• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Writers' Bullshit Bingo

Is that a lot of responsibility piled on the first few sentences of your story? Yes. it is.

I agree until this part—but only because I don't think it must happen in the first few sentences. It should happen quickly, but not necessarily that quickly, heh.
 
The only item in the list that I truly hate is "Just write."

The rest are useful concepts; because I've already plumbed much of that depth, I don't care when others use them in a facile way. (Except perhaps "hard choices." Is that phrase used much at all? I don't think it points at much. So I haven't...er, plumbed that heh.)

But "just write" excludes so much that is part of the process of creation. It also excludes—purposely and pointedly, sometimes—consideration of all the other things on the list and much more. "Don't think at all, peeps! Just write!" This is how I hear it, despite whatever good intentions may lie behind the phrase.
 
In my profession, I see people with a smattering of legal education or understanding and throwing statements around that are in fact coke induced tweets (see badlegaltakes on twitter.) It is ignorance. And it takes some time to learn what to filter out in all the noise.

I presume you're a lawyer?

One of the very first things I was taught at law school was: "never get into arguments about the law with non-lawyers."

This may seem like an appallingly elitist attitude (and I never observe it, which means I get into heaps of appalling arguments at dinner parties). But I understand where it's coming from - lawyers are trained to see all sides/parts of a problem, whereas many non-lawyers tend to be subjective and only see their own side. (Especially my sister.)

Functionally, this means the legal brain is (often) dealing with more pieces of the puzzle than the non-legal brain, which leads to a crisis of congruity. You can't usefully debate with someone if you're not using at least some common terms of reference. There is no point arguing, especially when someone takes an empassioned position on a personally perceived injustice.

I guess what I'm saying is that only lawyers should be allowed to talk about anything.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
It's sounding a lot to me like the OP is trying to make fun(?) of the jargon that serves as shorthand for larger concepts in our profession. These terms, "Mary Sue" and "hook" and "show, don't tell," keep us from making statements like, "You know, that bit at the end of the section that supposed to keep the reader turning pages because they're too excited to put the book down."

Here, have fun. TV Tropes
 
One of the very first things I was taught at law school

Say, a courtroom drama in a fantasy setting would be pretty fun. Magic could create all kinds of weird exceptions and stuff, and we could have ancient law texts which only the most extreme would dare invoke since they are sentient and unreliable.
 
Say, a courtroom drama in a fantasy setting would be pretty fun. Magic could create all kinds of weird exceptions and stuff, and we could have ancient law texts which only the most extreme would dare invoke since they are sentient and unreliable.
I’m actually working on a magic systems based on property law and writing an urban fantasy where an average joe lawyer shows the world that magic is real by suing demons to save his friend’s soul.
 

Alex Reiden

Minstrel
I’m surprised the “Mary Sue” trope annoys you. I have been thinking about that, and I think characters that do all in a perfect way are predecible and can became hateful, so writters shouldn't build them.

That's the best way to use them! Creating a Mary Sue as a rival for one or more of your major/POV characters is a great way to set them up for failure and real character development.
 
Top