Holly Lisle vs. RTD

[rabid1st]

Holly Lisle has an ax to grind against what she terms GLS, Genuis-Level Suckitude. She points out that many Pulitzer Prize winning works actually suck. And she's right about that, in my less than humble opinion. But her rules for Suckitude have a particularly telling rule for most of the SciFi "genius" writers out there. She has a rule against hope and one against coherence. There is even a rule against plot. But I immediately think of Rose and Donna and for that matter the Tenth Doctor when I read this rule...

XII. Thou shalt equate self-determination with heresy.

Self-determination is hope on steroids. Self-determination states that things could be better than they are, and believes the individual can do something to make them get better. In permitting your characters to express self-determination, you would be suggesting that your characters -- those malcontent bastards -- might in some way wish to see their worlds improve, or might even take a hand in improving them, or might have confidence in their own competence or the functioning of their own minds.

Read the rest of the rules or more stuff by Holly Lisle at her site...

http://hollylisle.com/index.php/Workshops/how-to-write-suckitudinous-fiction.html

Comments

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

I found the Comic Relief skits derivative and depressing. There was nothing about them that made me tingle with anticipation for the next series. It depresses me that SM's idea of a liberated woman (in Amy's case at least) is someone who dresses like a slut, and what little plot there was boiled down to a bit of Total Bollocks Overdrive, Amy flirting with herself and a rerun of the Garden of Eden story - the woman tempted me, so it's all her fault.

I do take these things seriously, don't I?