Vonda McIntyre

Pitfalls of Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy

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  • Menna Abu Zahrahas quoted2 years ago
    tries and fails to conceal a lack of intensity, style, substance, or all those qualities, in your prose.
  • Menna Abu Zahrahas quoted2 years ago
    Their use will drain the life from your prose. “Some kind of” has recently joined the infamous company of weasel words.
  • Menna Abu Zahrahas quoted2 years ago
    It’s Almost Writing,
    or,
    Half Baked Weasels
  • Menna Abu Zahrahas quoted2 years ago
    are weasel words that allow you to evade the responsibility of being precise.
  • Menna Abu Zahrahas quoted2 years ago
    Pitfall #1: The Expository Lump
  • Menna Abu Zahrahas quoted2 years ago
    Useful technique: It’s easier to describe something if it’s broken. If something is broken, then you notice it. If it’s working right, it just sits there being invisible doing its job. Not to be overused!
  • Menna Abu Zahrahas quoted3 years ago
    We all write sf in standard English, unless we are Anthony Burgess (who did made-up dialect well), or some other people who do it not so well.
  • Menna Abu Zahrahas quoted3 years ago
    Just because you call a long-eared short-tailed lagomorphic mammal with long hind legs a “smeerp” doesn’t make it alien.
  • Menna Abu Zahrahas quoted3 years ago
    watch out for what Damon Knight called “calling a rabbit a smeerp.”
  • Menna Abu Zahrahas quoted3 years ago
    If you aren’t good at them, you can make yourself sound silly.
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