Common First Author Mistakes - What are they, and are there SF speficic ones? - rec.arts.sf.written

Message from discussion Common First Author Mistakes - What are they, and are there SF speficic ones?

Konrad Gaertner

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More options Jul 5, 12:57 am

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written

From: Konrad Gaertner <kgaert...@tx.rr.com>

Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:57:27 -0500

Local: Sat, Jul 5 2008 12:57 am

Subject: Re: Common First Author Mistakes - What are they, and are there SF speficic ones?

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Kurt Busiek wrote:

> On 2008-07-04 11:18:37 -0700, Konrad Gaertner <kgaert...@tx.rr.com> said:

> > phdu...@gmail.com wrote:

> >> And I was wondering, what are these problems? The only one I can
> >> think of is the 'kitchen sink' problem, where every cool idea the
> >> author's ever had shows up in one book, but I'm sure there's more.
> >> Are there any sfnal specific first novel problems?

> > Telling instead of showing, railroad plots, idiot plots, sloppy
> > scene changes, inconsistant internal chronology.

> What is a "railroad plot"? I'm unfamiliar with the term.

Its mainly a gaming term, but here it means the author knows what
plot events are going to happen, and characters either act out of
character or are not given any choices in the first place.

--
Konrad Gaertner - - - - - - - - - - - - email: kgaert...@tx.rr.com
http://kgbooklog.livejournal.com/
"I don't mind hidden depths but I insist that there be a surface."
-- James Nicoll

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