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Writer's Glossary
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Below are listed terms and their definitions associated with Writing. Currently, the SF critique lexicon is the working source for this glossary.
Contents |
[edit] Glossary
[edit] A
- abbess phone home
- Takes its name from a mainstream story about a medieval cloister which was sold as SF because of the serendipitous arrival of a UFO at the end. By extension, any mainstream story with a gratuitous SF or fantasy element tacked on so it could be sold. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- Also see Slipstream
- Adam and Eve story
- Nauseatingly common subset of the "Shaggy God Story" in which a terrible apocalypse, spaceship crash, etc., leaves two survivors, man and woman, who turn out to be Adam and Eve, parents of the human race!! (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- adjective
- Any word that describes or modifies a noun. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- adverb
- A word which modifies or describes a verb. Typically, adverbs end in "ly." (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- and plot
- Picaresque plot in which this happens, and then that happens, and then something else happens, and it all adds up to nothing in particular. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- "As you know Bob"
- "As you know Bob" is a pernicious form of infodump through dialogue, in which characters tell each other things they already know, for the sake of getting the reader up-to-speed. This very common technique is also known as "Rod and Don dialogue" (attr. Damon Knight) or "maid and butler dialogue" (attr. Algis Budrys). (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- author
- A writer who has been published. As (arbitrarily) distinguished from a writer. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- authorial laziness
- Authorial laziness is when the writer cuts corners. This typically leads to cheating the reader. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- author surrogate
- An author surrogate (or writer surrogate) is a character who acts as the writer's spokesman. Sometimes the character may intentionally or unintentionally be an idealized version of the writer. A well known variation is the Mary Sue or Gary Stu (i.e. self-insertion). (Source: literary technique at Wikipedia ) (Source: author surrogate at Wikipedia )
- A character whom the writer, consciously or unconsciously, models after himself. Such characters (e.g. Jubal Harshaw, Stranger in a Strange Land) often dominate the story when they should not, or acquire too many positive attributes, too few faults. Author surrogates often hog the point of view to the detriment of other characters. See Mary Sue. (Original source: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/glossary.html )
- authorism
- Authorism is an inappropriate intrusion of the writer's physical surroundings, mannerisms, or prejudices into the narrative. Overtly, characters pour cups of coffee whenever they're thinking, because that's what the writer does. More subtly, characters sit around doing nothing but complaining that they don't know what to do ... because the writer doesn't know either. (Tom Disch) (Original source: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/glossary.html )
[edit] B
- background
- The background of a story is the combination history and context that supports or deepens the setting and or provides a backdrop for the action. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- backstory
- In narratology, a backstory (also back story or back-story) is part of the background or history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. This literary device is often employed to lend the main story depth or verisimilitude. A back-story may include the history of characters, objects, countries (see Worldbuilding) or other elements of the main story. Back-stories are usually revealed, sketchily or in full, chronologically or otherwise, as the main narrative unfolds. However, a writer may also create portions of a backstory or even an entire backstory that is solely for his or her own use in writing the main story and is never revealed in the main story. (Source: back-story at Wikipedia ) (Updated by: Fritz Freiheit)
- barf and polish
- A mechanism for writing where the writing process is split into two phases. During the 'barf' or first phase the writer focuses on putting as many words on the paper (or into the word processor file) as possible. During the 'polish' or second phase, the writer focus on turning the output into cohesive, smooth, and professional product. There are a number of sub-techniques to help improve this technique, see barf and polish. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- barf phase
- When writing, or pursuing some other creative process, the barf phase is the period when the focus is on getting as much of the story (or other "artifact") out without engaging ones critical or editorial faculties. It is followed by the polish phase. -- (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- bathos
- A sudden, alarming change in the level of diction. "There will be bloody riots and savage insurrections leading to a violent popular uprising unless the regime starts being lots nicer about stuff." (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- begin fallacy
- Describing action that is introduced to the reader for the first time by saying that so-and-so 'began to' <verb>. Eliminating the 'began to' almost always strengthens the text. A detail of style. (Original source: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/glossary.html )
- BEM
- Acronym for Bug-Eyed Monster.
