I mentioned this at the Black Stilt, but in case anyone didn't have a chance to write it down, the url is:
http://www.sfwa.org/writing/turkeycity.html
It is a useful listing of both good and bad things found in fiction during workshops.
A Good Thing: Eyeball Kick
Vivid, telling details that create a kaleidoscopic effect of swarming visual imagery against a baroquely elaborate SF background. One ideal of cyberpunk SF was to create a "crammed prose" full of "eyeball kicks." (Attr. Rudy Rucker)
A Bad Thing: "I've suffered for my Art" (and now it's your turn)
A form of info-dump in which the author inflicts upon the reader hard-won, but irrelevant bits of data acquired while researching the story. As Algis Budrys once pointed out, homework exists to make the difficult look easy.
Bonus link just for fun, Nick Lowe on Plot Coupons:
http://news.ansible.co.uk/plotdev.html
Does anyone need links to Patricia Wrede on Worldbuilding or POV?
-Barbara
----------
