Comments for The Think Sideways Writer Crash Tests

Comment on Holly Lisle and The Case of the Exploding Cat by Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Your story doesn’t have to be realistic or plausible, just believable

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:00:37 +0000

[...] If we accept the premise of your story, whether that’s heroes getting superpowers from unlikely insect bites or gaining magical powers, does the rest of the story make sense? For example, you could get readers to buy into a guy getting magical powers and using them to fight a magical mob. But if the story is mostly realistic, like a cop infiltrating the mob, it’ll really disorient readers if a mobster starts using magic on page 200. If you’re planning on using unrealistic elements, introduce or foreshadow them early so that readers won’t be surprised when they show up. (For more on this, please see Holly Lisle and the Case of the Exploding Cat). [...]

Comment on Holly Lisle and the Case of the Ghostly Girls by Sandra Connor

Sandra Connor — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 23:59:16 +0000

WOW! These are amazing and so much help. I can’t tell you how glad I am to have found such a talented and approachable teacher like you. Simple, straight out instruction and criticism that gets right to the point of the matter without loads techno-babble that just goes in one ear and out the other.

Thank you so much.

Comment on Holly Lisle and the Case of the Ghostly Girls by irrevenoid

irrevenoid — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:49:25 +0000

It seems to be a key premise that our main character can’t distinguish ghosts from normal people, and this is an ongoing problem for her.

Wouldn’t it undermine that premise if you used physical foreshadowing (like temperature changes) that the character really should have noticed?

Thanks.

Comment on What is a frame story? by Holly Lisle

Holly Lisle — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:32:53 +0000

Yeah, that pretty well sums it up.

Comment on What is a frame story? by Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:56:45 +0000

Although it is off-target for novel writing, as far as writing in general goes: Holly, what do you think of the framing story as a device for binding short stories into a novel-like whole? I can think of (modern) examples which in my opinion worked (City, by Clifford Simak) and also some that didn’t work so well (Niven’s Crashlander). To the extent that you’d work with short story writers (I know your target is The Novel), would you recommend a frame for this purpose, and if not, what would you use in its place?

I like GOOD framed stories. Clearly, a lot of writers and would-be writers like the idea of framing a story; I base that on the resistance I’ve read to your statement that it’s a fundamentally bad technique, and the fact that it’s a hot enough topic to get two threads (the crash test and this one).

Could it be that we love the idea of the framing story so much BECAUSE it’s generally a bad idea, and it only works well enough to get into print (and to be remembered as a good read) when the author was, as you say, brilliant enough to make it work anyway? So that as readers, we remember the times it’s been made to work despite its inherent flaws, and we mistakenly think the story was great because of the frame — when actually, it was a great story DESPITE the device.