- beta reader
- An early reader of a work (short story or novel), as in the notion of a software beta tester. Beta readers are an important filter for a writer as they help point out problems with the work that the writer can't (easily) see. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- blog
- Originally from the term web log, a blog is a web way to communicate, usually on a daily or weekly basis. - (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- bogus alternatives
- List of actions a character could have taken, but didn't. Frequently includes all the reasons why or why not. In this nervous mannerism, the writer stops the action dead to work out complicated plot problems at the reader's expense. "If I'd gone along with the cops they would have found the gun in my purse. And anyway, I didn't want to spend the night in jail. I suppose I could have just run instead of stealing their car, but then ... " etc. Best dispensed with entirely. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- bolt-on
- A feature of a setting that only appears to support some plot idea without its implications being followed and propagated to their logical conclusions and natural integration with greater society. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- brand name fever
- Use of brand name alone, without accompanying visual detail, to create false verisimilitude. You can stock a future with Hondas and Sonys and IBM's and still have no idea with it looks like. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- Brenda Starr dialogue
- A form of authorial laziness where long sections of talk have no physical background or description of the characters. Such dialogue, detached from the story's setting, tends to echo hollowly, as if suspended in mid-air. Named for the American comic-strip in which dialogue balloons were often seen emerging from the Manhattan skyline. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- "burly detective" syndrome
- This useful term is taken from SF's cousin-genre, the detective-pulp. The hack writers of the Mike Shayne series showed an odd reluctance to use Shayne's proper name, preferring such euphemisms as "the burly detective" or "the red-headed sleuth." This syndrome arises from a wrong-headed conviction that the same word should not be used twice in close succession. This is only true of particularly strong and visible words, such as "vertiginous." Better to re-use a simple tag or phrase than to contrive cumbersome methods of avoiding it. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
[edit] C
- "Call a rabbit a smeerp"
- A cheap technique for false exoticism, in which common elements of the real world are re-named for a fantastic milieu without any real alteration in their basic nature or behavior. "Smeerps" are especially common in fantasy worlds, where people often ride exotic steeds that look and act just like horses. (Attributed to James Blish ) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- card tricks in the dark
- Elaborately contrived plot which arrives at (a) the punchline of a private joke no reader will get or (b) the display of some bit of learned trivia relevant only to the writer. This stunt may be intensely ingenious, and very gratifying to the writer, but it serves no visible fictional purpose. (Attr. Tim Powers) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- character
- A character is any person, persona, identity, or entity whose existence originates in a work of fiction. The process of creating and developing characters in a work of fiction is called characterization. (Source: Fictional_character at Wikipedia )
- --
- Those who people the story, affect it and are affected by it. The best characters are complex, with good and bad points, triumphs and tragedies. They face moral choices. Over the course of the story, they evolve and their evolution mirrors the theme the writer is after. They care strongly and face obstacles, and because of these the reader cares strongly for them. Examples of excellence: Frank Herbert, The Dragon in the Sea, Sparrow, Ramsey, Bonnett; Robert Silverberg, The Man in the Maze, Muller, Boardman, Rawlins. (Original source: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/glossary.html )
- --
