pie. I would object to both of these, because I believe that, for him, both Baby and Pie are proper names. (Brother and Angel similarly so, but

Cursing my name? For reals!? 

Nah, I kid. I know it’s not hate. And I do apologize, RE: that first part - I obviously was not clear, that’s on me. ‘Cause those ain’t my recommendations. Noooo.

I wanted to convey that it was interesting to me how, putting aside that he only uses “sweetheart” sincerely for Baby & Colt, even if he was using it as an endearment for, um, living things of a twue lurve nature, well….

Dude don’t use it all that often. Not when we compare it to things he no doubt, balls-to-the-wall loves, such as the Impala and pie [and alcohol, but “my lil’ whiskey sour” don’t quite do it for tinglin’ the nethers]. Thus, it got a raised eyebrow from me, how people don’t seem to have the knee-jerk of “sweetiepie” or “babydoll”, derivatives of things he does talk about/refer to adoringly on the reg. Tell me if that’s not making sense, I’ll work on phrasing it better.

Now, having said that - imagining either of those coming out of Dean’s mouth makes me wanna throw up, go eat, throw that up, then mainline Pepto so I can do it all over again til the thought is purged from my person.

All right. Let’s build a profile on Dean’s behavior & verbiage with legitimate love interests, based on what we know from canon, then see if we can’t drill down on a plausible nickname or two.

On an aside, I titled the document containing the draft of what’s below  “Endeanments” and I hate myself.

Here’s how this breaks down in my head, so that’s how it’s laid out below. Should the Mrs. or anyone reading this wanna skip ahead, you do you. Scroll til you see the heading.

I. Thing Of The First: What Do We Want & What Do We KnowII. Which Romantic Interests Do We Focus On?III. What Are We Looking For & When We Find It, What Do We Do?IV. What Else Do We Have At Our Disposal To Flesh Out Our Profile Of “Dean In Love"’s Verbiage?V. Thing Of The Second: Nash On Nicknames/Endearments For Unnamed Characters -  A.K.A.: Where I’m coming from on this, just so’s y’all can do the whole “Consider the source” thingVI. What Has Worked In The Nashhole Writing RoomVII. Thoughts On The Examples Given In The Ask VIII. Nash’s Three Key Pieces Of Advice For Pulling This Off

And Before We Get Cranking, RE: That Other Post

So here’s the meat & potatoes of what I said when somebody asked my thoughts on what Dean would use as a genuine term of endearment:

I’d bet money that for the actual contenders [both the ones I haven’t yet researched & the nonexistents/potential true loves/soulmates/blahblahblahs], they’d most assuredly be friends first, they will not be a hunter [not a hunter proper, at least, though knowledge of is not a deal-breaker], and any endearment is gonna be something that’s a riff on their name [a la “Sammy” or “Cas”] or related to a specific situation….. she knocks over the sugar bowl, so she’s “Sugar” until enough glares shut that shit down…. things like that.  

I. Thing Of The First: What Do We Want & What Do We Know

This whole shebang is based upon the premise that an author gives a shit about accurate characterization of Dean within the context of a legit romantic relationship. 

We gotta have a profile in mind regarding the broad strokes of what this chick would be like if our writing of his behavior/the things he says - such as, ta-da! an endearment - is gonna ring true.

All we can know is what’s in canon, and bless the wiki and all their transcripts because no one has to re-watch all the seasons to answer this. #hallelujah  

II. Which Romantic Interests Do We Focus On?

The bed-‘em-and-book-it chicks are ruled out, see above, RE: legit love premise.

In the draft of the answer to the other Q that’s referenced in the Q linked above, I have it fleshed out more than I do here - although it’s not completely episode/quote-by-quote sourced - so if y'all wanna know the reasoning behind why I deem these four and only these four ladies of the “legit, Dean was really into them/this had the potential for true love” category, I can share it, but I can’t promise when.

I have no idea if he had an endearment for any or all of these ladies, is my point, y'all feel free to do the deep dive in that respect, 

----> ETA later: We did the deep dive. He called Lisa “Honey” when she was dying; unrelated but kind’ve, when he was pretending to be Bela’s husband and she fake-choked on shellfish (also “dying”), he called her “Honey”, too. There ya go.

I stand by these chosen few and the order in which I’ve placed them, the reasons why have to do with character autopsies I do/have done for my big story, ergo would have to be another post or fourteen. Moving on.

