Literature

Literature

Of or pertaining to the art of writing in any form or style, most especially published works.

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Literature > Fiction

pay off

Literature; Fiction

To be employed later in the furtherance of the dramatic or thematic intent of the story. Under the principle of economy, elements which fail to pay off weaken the story and cause ...

perception fallacy

Literature; Fiction

If a scene is told from a particular character’s point of view (that is, no omniscient narrator), everything shown in that scene must be perceivable by the POV character. The ...

superman syndrome

Literature; Fiction

The habit of magnifying the good points of focus characters and either giving them no bad points whatsoever or obscuring and rationalizing the minor ones they have. Usually leads ...

tense

Literature; Fiction

The dominant verb-tense in which the main story is told. Most are told in straight past tense, although in a few cases (e.g. Tiptree, ''Brightness Falls from the Air;'' Atwood, ...

use it or lose it

Literature; Fiction

A critiquing comment. A story or novel will introduce many elements, some of which are put onstage at an early point in the proceedings with the apparent implication that they ...

used furniture

Literature; Fiction

A background out of Central Casting, often chosen by an author too lazy to invent a good one.

runaround

Literature; Fiction

Frenetic activity by characters we don’t care about, usually in search of objects or goals we’re uninterested in seeing them achieve. Usually injected into action stories when the ...