- Any representation of an individual being presented in a dramatic or narrative work through extended dramatic or verbal representation. The reader can interpret characters as endowed with moral and dispositional qualities expressed in what they say (dialogue) and what they do (action). E. M. Forster describes characters as "flat" (i.e., built around a single idea or quality and unchanging over the course of the narrative) or "round" (complex in temperament and motivation; drawn with subtlety; capable of growth and change during the course of the narrative). The main character of a work of a fiction is typically called the protagonist; the character against whom the protagonist struggles or contends (if there is one), is the antagonist. If a single secondary character aids the protagonist throughout the narrative, that character is the deuteragonist (the hero's "side-kick"). A character of tertiary importance is a tritagonist. These terms originate in classical Greek drama, in which a tenor would be assigned the role of protagonist, a baritone the role of deuteragonist, and a bass would play the tritagonist. Compare flat characters with stock characters. (Source: K. Wheeler's Literary Terms and Definitions )
- cheating the reader
- Depriving the reader of rich an experience as they might have had. Unfortunately, not all readers realize when they are being cheated. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- Chekhov's gun
- Chekhov's gun is the literary technique, similar to foreshadowing, whereby an element is introduced early in the story forming an expectation or contract with the reader that will be resolved at a later point in the story. (Source: Fritz Freiheit) (Also see Wikipedia Chekhov's gun at Wikipedia)
- An example can be found in the twin pistols of the title character in Henrik Ibsen's play Hedda Gabler, which make an appearance in the first act, but are not used to important effect until the last act. (Source: Chekhov's_gun at Wikipedia )
- cliché
- A cliché (from French, klɪ'ʃe) is a phrase, expression, or idea that has been overused to the point of losing its intended force or novelty, especially when at some time it was considered distinctively forceful or novel. The term is generally used in a negative context. (Source: Cliché at Wikipedia )
- conflict
- Conflict is a necessary element of fictional literature. It is often classified according to the nature of the antagonist. These include Man vs. Himself, Man vs. Man, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. God, and Man vs. Machine.
- When an entity is in conflict with his, her, or itself, the conflict is categorized as internal. Otherwise, it is external. (Source: Conflict (narrative) at Wikipedia ) (Updated by: Fritz Freiheit)
- contract with the reader
- The reader's set of expectations that the writer must fulfill. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- countersinking
- A form of expositional redundancy in which the action clearly implied in dialogue is made explicit. "'Let's get out of here,' he said, urging her to leave." (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- cover letter
- A cover letter is a letter attached to another document, such as a resume, that introduces the writer, the purpose for writing, and the attached document. -- (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- cozy catastrophe story
- A story in which horrific events are overwhelming the entirety of human civilization, but the action concentrates on a small group of tidy, middle-class, white Anglo- Saxon protagonists. The essence of the cozy catastrophe is that the hero should have a pretty good time (a girl, free suites at the Savoy, automobiles for the taking) while everyone else is dying off. (Attr. Brian Aldiss ) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- critique
- Constructive criticism or feedback. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- cyberpunk (genre)
- Cyberpunk is a science fiction genre and movement noted for its focus on "high tech and low life". It is also a musical subgenre of industrial rock. The name is derived from cybernetics and punk and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk" published in 1983(see The Etymology of "Cyberpunk"), though the style was popularized well before its publication by editor Gardner Dozois. It features advanced science such as information technology and cybernetics, coupled with a degree of breakdown or a radical change in the social order. (Source: cyberpunk at Wikipedia )
- Primary exponents of the cyberpunk field include William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, Rudy Rucker, and John Shirley.