Here’s my ranking for “Legit, Dean Totes Felt Something” characters:

4. Jo3. Cassie2. Lisa1. Carmen

All of these ladies, no matter if nothing ever got off the ground [Jo] to the what-might-have-been [Cassie] to the long-term relationship [Lisa] to the dream ideal [Carmen] have some stark, can’t-miss-‘em, key characteristics in common  [intelligent, mature, value family, etc.] but I won’t go into that here. 

They’re as solid a guide as we’ve got right now, and not just for doing this nickname postulation exercise - I’d also recommend peeps who wanna reeeeeally drill down on an O/C love for Dean to utilize these characters as a jumping off point. R/Is are, of course, going to be [::coughs:: should be] more nebulous in their attributes.

Take home message is that he had a great deal of respect for all of them, so anything that would have to depend on tone because it walks a fine line, you may wanna axe it from the list as an everyday sub for their name.

III. What Are We Looking For & When We Find It, What Do We Do?

You are looking for any nicknames/endearments he assigned to them.

If he did use an endearment with them, do the following:

(1) Which of those 4 is your Dean love interest most like?

(2) Picture Dean calling your character whatever endearment he called them

(3) How’d that work out for you?

And if not, to speculate upon what he would say….. guess what?

(1) Which of those 4 is your Dean love interest most like?

(2) Picture Dean calling them whatever endearment you’ve chosen

(3) How’d that work out for you?

That is your litmus test. Wash, rinse repeat.

IV. What Else Do We Have At Our Disposal To Flesh Out Our Profile Of “Dean In Love"’s Verbiage?

Plenty.

We’ve got the ability to make the profile more robust because of the cooooooooopious amount of evidence on the flip side, what he zeroes in on with the bed-’em-and-book-it type of gal, what his verbiage is like with them, the peeps he doesn’t intend on keeping around for long. 

Bonus: that recent ep of what he was like under a love spell. Take what we saw, scale down the intensity, fiddle with it where appropriate - meaning, ‘86 anything that was alike in all the men they charmed, as that isn’t evidence of “Dean In Love” coming to the surface, it’s evidence of the spell’s structure so as to elicit specific behaviors in victims.

Second thing you can look at in terms of nicknaming habits are people for whom he has no romantic inclinations. The easiest cases in point being Sam and Castiel, a.k.a. Sammy and Cas. Off the top of my head, for whatever reason, I recall him calling Gadreel “Zeke” prior to the stolen identity reveal.

So Dean’s a “-y” adder and a name-shortener, consistently with Sam and Castiel, however many times with Ezekiel/Gadreel, and there’s likely more examples, godspeed on that research journey, I ain’t your girl.

I am also 100% - and I know y’all are, too - that he’s a biiiiiiig proponent of situational nicknaming, and while it’s usually snark [think “Batman” for himself, “Harry Potter” for Mick, etc.] it still goes to pattern. I’ve got so many of these in the CASPN decks, it’s unreal, and maaany, possibly most, of them - as noted just now - are TV/movie/music/book-related. [I know this because I’m trying to pull them out as I go to stick them in their own “Deanisms” deck, because if the decks ever go “public” for sale, they can’t have copyrighted content in them]

Again: here we’re looking at a broad stroke in his verbiage, to get a feel of his go-tos, his habits in what he calls others.

V. Thing Of The Second: Nash On Nicknames/Endearments For Unnamed Characters -  A.K.A.: Where I’m coming from on this, just so’s y’all can do the whole “Consider the source” thing

I don’t lean into the whole nickname thing. It’s not a purposeful effort, as in, I’m policing myself or when I edit I’m taking them out. It’s just not a reflexive brain-to-keyboard thing for me. I don’t often have characters calling each other by name/nickname/endearment, particularly when it’s just 2 people in a convo, unless it’s a heated convo, a la “DAMMIT NASH!” and “EAT ME, SHITBIRD!”

Longer the fic, trickier this gets. Somebody’s gonna have to address our nameless-faceless protag at some point, and as has been established copiously during my tenure in this fandom, I hope Y/N and her pouty, lip-nibbling, everything-she-does-including-fart-is-done-softly self would die in a fire, ceiling optional, so believe me: I *do* co-sign substitute monikers.

It’s too far to scroll up, here’s what I said about his nicknaming pattern —>

and any endearment is gonna be something that’s a riff on their name [a la “Sammy” or “Cas”] or related to a specific situation….. she knocks over the sugar bowl, so she’s “Sugar” until enough glares shut that shit down…. things like that. 

