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Tips for writing GOOD science fiction
This is a collection of problems and solutions related to writing
SF which was collected in the Turkey City Workshop in Austin -- a
group which has included William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Lewis Shiner,
Rudy Rucker, and Walter Jon Williams.
It provides useful classifications for some common SF glitches and
blunders and is also quite fun to read. Some, like Bathos, The Grubby
Apartment Story, and The God-in-the-Box, apply to fiction in general.
Others, like The Eyeball Kick, "As You Know, Bob", and The Jar of
Tang, are specifically related to SF and fantasy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE TURKEY CITY LEXICON
A Primer for SF Workshops
Edited by Lewis Shiner
NOT COPYRIGHTED
Introduction
------------
This manual is intended to focus on the special needs of the science
fiction workshop. Having an accurate and descriptive critical term
for a common SF problem makes it easier to recognize and discuss.
This guide is intended to save workshop participants from having to
"reinvent the wheel" (see section 3) at every session. The terms here
were generally developed over a period of many years in many
workshops. Those identified with a particular writer are acknowledged
in parentheses at the end of the entry. Particular help for this
project was provided by Bruce Sterling and the other regulars of the
Turkey City Workshop in Austin, Texas.
1. WORDS
"Said" Bookism
Artificial literary verb used to avoid the perfectly good word
"said." "Said." is one of the few invisible words in the language; it
is almost impossible to overuse. Infinitely less distracting than "he
retorted", "she inquired", or the all-time favorite "he ejaculated."
Tom Swifty
Similar compulsion to follow the word "said" (or "said"
bookism) with an adverb. As in, "'We'd better hurry,' said Tom
swiftly." Remember that the adverb is a leech sucking the strength
from the verb. 99% of the time it is clear from context how something
was said.
"Burly Detective" Syndrome
Fear of proper names. Found in most of the same pulp
magazines that abound with "said" bookisms and Tom Swifties. This is
where you can't call Mike Shayne "Shayne" but substitute "the burly
detective" or "the red-headed sleuth." Like the "said" bookism it
comes from the entirely wrong-headed conviction that you can't use the
same word twice in the same sentence, paragraph, or even page. This
is only true of particularly strong and highly visible words, like,
say, "vertiginous." It's always better to re-use an ordinary, simple
noun or verb rather than contrive a cumbersome method of avoiding it.
Eyeball Kick
That perfect, telling detail that creates an instant visual
image. The ideal of certain postmodern schools of SF is to achieve a
"crammed prose" full of "eyeball kicks." (Rudy Rucker)
Pushbutton Words
Words used to evoke an emotional response without engaging the
intellect or critical faculties. Words like "song" or "poet" or
"tears" or "dreams." These are supposed to make us misty-eyed without
quite knowing why. Most often found in story titles.
Bathos
Sudden change in the level of diction. "The massive hound
barked in a stentorian voice then made wee-wee on the carpet."
Brand Name Fever
Use of a 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 what it *looks* like.
2. SENTENCES AND PARAGRAPHS
Countersinking
Expositional redundancy. Making the actions implied in a
conversation explicit, e.g., "'Let's get out of here,' he said, urging
her to leave."
Telling, Not Showing
Violates the cardinal rule in good writing. The reader should
be allowed to react, not instructed in *how* to react. Carefully
observed details render authorial value judgements unnecessary. For
instance, instead of telling us "she had a bad childhood, an unhappy
childhood," specific instances -- involving, say, a locked closet and
two jars of honey -- should be shown.
Laughtrack
Characters give cues to the reader as to how to react. They
laugh at their own jokes, cry at their own pain, and (unintentionally)
feel everything so the reader doesn't have to.
Squid in the Mouth
Inappropriate humor in front of strangers. Basically the
failure of an author to realize that certain assumptions or jokes are
not shared by the world at large. In fact, the world at large will
look upon such a writer as if they had a squid in their mouths. (Jim
Blaylock)
Hand Waving
Distracting the reader with dazzling prose or other fireworks
to keep them from noticing a severe logical flaw. (Stuart Brand)
You Can't Fire Me, I Quit
Attempt to diffuse lack of credibility with hand-waving. "I
would never have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself." As if by
anticipating the reader's objections the author had somehow answered
them. (John Kessel)
Fuzz
Element of motivation the author was too lazy to supply. The
word "somehow" is an automatic tipoff to fuzzy areas of a story.