[edit] D
- Dennis Hopper syndrome story
- A story based on some arcane bit of science or folklore, which noodles around producing random weirdness. Then a loony character-actor (usually best played by Dennis Hopper) barges into the story and baldly tells the protagonist what's going on by explaining the underlying mystery in a long bug-eyed rant. (Attr. Howard Waldrop ) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- deus ex machina
- Or "God in the Box"
- A story featuring a miraculous solution to the story's conflict, which comes out of nowhere and renders the plot struggles irelevant. H G Wells warned against SF's love for the deus ex machina when he coined the famous dictum that "If anything is possible, then nothing is interesting." Science fiction, which specializes in making the impossible seem plausible, is always deeply intrigued by godlike powers in the handy pocket size. Artificial Intelligence, virtual realities and nanotechnology are three contemporary SF MacGuffins that are cheap portable sources of limitless miracle. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- dialogue
- A dialogue (or dialog) is a conversation between two or more (as versus monologue) characters. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- didactic
- Intended to instruct or moralize. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- Dischism
- The unwitting intrusion of the writer's physical surroundings, or the author's own mental state, into the text of the story. Writers who smoke or drink while writing often drown or choke their characters with an endless supply of booze and cigs. In subtler forms of the Dischism, the characters complain of their confusion and indecision -- when this is actually the writer's condition at the moment of writing, not theirs within the story. "Dischism" is named after the critic who diagnosed this syndrome. (Attr. Thomas M. Disch ) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- document
- A document is an organized collection of information, primarily in written form. -- (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
[edit] E
- Easter egg
- An Easter egg is some hidden aspect of a work that even a careful reader will miss, but once deciphered, reveals some message from the writer. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- Adapted from computer programming, a specialized form of cookie in which the writer 'hides' some surprise, not germane to the story (indeed, often irrelevant or irreverent), deep within the text, to be discovered only by the closest possible reading. For instance, in Quest of the Three Worlds, Cordwainer Smith encoded, as the first letters of consecutive sentences, the phrases KENNEDY SHOT and OSWALD TOO, without disrupting the flow of his narrative. Tuckerizing is a form of Easter egg. (CSFW: David Smith) (Original source: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/glossary.html )
- edges of ideas
- The solution to the "Info-Dump" problem (how to fill in the background). The theory is that, as above, the mechanics of an interstellar drive (the center of the idea) is not important: all that matters is the impact on your characters: they can get to other planets in a few months, and, oh yeah, it gives them hallucinations about past lives. Or, more radically: the physics of TV transmission is the center of an idea; on the edges of it we find people turning into couch potatoes because they no longer have to leave home for entertainment. Or, more bluntly: we don't need info dump at all. We just need a clear picture of how people's lives have been affected by their background. This is also known as "carrying extrapolation into the fabric of daily life." (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- elevator pitch
- A short pitch.
- exposition
- Exposition is a literary technique by which background information about the characters, events, or setting is conveyed in a novel, play, movie, short story or other work of fiction. This information can be presented through dialogue, description, flashbacks, or directly through narrative.
- Because exposition generally does not advance plot and tends to interrupt action, it is usually best kept in short and succinct form, though in some genres, such as the mystery, exposition is central to the story structure itself. The alternative to exposition is to convey background information indirectly though action, which, though more dramatic, is more time consuming and less concise. (Source: Exposition_%28literary_technique%29 at Wikipedia )
- eyeball kick
- Vivid, telling details that create a kaleidoscopic effect of swarming visual imagery against a baroquely elaborate SF background. One ideal of cyberpunk SF was to create a "crammed prose" full of "eyeball kicks." (Attr. Rudy Rucker) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
[edit] F
- false humanity
- An ailment endemic to genre writing, in which soap-opera elements of purported human interest are stuffed into the story willy-nilly, whether or not they advance the plot or contribute to the point of the story. The actions of such characters convey an itchy sense of irrelevance, for the writer has invented their problems out of whole cloth, so as to have something to emote about. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- false interiorization
- A cheap labor-saving technique in which the writer, too lazy to describe the surroundings, afflicts the viewpoint-character with a blindfold, an attack of space-sickness, the urge to play marathon whist-games in the smoking-room, etc. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- fast forward
- The literary convention of shortcutting things the reader already knows but the characters may not. Example: Rex Stout's Archie Goodwin: "I got home and told Wolfe everything that had happened since I stumbled over Helaine Bradford's body in Adam Roberts' room. He grunted occasionally and belched when I was done.") Especially handy in mysteries. (CSFW: David Smith) (Original source: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/glossary.html )
- fat writing
