>>> Item number 13966 from WRITERS LOG9306C --- (69 records) ----- <<< Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1993 17:00:02 JST Reply-To: WRITERS Sender: WRITERS From: Mike Barker Subject: TECH: Well-Worn SF Ideas This is summarized from one of the books on SF writing - an article by Stanley Schmidt called "The Ideas that Wouldn't Die." He was trying to list some of the notions that turn up again and again in slushpile SF, with the hope that some of us writers might reconsider before submitting... He also admits that Card, for example, among other well-known writers, seems intent on recycling these ideas. He suggests that you need to be very, very good - or at least take a new slant on it - before you try reusing these, at least in the SF field. Use them or avoid them, but you should be aware of them, so here they are: Surprise Endings that aren't 1. But it was only a dream. 2. And it was all just a game. 3. And the computer game turned out not to be a game after all! 4. The planet's inhabitants called it Earth. 5. And his name was Adam and hers was Eve. 6. And so, after great and protracted agony, the traveler finally emerged into the frightening new world...And the doctor said, "Congratulations, Mrs. Johnson, you have fine baby boy!" Scientific Misconceptions 7. She suffered terrible prejudice and persecution because she was a clone instead of a real person... 8. Jeb rocked on his front porch, squinting out at the steamy jungles that covered Vega V... Stock Plots 9. "Helen O'Loy" - robot in form of attractive humans with owners falling in love with them 10. The world after a holocaust (often nuclear) has destroyed civilization - populated with moaning wretches complaining about how bad things are and lecturing each other on how their ancestors brought this upon them. 11. Totalitarian societies that look just like hundreds of other fictitious totalitarian societies - but probably not much like any real one. 12. Couples applying for state permission to have a baby. 13. Individuals applying for state permission to live another year. 14. Time travel stories that add nothing new to venerable formulas, such as killing - or unsuccessfully trying to kill - one's own grandfather. 15. Psi stories that add nothing new. 16. UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, vampires, astral projection. 17. Cryogenically preserved patients awakening in Strange New Futures. 18. Aliens evaluating Homo Sap/Earth as candidate for extermination, admission to galactic federation, etc. 19. Deals with the Devil. 20. The frustrated SF writer using a time machine to find a more congenial market for his work. 21. Obvious take-offs on current events, such as aliens finding Pioneer 10. Narrative Devices and Stock Ingredients 22. Unnecessary, pointless, and often tedious sex and violence. 23. Feghoots - plot contrived to set up a punch line built around one (complex) pun. 24. Hard-boiled private eyes 25. Lady or the Tiger endings - don't cop out, unless the ambiguity is a real conclusion. 26. The last-minute gender switch.