Writing Conventions/Cliches
Chev pointed this out:
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/turkeycity.html
Interesting reading for anyone, as many of the items raised occur across lots of genres… fraught reading for writers, though.
Luckily, I think I manage to avoid most of the pitfalls instinctively, but stray dangerously close to some of them on occassion!



Rol
Well, I just threw away my keyboard…
Plumbing ahoy!
Reply
Nicolas Papaconstantinou
Oh, you big silly…
It did feel a bit weird reading some of that, especially as bits of the struggling novel (managed exactly 1,000 words in Nanowrimo month so far!) may fall into some of those categories, but I think we’re generally quite an inventive and original bunch at EW.
Especially you, Rol, you big sideburned cutie you!
Reply
Chev
I Googled the site based on an appendix in a book I just found – Intersections, a collection of ostensibly SF stories from published writers attending the Sycamore Hill writers’ workshop in ’94. Each story is followed by the comments made by the other writers during its writing and an afterword by the author detailing the creation and which critiques they felt were vaild or not. As a writing handbook, it is up there with On Writing for plain, simple and retrospectively obvious advice.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0312863845/?tag=nixsight-21
Reply
Nicolas Papaconstantinou
That book sounds essential, Chev. Thanks for sharing your research!
Reply