Re: Writers who jumped the shark

in article 3F06430F.5020009@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 Sea Wasp said:

> You should NEVER contradict known facts within your universe without
> a damn good reason.

While I agree that plain old sloppiness makes for a weakened story, I also
hate the use of words like "should" and "never" in any discussion of any
art, including writing.

There are no "rules" that can't be broken successfully--because there are
no
rules.  There's only a collection of observations about what's worked
before, and a much larger collection of people making observations about
those observations.

Someone will write (has written?) a terrific story in which inconsistency
is, itself, the point.  That's one way art is born: someone ignores the
arguments about how best to wrap fragile items for ****pping, and instead
makes something inherently valuable out of the bubble wrap.

If you're shooting for straight genre, yeah, stay consistent.  If not...

....all bets are off.


Keith

http://www.woollymammoth.com/keith