who's playing this game?
Renatus:
Quote from: SimsHost on 2005 August 16, 03:24:43
Fantasy writers often make the same blunder with elaborate descriptions of social structures, spell-casting systems, family trees, and how castles are made. Geez, folks, if you just want to bloat the word count, throw in a sex scene.
Oh no no no please, don't. Infodumps are boring, but random sex scenes are worse because they're universally bad. If I want sex, I'll read erotica, in which the sex makes sense in the context and is much more likely to be written by someone who knows what they're doing.
I can almost make an allowance for it for NaNoWriMo, although I think if someone needs to inflate their word count they'd do a lot better by writing some more actual story.
Marvin Kosh:
I don't mind an infodump so long as it goes somewhere. For example, if David Weber hadn't explained what a gravity sidewall or an impeller wedge were - and what their military implications were - the rest of the book (On Basilisk Station) would have left the average reader scratching their head. When you incorporate the information in a way which pre-empts questions you are bound to ask later, you speed up the narrative flow (and thus the must-turn-page effect) later on in the book.
fff:
Tom Clancy's books are the worst for that, I think - great big huge bloated monsters where he goes into so much intricate detail about things.... it just puts me off wanting to read anymore sometimes...
bluecatvon:
haha...sorry guys, i know this will have a catrastrophic effect here but...is anyone here a Lord of the Rings fans? cuz i am, but i don't see anyone talking bout it...
laeshanin:
Of course... LOTR is THE finest fantasy book/s ever written and is the standard upon which all others hang their colours. Aragorn is the character I fell in love with (thus setting an impossible standard for boyfriends and partners), and as I've never met anyone like him and won't, I shan't be bothering (again) with the whole relationship thing. It blew me away the first time I read it at 13, and on subsequent rereads have been similarly affected.
A note of interest...I live within a mile of where Tolkein grew up, and walk around the area he frequented as a child. It's very industrialised now, but there are remnants of what he based The Shire on, namely, Moseley Bog. Sarehole Mill has regular events, and readings, plus there's the chance of a decent beer.
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