Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

It sure helps to enjoy a story when you don't have to nitpick potential errors in facts or current event discrepancies. For facts I look them up or study the related areas. Fiction I read to have a little pleasure and sometimes to help me forget.

Except ... you'd be surprised at how many readers will follow a story on Google, tracking the location of characters. If you put someone in the wrong location, or have them traveling somewhere in an unrealistic time frame, you may hear it, but chances are, the readers will grumble and never comment to the author.

Technology has opened the world to readers in ways Gutenberg never imagined.

Except ... you'd be surprised at how many readers will follow a story on Google, tracking the location of characters

Yeah, and I still haven't narrowed down that damn trailer park in Tampa, despite finding the airfield and bike shop.

typo edit

Yeah, and I still haven't narrowed down that damn trailer park in Tampa, despite finding the airfield and bike shop.

I've walked both sides of this fence. While I've sometimes provided Google Maps of the various locations in my stories, if I need a new location, and especially if I don't want to portray an existing business negatively, I'll invent the business/park/town out of whole cloth. But ... the maps I included on my website were universally ignored, so I abandoned the practice.

@graybyrd

Some fiction tales are easier than others to read with a forgiving imagination. Those 'others' will strain credulity with inconsistent plot devices, 'Saturday Matinee' miraculous rescues, and characters who strain belief with convenient superhuman powers. There's no fun in that.

I've always disliked D.C. comics because of the 'Superman effect'. In the early days of Superman, every issue, they'd present a new challenge, and in the end, presto-chango, they'd reveal a new superpower to get him out of it. That's where his X-ray vision, heat vision, etc. all came from.

Now I write sci-stories about characters facing strange abilities, and like the early Spiderman comics, they wrestle with the implications of those abilities and strive to comprehend where they came from, rather than spending their time wrestling other guys in Spandex tights (which, pardon the language) always struck me as being fairly gay, literally!

@demonmaster62

One can say alt timeline all they want, but stuff like that drove fans like me away from the show in a hurry.

That's the problem with the whole 'alternate universe' theory. It's a short cut allowing authors to skip over the necessary story development. A central rule, in writing fiction (and especially science-fiction) is the readers give you several chapters to define the parameters of your universe, during which time you can claim almost anything, but after that, you can't add new rules, or violate your already established rules, without losing fans. The more to try, and the more extreme the offense, the more readers you'll lose. And in a series, the 'alternate reality' complications continually increase over time.

Thus sayeth Roddenberry.

Thus sayeth the fans: "Don't fuck with my imaginary universe, bitch!" Yuu may have created the series, but don't keep pulling my chain by changing the rules you initially explained in painstaking detail just because it allows a quick escape from unexpected plot holes!

Sorry, rambling. Oh, and if T'Pol a full blooded Vulcan could fall so easily into a relationship with Tucker, why could half human Spock not get with Chapel at all?

Because Spock more or less denied and even fought his human half until the time of the forth movie. (The one where they pilfer the whales)

BTW, hat ST:ENT seen the fifth season, T'Pol would have been revealed to be half-Romulan. The episode had apparently already been written before the show was cancelled.

Sorry, rambling. Oh, and if T'Pol a full blooded Vulcan could fall so easily into a relationship with Tucker, why could half human Spock not get with Chapel at all?

Because Spock more or less denied and even fought his human half until the time of the forth movie. (The one where they pilfer the whales)

BTW, hat ST:ENT seen the fifth season, T'Pol would have been revealed to be half-Romulan. The episode had apparently already been written before the show was cancelled.

Major errors are fine to be fixed. But trying to make one perfect won't work really. There is no such [thing] as the perfect story, there will always be mistakes or potential improvements.

Sorry, but you have that backwards. Typos are a simple fix. Major errors require an extensive rewrite, potentially requiring removal of a book from publication and several months revising the story.

That's why plot holes are such show stoppers, while improper grammar and/or punctuation errors are simple to correct.

Many (editors) advocate hiring a content/structural editor before writing, just so you can avoid the major story issues (like having a murdering adulterer as the lead in a romance) before you're fully invested in an existing story, though few can afford that option, even if they sell a gazillion books!

That said, you have a point. There comes a point--a point which varies with each author--where you have to turn your back on changes to a story, otherwise you'll never write anything new, wanting to rewrite each of your existing books time and again.

It's like a lawyer suggesting that you need to hire (and pay) a lawyer before you get sued.

They do, it's called putting them on a retainer - it's so you can get them to respond quicker and others can't approach them to sue you.

typo edit

QC, anyone?

We have them down here, but I don't think they have them in the USA. If you go to the High Court you need a QC or they don't let you into the building - except on a visitors tour when court isn't in session.

I kind of vaguely know what a barrister is, but what the fuck is a QC?

Queen's Council - the legal beagles have various levels of training and authority with the baseline being a solicitor and they work their way up through barrister - QC is the top of the heap and only a QC is allowed to present a case at the highest levels.

edit to add - High Court is the Aust equivalent of the US Supreme Court

Major errors require an extensive rewrite, potentially requiring removal of a book from publication and several months revising the story.

True, but doesn't always happen. One of my favourite mainstream series of books has a stated position on ESP in the first book, which they violate and totally ignore by halfway through book 3. It irked me when I realised, but since the series has been out for over 15 years and the author is now dead, I seriously doubt they'll do anything about fixing it. Also, it's a minor point that I'm sure many readers missed.