"Somehow she forgot to bring her gun."
Dischism
Intrusion of author's physical surroundings (or mental state)
into the narrative. Like the character who always lights a cigarette
when the author does, or is thinking about how they wished they hadn't
quit smoking. In more subtle forms the characters complain that
they're confused and don't know what to do -- when this is actually
the author's condition. (Tom Disch)
Bogus Alternatives
List of actions a character could have taken, but didn't.
Frequently includes all the reasons why. A type of Dischism in which
the author works 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.
False Interiorization
Another Dischism, in which the author, too lazy to describe
the surroundings, inflicts the viewpoint character with space
sickness, a blindfold, etc.
White Room Syndrome
Author's imagination fails to provide details. Most common in
the beginning of a story. "She awoke in a white room." The white
room is obviously the white piece of paper confronting the author.
The character has just woken up in order to be starting fresh, like
the author. Often in order to ponder her circumstances and provide an
excuse for Info Dump (see below).
3. BACKGROUND
Info Dump
Large chunk of indigestible expository matter intended to
explain the background situation. This can be overt, as in fake
newspaper or "Encyclopedia Galactica" articles inserted in the text,
or covert, in which all action stops as the author assumes center
stage and lectures.
Stapledon
Name assigned to the voice which takes center stage to
lecture. Actually a common noun, as: "You have a stapledon come on to
answer this problem instead of showing the characters resolve it."
"As You Know, Bob"
The most pernicious form of Info Dump. In which the
characters tell each other things they already know, for the sake of
getting the reader up to speed.
"I've Suffered For My Art" (and now it's your turn)
Research dump. A form of Info Dump in which the author
inflicts upon the reader irrelevant, but hard-won, bits of data
acquired while researching the story.
Re-Inventing the Wheel
In which the novice author goes to enormous lengths to create
a situation already familiar to an experienced reader. You most often
see this when a highly regarded mainstream writer tries to write an SF
novel without actually reading any of the existing stuff first
(because it's all obviously crap anyway). Thus you get endless
explanations of, say, how an atomic war might get started by accident.
Thank you, but we've all read that already. Also you get tedious
explanations by physicists of how their interstellar drive works.
Unless it impacts the plot, we don't care.
Used Furniture
Use of a background out of Central Casting. Rather than
invent a background and have to explain it, or risk re-inventing the
wheel, let's just steal one. We'll set it in the Star Trek Universe,
only we'll call it the Empire instead of the Federation.
Space Western
The most pernicious suite of used furniture. The grizzled
space captain swaggering into the spacer bar and slugging down a
Jovian brandy, then laying down a few credits for a space hooker to
give him a Galactic Rim Job.
The 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."
The Grubby Apartment Story
Writing too much about what you know. The kind of story where
the starving writer living in the grubby apartment writes a story
about a starving writer in a grubby apartment. Stars all of his
friends.
4. PLOTS
Card Tricks in the Dark
Authorial tricks to no visible purpose. The author has
contrived an elaborate plot to arrive at a) the punchline of a joke no
one else will get b) some bit of historical trivia. In other words,
if the point of your story is that this kid is going to grow up to be
Joseph of Arimathea, there should be sufficient *internal* evidence
for us to figure this out.
The Jar of Tang
"For you see, we are all living in a jar of Tang!" or "For you
see, I am a dog!" Mainstay of the old Twilight Zone TV show. An
entire pointless story contrived so the author can cry "Fooled you!"
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 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.
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.
Deus Ex Machina or God-in-the-Box
Miraculous solution to an otherwise insoluble problem. Look,
the Martians all caught cold and died!
Plot Coupons
The true structure of the quest-type fantasy novel. The
"hero" collects sufficient plot coupons (magic sword, magic book,
magic cat) to send off to the author for the ending. Note that "the
author" can be substituted for "the Gods" in such a work: "The Gods
END OF FILE
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