We talked above about him riffing on the person’s name. The situational thing I mentioned - I’ll tell y’all what I did for this, RE: the sticky wicket of when it’s a mini-series/series. [Personally? I think most one-shots can dodge this issue altogether, though certainly YMMV]

VI. What Has Worked In The Nashhole Writing Room

Now, I haaaaated writing the smut thing of mine when I lost a bet, so I plotted it to hell to keep my sanity, and it expanded to 5 g.d. parts. The smut part of it is *riddled* with the tripest tropes that ever troped [part of said bet’s terms], so I’m talking about the story part of it here. 

Dean and the protag had a touch-and-go, volatile sitch going on for the bulk of it, ergo chances high due to intense emotions that somebody at some point was gonna have to address each other in at least a tense manner, if not one of anger.

And she was tough as nails, a sniper called in to assist them on a hunt, and she would’ve ended him if he dared call her anything even in the realm of too cutesy-shmoopsy on the reg. It would be in conflict with what I’d built her up to be, bottom line, and likely suck the readers out of the story. 

Here’s the dodge I came up with, keeping in mind the situation is she’s a sniper:

“So, we have a decision to make,” Dean said through a partially chewed bite of his burger.

Was he actively trying to be gross? He thankfully swallowed before continuing.

“I’m not in the mood to drive all the way back to Jody’s, then have to share a bed with Sam in her guest room,” Dean began.

Okay. He was talking to me.

“I think the best thing to do is head to the bunker—”

I looked to him, aghast.

“—and we’ve got plenty of room, we can pick up a toothbrush for you when we stop to fill up—”

Did he not notice the big black bulky thing I’d thrown in the back floorboard when they picked me up? I was never not prepared. There was already a toothbrush in my backpack. And a change of clothes.

And a Glock.

“—then we’ll all be fresh daisies, get you home tomorrow. Whaddya say, Snipes?”

Oh god. He’d nicknamed me. Had my letting him win a staring contest actually infused him with enough bravado to try and make friends? Convince me to stay in what Jody had described as essentially a really large basement?

They end up in love - but the sub for her name isn’t lovey-dovey, and it doesn’t have to be, the dynamic between them is vastly more important [more on that later]. 

In another one in the ol’ draft folder - and it’s not a romantic dynamic, but the nickname dodge happens because she’s unnamed - here’s how that’s gonna work. In an earlier scene, it’s mentioned that Dean was giving her a hard time via the Patsy Cline song “I Fall To Pieces” [spoiler alert: it’s the story based upon THIS thing, you’re smart cookies, you’ll get the reasoning behind it]

And you’d remember. It’s not something you’d forget. I know this because no one else has. Dean still calls me “Cline” - let me rephrase - he bellows it, with glee and snort-laughs, though I suppose there’s worse things to be called. He’s called me those, too, over the years, he doesn’t disappoint. And Sam still narrows his eyes at left my knee, watches my gait for any unevenness or wobbles, and it doesn’t matter what I say, he’ll believe he messed up the articulation til the end of days.

Tangentially-related, in “Build Me Up, Buttercup” - the nutty AU-ish thing that actually started because I was riffing on the sweetheart situation and it mutated - there’s a chunk of conversation between The Woman In Black/The Masked Vampirate/The Apprentice [—-> hint, hint, hint: we *can* refer to folks without using a name/nickname] and Dean on this very topic, of what we call others in lieu of their given names. Mini-spoiler: Even though she’s written 3rd person O/C, and even though she does end up as someone’s love interest, you’re never gonna know her name.

Not spoilers, because these stories are already “out there”, you also never learned/will never learn the names of the chicks in Hello, I’m Gone; The Lore You Know; It; The Once Demon Barber From Robintree; A Delicate Desiccation; The Bell-Watcher’s Daughter; A Fluff By Any Other Name; and who friggin’ knows what-all in the stack of quickies I’ve accumulated.

VII. Thoughts On The Examples Given In The Ask

Back to what you said….. and shit, Imma c/p it here, if anybody’s made it this damn far, I won’t ask they scroll up: 

All right, in no particular order, just as things hit me…..

It’s about 7:30 a.m. here in Nashland, this is rotten and off the top of my head, but I could totes picture seeing pumpkin in a Halloween fluff, like - something happens with a pumpkin, it’s dropped or she slices open her hand trying to carve it, is like “[something something] and don’t start calling me pumpkin” and he’s like “Nah…. Punk.” ‘Cause, again - he loves a situational riff & he’s a shortener.

