Critter Notices
Critters is 30!
Last November, Critters turned 30 years old! Wow! Thanks so much to all of you, who've made it such a resounding success!
FEATURED BOOK
What are the most common faults that get stories rejected from the slushpile? An editor speaks! Posted with permission from a newsgroup exchange, we have this: Mary Soon Lee began by saying... > Guy Gavriel Kay has one habit I hate, > that of withholding key information from the reader, even when it > is known to the POV character. ====================================================================== Yer Critter Captain replied... >This really annoys me, too (no matter who the author). It's tempting to >do it, but I hate myself when I do it, so I try never to. The couple >times I have, it's only been for the span of a few paragraphs, and I've >justified it as "but the POV wouldn't stop to explain it and I need a >few more sentences before I can clue the reader in". But those spots >still feel like a burr on an otherwise smooth piece of wood. >How do other folks feel about withholding POV information from the reader? >How widespread is my personal feeling that this is a cheap/false tension trick? ====================================================================== and Liz Holliday, editor of Odyssey answered... >I'd say it's one of the two commonest faults in my slushpile rejects >(the other being a story in which the protagonist doesn't do anything >or have any stake). I think one particular beginner error is to use >this method in order to write a story with a twist ending - whereas a >better story would tell the reader the secret early on, and explore >the consequences. ====================================================================== So there you have it, folks, right from an editor's mouth. Learn it and live by it. :-)