- Writing that uses too many or too large words just because the writer can. Also known as verdant greenery. (Source: Fritz Freiheit) (Original source: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/glossary.html )
- ficelle character
- Ficelle, from the French 'string,' is a term used by Henry James to denote a (secondary) character who exists to help the reader and move the plot forward. In Shakespeare's "Hamlet," Rosencranz and Guildenstern are ficelle characters. Vladimir Nabokov called them peri characters. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- fiction
- Not strictly factual. Made up. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- flashforward
- In history, film, television and other media, a flashforward or flash-forward (also called prolepsis) is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story. Flashforwards are often used to represent events expected, projected, or imagined to occur in the future. They may also reveal significant parts of the story that has not yet occurred, but soon will in greater detail. In the opposite direction, a flashback (or analepsis) reveals events that have occurred in the past. (Source: flashforward at Wikipedia )
- focus character
- The focus character is a character who serves a dramatic purpose greater than simply illustrating or illuminating the world -- a character about whom the reader cares even when he's offstage. Focus characters have distinct personalities; they further the themes and interact directly with other focus characters. In Lord of the Rings, for example, Saruman is a focus character but Sauron is not (he's a natural force). (CSFW: David Smith) (Original source: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/glossary.html )
- font
- A specific size and style of type within a type family, such as 12 pt. Courier or 8 pt. Times New Roman. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- frontloading
- Piling too much exposition into the beginning of the story, so that it becomes so dense and dry that it is almost impossible to read. (Attr. Connie Willis) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- funny-hat characterization
- A character distinguished by a single identifying tag, such as odd headgear, a limp, a lisp, a parrot on his shoulder, etc. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
[edit] G
- gag detail
- Unnecessarily unrealistic detail that blows the credibility of the story. "I can accept a Neanderthal going to Harvard, but a Neanderthal with a middle name? Gag." (CSFW: Sarah Smith) (Original source: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/glossary.html )
- genre
- Genres are vague categories with no fixed boundaries. Genres are formed by sets of conventions, and many works cross into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. The scope of the word "genre" is sometimes confined to art and culture, particularly literature, but it has a long history in rhetoric as well. In genre studies the concept of genre is not compared to originality. Rather, all works are recognized as either reflecting on or participating in the conventions of genre. (Source: Genre at Wikipedia )
- Genre fiction is a term for fictional works (novels, short stories) written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre in order to appeal to the fans of that genre. In contemporary fiction publishing, genre is an elastic term used to group works sharing similarities of character, theme, and setting—such as mystery, romance, or horror—that have been proven to appeal to particular groups of readers. Genres continuously evolve, divide, and combine as readers' tastes change and writers search for fresh ways to tell stories. Classic romance novels, such as those written by the Brontë sisters and Jane Austen in the nineteenth century, continue to enjoy popularity today in the form of both books and movies. Despite its popularity, genre fiction is often overlooked by institutions that favor literary fiction. (Source: genre fiction at Wikipedia )
- get-it-in-the-mail syndrome
- Prose over which the writer, in his eagerness to finish a work, has taken too little time or care. It implies that the writer can easily fix the problems if he concentrates on them. (CSFW: Sari Boren)
- gingerbread (words)
- Useless ornament in prose, such as fancy sesquipedalian Latinate words where short clear English ones will do. Novice writers sometimes use "gingerbread" in the hope of disguising faults and conveying an air of refinement. (Attr. Damon Knight ) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- grouper effect
- Named after the grouper, which eats by opening its capacious mouth and swallowing a huge volume of water, toothlessly capturing its prey in the resulting suction, the specialized form of get-it-in-the-mail syndrome which results when participants in a workshop feel get-it-in-the-mail pressure to submit works to the group. A pun. (CSFW: Alex Jablokov)
- grubby apartment story
- Similar to the "poor me" story, this autobiographical effort features a miserably quasi-bohemian writer, living in urban angst in a grubby apartment. The story commonly stars the writer's friends in thin disguises -- friends who may also be the writer's workshop companions, to their considerable alarm. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
[edit] H
- hand waving
- An attempt to distract the reader with dazzling prose or other verbal fireworks, so as to divert attention from a severe logical flaw. (Attr. Stewart Brand ) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- here-to-there mistake
- Over-describing interim stages because of a mistaken belief that the reader will not infer them. A writer whose character's eyes are closed, for example, wants to describe something visually and feels compelled to say, 'he opened his eyes'. Omitting this phrase usually works better -- the reader can infer the eye-opening from the visual description. Similarly, 'he got into the car, put the key in the ignition, started the engine and backed out of the driveway' is too much description: 'he got into the car and backed out of the driveway.' (Original source: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/glossary.html )
- hero's journey
- See monomyth.
