{"id":1212,"date":"2021-07-21T21:23:52","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T21:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/?p=1212"},"modified":"2024-01-27T19:29:31","modified_gmt":"2024-01-27T19:29:31","slug":"what-ive-learned-from-critiquing-sff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/2021\/07\/21\/what-ive-learned-from-critiquing-sff\/","title":{"rendered":"What I’ve Learned from Critiquing SF&F"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wednesday, 21 July 2021<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are observations on what works, from critiques I made during my Summer 2021 Worldbuilding Course<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Small-scale Moves<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • Application of pointed observation<\/strong>: \n
      \n
    • \u201cMarq exhaled a harsh breath. Vampires didn\u2019t need to breathe, but there was nothing like stress to bring back old habits.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • \u201cbut I\u2019m too hyped on adrenaline and fear to be reasonable.\u201c<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Arch \/coy reference\u2014no need to spell out. \u201c<\/strong>\u2026while sipping from a flower-patterned teacup. There wasn\u2019t tea inside it, of course. Vampires only drank one thing.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Resonance, but with contrast.<\/strong> \u2026setting aside his teacup on the saucer with a soft clank on the table between them. A smudge of blood glistened on the cup\u2019s lip, next to a delicately patterned rose. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • \u2018Yes, of course they would do that\u2026\u2019<\/strong>\n
        \n
      • Bamor then glanced over at me. I had a feeling he was going to make me capture the thing… <#> Slowly, I descended into\u2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • <protagonist is told what happened while he was passed out, and the story indicates that others took credit for what he did><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Sarcasm: <\/strong>\u201cJust endanger me by association. No biggie.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • Embodiment and proxemics: <\/strong>\n
          \n
        • \u201cA bubble of abandonment formed around me.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • \u201cThey edged away\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • \u2018She threw open her arms and took a deep lung-stretching breath of the cold mountain air.\u2019<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
        • Full-spectrum description: sensation, embodiment, tendency<\/strong>\n
            \n
          • \u201cWhile her sister slept, Olivia lived in the waking world. She was four years older, with snowplow shoulders and choppy, dirty-yellow hair. She fought anyone who offered to \u201cwake Sleeping Beauty.\u201d <\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • \u201cOlivia\u2019s mouth tasted sour and coppery. She had bitten her lip in the fall. She spat a glob of soil and blood as Eloise pulled her to her feet.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
          • \u201cRosemary\u2019s legs pumped up and down to the rhythm of her lungs as they strained for oxygen. Her normal tailored skirts and shiny loafers were abandoned for sweat-stained denim and sneakers with holes in the toe.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

            Larger-scale moves<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n
              \n
            • Tension leavens ambiguity. <\/strong>It is good to try to strike a balance between ambiguity (the number of unanswered questions) and the tension: more ambiguity requires more tension to pull the reader along<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • Frame invocation. <\/strong><Invoking a \u2018frame\u2019 (like salvaging) or <script>  in the opening is an effective way to reduce exposition because it invokes a set of expectations, goals and roles.><\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • Persistent metonym: <\/strong>\u201cChill seeps through dad\u2019s jacket.\u201d Recurring motif across scenes contects to history and motivation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
            • Linguistic tics<\/strong>: Paralinguistic habits \u2013 stuttering, word or phrase repetition, unusual but customary syntactic constructions \u2013 can help distinguish one character from others.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

              Views: 18<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Wednesday, 21 July 2021 These are observations on what works, from critiques I made during my Summer 2021 Worldbuilding Course Views: 18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73,38,39,50,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal_notes","category-course_notes","category-craft-of-writing","category-things-ive-learned","category-things_to_try"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1212"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2942,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1212\/revisions\/2942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomeri.org\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}