Moderator Musings
Monday, August 16th, 2004 06:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniOf the two panels I'm moderating at WorldCon, one seems to have, on inspection, something of an odd kick in its assumptions.
The panel is title "Mind the Plot Holes, Dear," and the panelists are charged with giving examples of plot hole problems from "any piece of SF/F," categorize them, and offer suggestions on how the story could be saved/rewritten so as to seal the perceived hole.
We've got an able crew, easily capable of talking entertainingly for an hour about anything at all, but I'd like to at least come within shouting distance of the topic, preferably without bloodshed or tears.
I've thrown the question of how best to play it out to the rest of the panelists. One feels that it really wouldn't be fair to ding Classic SF/F (i.e. Dead Authors) for, say, science "mistakes" when the author was playing with the rules as known at the time, and I have to agree that this would be Bad Form.
There might be a couple of worthy targets among Pulpdom -- thinking here in terms of major secondary characters abruptly going missing and never mentioned again; or of loving preparations made for our hero's journey to Cleveland so he can save the girl, only to find him in New York after the scene break, on the cause of saving the world, and he doesn't notice the difference -- but I'm not sufficiently well-read to locate them, nor do I think they'd have a lot of relevance to our audience.
Another panelist offers the suggestion that we come prepared with errors from our own works. At first glance, this seems the most reasonable way to go, but the more I look on it, the uneasier I get. Do we really want to tell a room full of people that they can't trust us to be careful craftspeople?
I feel like there's some Really Obvious way to discuss the material -- which is interesting and useful in a What are Plot Holes? How to Recognize and Repair Them sort of way -- without either self-immolation or humiliating a fellow writer.
Wish I could figure out what it is, though...
The panel is title "Mind the Plot Holes, Dear," and the panelists are charged with giving examples of plot hole problems from "any piece of SF/F," categorize them, and offer suggestions on how the story could be saved/rewritten so as to seal the perceived hole.
We've got an able crew, easily capable of talking entertainingly for an hour about anything at all, but I'd like to at least come within shouting distance of the topic, preferably without bloodshed or tears.
I've thrown the question of how best to play it out to the rest of the panelists. One feels that it really wouldn't be fair to ding Classic SF/F (i.e. Dead Authors) for, say, science "mistakes" when the author was playing with the rules as known at the time, and I have to agree that this would be Bad Form.
There might be a couple of worthy targets among Pulpdom -- thinking here in terms of major secondary characters abruptly going missing and never mentioned again; or of loving preparations made for our hero's journey to Cleveland so he can save the girl, only to find him in New York after the scene break, on the cause of saving the world, and he doesn't notice the difference -- but I'm not sufficiently well-read to locate them, nor do I think they'd have a lot of relevance to our audience.
Another panelist offers the suggestion that we come prepared with errors from our own works. At first glance, this seems the most reasonable way to go, but the more I look on it, the uneasier I get. Do we really want to tell a room full of people that they can't trust us to be careful craftspeople?
I feel like there's some Really Obvious way to discuss the material -- which is interesting and useful in a What are Plot Holes? How to Recognize and Repair Them sort of way -- without either self-immolation or humiliating a fellow writer.
Wish I could figure out what it is, though...
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-17 12:02 pm (UTC)For instance, my all time most memorable plot hole is from Dragonflight, the first Pern novel. Lessa jumps back about 400 years in one big jump, and then jumps forward with the assembled Weyrs in (I think) 25 year hops. Unfortunately, she seriously blew the math - they only jumped forward something over 200 years, nowhere near 400.
Now, see? To me, that's an arithmetic problem, not a plot hole. A plot hole would be something like: Lessa jumps back 400 years in one swell foop, but has to take a taxi -- or find and activate a macguffin -- in order to return.