[edit] I
- idiot plot
- A plot which functions only because all the characters involved are idiots. They behave in a way that suits the writer's convenience, rather than through any rational motivation of their own. (Attr. James Blish) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- incluing
- Incluing is a technique for world building, in which the reader is gradually exposed to background information about the world in which a story is set. The idea is to clue the readers into the world the writer is building, without them being aware of it.
- This in opposition to infodumping, where an undigested lump of background material is dropped into the story, often in the form of a conversation between two characters, both of whom should already know the material under discussion. (The so-called As you know, Bob conversation.)
- Both incluing and infodumping are forms of exposition and are frequently used in science fiction and fantasy, genres where the writer has the task to make the reader believe in a world that does not exist. Writers in other genres have less use for these techniques, as they can often depend on the reader's familiarity with the "real world".
- Incluing can be done in a number of ways: through conversation between characters, through background details or by establishing scenes where a character is followed through daily life. The most famous example of incluing is the door irised open, a phrase created by Robert A. Heinlein and used in several of his stories and novels. In real life, few if any doors do iris open; by mentioning it offhandedly without explanation the reader gets a picture of something both familiar and strange, without calling attention to its strangeness. (Attr Jo Walton) (Source: incluing at Wikipedia )
- Jo Walton defines incluing as "the process of scattering information seamlessly through the text, as opposed to stopping the story to impart the information."
- infodump
- Large chunk of indigestible expository matter intended to explain the background situation. Infodumps can be covert, as in fake newspaper or "Encyclopedia Galactica" articles, or overt, in which all action stops as the writer assumes center stage and lectures. Infodumps are also known as "expository lumps." The use of brief, deft, inoffensive info-dumps is known as "Kuttnering," after Henry Kuttner. When information is worked unobtrusively into the story's basic structure, this is known as "Heinleining." (Source: Turkey City Lexicon ) (Updated by: Fritz Freiheit)
- ing disease
- "ing disease" is the excessive use of gerunds (verbs transformed into nouns by adding "-ing"). -- (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- intellectual sexiness
- The intoxicating glamor of a novel scientific idea, as distinguished from any actual intellectual merit that it may someday prove to possess. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- iterative deepening (writing)
- The writing technique where multiple passes are made, each time further detail and elaboration are incorporated. A simple example of this is to first write an outline then elaborate the outline by filling in the details. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- "I've suffered for my Art" (and now it's your turn)
- A form of info-dump in which the writer inflicts upon the reader hard-won, but irrelevant bits of data acquired while researching the story. As Algis Budrys once pointed out, homework exists to make the difficult look easy. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
[edit] J
- jar of Tang story
- "For you see, we are all living in a jar of Tang!" or "For you see, I am a dog!" A story contrived so that the writer can spring a silly surprise about its setting. Mainstay of the old Twilight Zone TV show. An entire pointless story contrived so the writer can cry "Fooled you!" For instance, the story takes place in a desert of coarse orange sand surrounded by an impenetrable vitrine barrier; surprise! our heroes are microbes in a jar of Tang powdered orange drink.
