Long, scifi
« Another thing which makes this worse is that our science changes over time. If I did the best possible research on what we right now think would be the best shape for a superfast flying thing (based on the Blackbird perhaps?), nonetheless ten years from now we might do other research and discover a new shape is better, and using that shape would come across as wrong and super dated. To give a real example though I forget what story it was, there’s an SF story set in the future where an explorer entering a derelict spaceship pulls out her cell phone and turns the screen white so she can see by its light–instantly dates it to the brief phase when phones didn’t have flashlights, and feels distracting. If it just said “She shone a light” it wouldn’t be distracting at all, it would always feel correct no matter how much tech changes.» from https://www.exurbe.com/terra-ignota-ama-questions-craft-of-writing-performer-casting/
I find it really interesting that the author thinks this is bad instead of one of my favorite things about reading older scifi. Everyone’s taste is different I guess??
re: Long, scifi
I don’t think these two essays are intentionally responding to each-other, but I do think SuperDoomedPlanet’s critique of what they call the “novelization style” (transparent prose, consistently close 3rd person narrator, short time-frames & high stakes, narrative structures you’d expect from a tv show or a movie) reflects a lot of the reasons why I found Ex Urbe’s argument that specific worldbuilding is bad because someone might disagree with it so baffling
this is my long writing meta quotes thread now
« You can’t really go wrong if you’re going feelings-first. That’s a very fic thing, and obviously coming from fanfic, I’m a very feelings-driven writer, so feelings and character are the things that are gonna get you through a story, and if you’ve got the feelings and the character right, nobody’s really going to mind that much if they’ve seen a plot similar to this before, there’s no original plots really under the sun…but if you get the feelings and the characters right, people are gonna come along for the ride.»
https://www.fansplaining.com/episodes/163-freya-marske