Agreed on princess, I co-sign your gut, he’d say it sneery/as a cut-down on someone who’s afraid to dig in, get a little dirt in the skirt on a hunt or something.

Darlin’ is tricky, because Dean’s not Southern/doesn’t have a drawl unless a touch of Jensen slips out…. and honestly, he’s not got much of an accent from what I’ve heard, though remember that’s going through a Dixieland filter, so consider the source. Might I offer a sub for it? See how “doll” works.

Well, honey’s hitting closer to sounding like him. I’d go “hon”, though, RE: being a shortener. “Hey, hon?” is more casual than “Honey”, and “Honey” also might run the risk of popping a reader back to… [forgive the Rocket inclusion]: 

Full quote is “Honey, there ain’t no other men like me.”, but y’all knew that. It’s not on the OH HELL NO list for me, Honey/Hon’s definitely a contender.

But speaking of pinging my “OH HELL NO” radar - 

[gasps] Oh, Whoozies…. oh my Whatsis…. sugarplum?

[shakes head vehemently] 

* UNLESS* Y/N is a violet-hued fairy in ballet slippers, and they are battling a baby-chomping sentient Nutcracker. But even then, he’d call her ‘Plums.

Sweetie… hmmmm….. you know what might be worth a go? “Sweets”. I could hear “Hey, Sweets” coming out of his mouth. If you could figure a way to make it a lesser of two evils, that’s even better, like…. he pats her on the ass and calls her “sweetcheeks” and she’s all “Oh, but no”, so he downshifts to “sweets”.

“Puddin’“….. erm….. My knee-jerk is no. If it were suuuuper situational, perhaps. I’m drawing a blank on what the situation would be, though, because my mind immediately pops to that episode at the spa…. I just….

I’m hearing it in my mind as if somebody was writing a story where it’s basically a re-hash of that episode - Oh but (tee-hee) this time Y/N got the roofied pudding, and now Dean’s gonna drive her nuts never letting her forget it! Tune in for next week’s episode of Supernatural, guest starring Ordinary McTypical-Chick as Puddin’! [/announcer voice] [cue laugh track], and then I’m all……

 Round up on the “Give ‘Er A Try” list:

Honey —> sure why not; “hon” may be better

Sweetie —> ehhhh, probably situational; “sweets” could be worth a try

Pumpkin —-> sooooo situational; and if go there, would 100% roll it into “punk”

Darlin’ —> ehhhh; “doll” suggested sub

….and wasn’t mentioned, but unless it works your personal nerves, from my POV, “babe” doesn’t pull me out of the story if it sneaks into Dean’s dialogue, a la “Hey, babe? You already toss some shells into the trunk?” 

Nash’s Three Key Pieces Of Advice For Pulling This Off

1. Who is this person on the receiving end of the nickname - know this, and it’ll narrow down your choices;

2. Do it like Dean: if they have a name, go “-y” or shorten it, or take a situation/circumstance and spin it;

and, possibly the most important -

3. Limit, limit, limit

Make your own parameters for amount of times this is happening in a given piece. I’m just throwing #s - like, = 500 = 0,  501 - 1K = 1, 1.1K - 2.5K = 2, something like that. Take away the pressure of it by making “rules” and you’re free to get your brain back to the story.

Because here it is, y’all - and I’ve said this in other posts - the best thing you can do for yourself or for those you beta is to stop after every scene or paragraph or page or “x” amount of words, whatever your pref is, and ask yourself about what you’ve just read/written:

Who cares?  - A.K.A.: Is ____ advancing the plot/the interpersonal dynamics, or not?

Regarding non-nickname stuff: Does it matter that we know about her morning routine? That she had oatmeal because she was out of bagels? The make and model of her car? Her co-workers’ names? Her co-workers at all? What her cat is like? What her cat is named? Her cat at all?

And the same applies here: Does an endearment matter in this particular sentence/moment? I care about the relationships between/amongst the characters, how well they’re grooving with each other [or not], how that weaves together, how it’s integral to the plot, how it impacts the action/the task, how it plays into the climax and resolution [or lack thereof].

Is it ideal to have things coming out of the mouths of the characters we all know ring true? Absolutely. And that’s the other “who cares” here: BIG cares if things that are “un-Dean” creep in. As the adage goes: “When in doubt, don’t”.