- This is a classic case of the difference between a conceit and an idea. "What if we all lived in a jar of Tang?" is an example of the former; "What if the revolutionaries from the sixties had been allowed to set up their own society?" is an example of the latter. Good SF requires ideas, not conceits. (Attr. Stephen P. Brown )
- When done with serious intent rather than as a passing conceit, this type of story can be dignified by the term "Concealed Environment." (Attr. Christopher Priest ) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- just-like story
- SF story which thinly adapts the trappings of a standard pulp adventure setting. The spaceship is "just like" an Atlantic steamer, down to the Scottish engineer in the hold. A colony planet is "just like" Arizona except for two moons in the sky. "Space Westerns" and futuristic hard-boiled detective stories have been especially common versions. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
[edit] K
- keyhole effect
- The keyhole effect is created in a piece of writing or film, where it is much easier, by dropping in references to a wider surround world. The term "keyhole effect" comes from the idea of looking through the keyhole of a mansion and seeing glimpses of the features and wonders that are contained within thus creating keyhole curiosity. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- keyhole curiosity
- Similar to the edges of ideas keyhole curiosity is when the writer weaves the background into the story in such a way that the reader sees only partial aspects of the background, as if they were looking through a keyhole into a mansion, glimpsing only a fraction of the possibilities. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- kitchen-sink story
- A story overwhelmed by the inclusion of any and every new idea that occurs to the writer in the process of writing it. (Attr. Damon Knight ) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- kudzu plot
- A plot which weaves and curls and writhes in weedy organic profusion, smothering everything in its path. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
[edit] L
- laughtrack
- In this form of authorial laziness, the characters grandstand and tug the reader's sleeve in an effort to force a specific emotional reaction. They laugh wildly at their own jokes, cry loudly at their own pain, and cheat the reader of any real chance of attaining genuine emotion. (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- literary criticism
- Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals. Though the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists. (Source: Literary criticism at Wikipedia )
- literary technique
- A literary technique or literary device may be used in works of literature in order to produce a specific effect on the reader.
- Elements of fiction -- Literary techniques are important aspects of a writer's style, which is one of the five elements of fiction, along with character, plot, setting, and theme. Of these five elements, character is the who, plot is the what, setting is the where and when, and style is the how of a story. [1]
- Distinguishing most literary technique from literary genre -- Literary technique is distinguished from literary genre. For example, although David Copperfield employs satire at certain moments, it belongs to the genre of comic novel, not that of satire. By contrast, Bleak House employs satire so consistently as to belong to the genre of satirical novel. In this way, use of a technique can lead to the development of a new genre, as was the case with one of the first modern novels, Pamela by Samuel Richardson, which by using the epistolary technique gave birth to the epistolary novel.
- See literary technique at Wikipedia (Updated by: Fritz Freiheit)
[edit] M
- MacGuffin
- A MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is a plot device that motivates the characters or advances the story, but has little or no actual relevance to the story.
- The director and producer Alfred Hitchcock popularized both the term "MacGuffin" and the technique. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Hitchcock explained the term in a 1939 lecture at Columbia University: "[We] have a name in the studio, and we call it the 'MacGuffin.' It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is most always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers." (Source: MacGuffin at Wikipedia )
- main character
- Another term for protagonist / narrator.
- manuscript
- A document formatted for submission to agents or editors.
- manuscript format
- A specification for font, white space, and layout for a manuscript, typically specified by an agent or editor when submitting a manuscript.
- manuscript guidelines
- Specification of acceptable manuscript format for submissions for a given market.
- margin (document)
- The white space around the outer edge of a page.
- Mary Sue
- Mary Sue, sometimes shortened simply to Sue, is a pejorative term used to describe a fictional character, either male or female (male characters are often dubbed "Gary Stu", "Marty Stu", or similar names), that exhibits some or most of the clichés common to much fan fiction. Such characters were originally labeled "Mary Sues" because they were portrayed in overly idealized ways, lacked noteworthy or realistic flaws, and primarily functioned as wish-fullfillment fantasies for their authors, often very young and unsophisticated. While characters labeled "Mary Sues" by readers are not generally intentionally written as such, some authors deliberately create "Mary Sues" (often described as just that by their own authors) as a form of parody.
- While the term is generally limited to fan-created characters, and its most common usage today occurs within the fan fiction community or in reference to fan fiction, canon and original fiction characters are also sometimes criticized as being "Mary Sues." Wesley Crusher Pat Pflieger (2001). "TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE: 150 YEARS OF MARY SUE". 3. Presented at the American Culture Association conference. Retrieved on 2007-01-15. is probably the best-known example. In play-by-post role-playing games, many original characters are also criticized as being "Mary Sues" if they dominate the spotlight or can miraculously escape a near-impossible predicament, usually with an unlikely and previously unrevealed skill.
- Identifying a character as a "Mary Sue" is naturally a subjective matter. Not all characters seemingly exhibiting "Mary Sue" traits would necessarily qualify by everyone's criteria. Indeed, well-known characters like Michael Moorcock's Elric, who is a fairly obvious idealized author surrogate, Sci Fi Weekly Interview. are loved in spite of, or perhaps even because of, their relative "Sueness". (Source: Mary Sue at Wikipedia )
- men-in-rubber-suits syndrome
- A form authorial laziness where the members of an alien race all act like humans in rubber suits. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- mime conversation
- An authorial laziness where the dialogue is supposedly loaded with portentous significance to all participants - contorted facial expressions, heavy word emphasis, significant looks - but completely opaque to readers because relevant facts are neither stated nor inferable.
- "But when you told me that - "
- "-s! And thus he couldn't - "
- "Of course, and I was such a fool, so now if -- "
- "not if, but-when! And -- "
- Such conversation is infuriating to the reader and also cheat him of the genuine emotional conflict and change that are core to viable fiction. (CSFW: David Smith ) (Original source: http://www.sfwa.org/writing/glossary.html )
- money rule
- Money always flows towards the writer.
- mono-environment
- A more specific form of monoism, this form authorial laziness is where the physical setting has a single environmental characteristic, particularly at the planetary level. Examples include the jungle planet in Alan Dean Foster's Midworld or the desert planet Tatooine in Star Wars. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- monoism
- An authorial laziness where some aspect of the setting or world has a single monolithic characteristic. For example, a planet that has a single environment (i.e. mono-environments), such as the desert planet of Arrakis in Dune, or the swamp-jungle planet of Dagobah in Star Wars. Another example of a monoism is an alien race which have some dominate characteristic, such as the hunting race in the movie Predator. (Source: Fritz Freiheit)
- monologue
- A monologue (as versus a dialogue) is an extended, uninterrupted speech by a single person. The person may be speaking his or her thoughts aloud or directly addressing other persons, e.g. an audience, a character, or a reader. -- (Source: Monolgoue at Wikipedia )
- motherhood statement story
- An SF story which posits some profoundly unsettling threat to the human condition, explores the implications briefly, then hastily retreats to affirm the conventional social and humanistic pieties, ie apple pie and motherhood. Greg Egan once stated that the secret of truly effective SF was to deliberately "burn the motherhood statement." (Attr. Greg Egan ) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
- Mrs. Brown
- The small, downtrodden, eminently common, everyday little person who nevertheless encapsulates something vital and important about the human condition. "Mrs. Brown" is a rare personage in the SF genre, being generally overshadowed by swaggering submyth types made of the finest gold-plated cardboard. In a famous essay, "Science Fiction and Mrs. Brown," Ursula K. Le Guin decried Mrs. Brown's absence from the SF field. (Attr: Virginia Woolf) (Source: Turkey City Lexicon )
[edit] N
- narratology
- The study of the narrative form.
- narrator
- A narrator is an entity within a story that tells the story to the reader. It is one of three entities responsible for story-telling of any kind. The others are the author and the reader (or audience). The author and the reader both inhabit the real world. It is the author's function to create the alternate world, people, and events within the story. It is the reader's function to understand and interpret the story. The narrator exists within the world of the story (and only there—although in non-fiction the narrator and the author can share the same persona, since the real world and the world o