So, when stuck on this element, figure out something else to do with the sentence…. and I’d start with 86′ing the nickname. Bet you money most of the time, the message of the sentence will read exactly the same.

You got this. 

Thanks for the Q, hope I helped in some fashion and that the curses either wane, or perhaps reach new, interesting heights and volumes, depending on the level of said helpfulness.

[seenashwrite]

@lipstickandwhiskey - Heard you were feelin’ under the weather. TAKE THE HERPEXIA, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKES!!! And, y’know, plenty of fluids and rest, blah blah blah #lurve to lips

[seenashwrite]

Playing The Pronoun Game.

* Note: I am queuing this at a random time, it is not a reflection on any fic I may have reblogged/commented on in/around that day/night, just told myself I’d toss this out if I kept seeing what I’m about to mention during the next time I sat down to go through fics specifically *

Lately, I’ve ended up passing on more than a handful of stories that are strong on various levels [creativity, plot, characters, etc.] for the monthly rec list I compile, all for the exact same reason: capitalization of pronouns. 

Interestingly, it isn’t in a smattering of places/happening at random, I’m seeing it through entire stories, which makes me think it’s not just a typo. Seems to be common enough that I thought I’d mention it, and I sincerely hope this will be helpful. All three examples below are off the top of my head - not a letter is copied from any stories I’ve glanced at/read, no one is being singled-out. 

This is incorrect:

“Damn it, Dean,” You muttered. 

“But Sam isn’t back yet!” She cried.

“No, absolutely not,” He whispered.

This is correct:

“Damn it, Dean,” you muttered.

“But Sam isn’t back yet!” she cried.

“No, absolutely not,” he whispered.

I’m not sure how this is so prevalent across multiple fandoms and writers of all ages/education/background/etc. Several times, it was only happening with “you”. And it doesn’t [per my experience/recollection] seem to crop up with the same frequency - if at all - for “we” or “they”.  But daily I see this with “you”, “she”, and “he”. 

I’m not going to give a lesson on all the pronouns, it’ll be patronizing and boring to boot. 

The quick-and-dirty:  

---> “he” is anybody; that person is Alexander

---> “she” is anybody; that person is Katherine

---> “you” could be anybody; for me, whilst reading a “reader insert”, that person is Nash

So perhaps try thinking of it along that line - the less specific the substitution for their name is, the less important it becomes, and it doesn’t rank high enough to deserve a capital letter when you’re relating what that character has said. 

“Damn it, Dean,” Nash muttered.

“But Sam isn’t back yet!” Karen cried.

“No, absolutely not,” Alexander whispered.

- or -

“Damn it, Dean,” you muttered.

“But Sam isn’t back yet!” she cried.

“No, absolutely not,” he whispered.

A typo is a typo, I am not that much of a hard-ass. I’ve actually overlooked it/not noticed it in the past. Just struck me a little odd to see it so repetitively is all. In any event, hope that helps!

[seenashwrite]

My ex-friend (you will now why is ex) said that Sam's long hair looks dumb at his age....... Should we kill her or burn her?

Thank you for this query, Nonners. Advice columnist for the SPN collective was initially what I’d envisioned for “Dear Nash”, due to my objective, pseudo-fan status. Clearly, I am best able to address issues such as the one at hand & this has been a wise decision on your part.

Discussion of homicide is something the policies here at NashHole, Inc.❤©℗™ prohibit. Besides, not in my wheelhouse. YMMV. We do, however, have two in-house consultants that I’ve…. well, consulted… before sending them back to do yard work & bring me mimosas. 

Now, you’ll want some sort of thermometer, first & foremost, because for complete incineration, the pyre’s gonna need to get going at about 1,750 to 1,800 °F.  Recommendation is chain to pole if squirmy, wrapping of your choosing if not. 

Having said all that, my hot take [heh] is that this is the wrong hill for y’all to let your friendship die upon - the sideburns at times have been inexcusable, distracting, & a few times possibly repellent. I’ve received a glare from my statuesque yard boy, & if he’d just give me a minute, I’m not done. I am, however, done with this mimosa [snaps fingers].

The long hair is flattering, age should not be a factor & besides, it’d be stupider to have some sort of bangs, that is what would smack of his being unable to accept his age. Your friend is wrong & in need of your good influence; reconsider this parting of ways immediately.

So sayeth the Nash, so say we all.