Nornagest comments on SotW: Be Specific - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (306)
Why specifically "erotic", and then why "fiction"? What's wrong with "write about what you had for lunch" or "write about your commute to get here"? I think anyone who can write a page on those has a decent sense of how to be specific (although this does NOT train the 5-second-skill of noticing WHEN you need to be specific)
I don't think it'd necessarily need to be erotic as such, but the "show, don't tell" concept (a subset of "be specific") is, if not quite specific to fiction, at least a lot easier to screw up there. If you're writing about your lunch or your commute to work, you've already got a sense of the salient details and probably won't be tempted to hide behind coarse descriptions of your emotional state; neither's necessarily true if you're writing about some fictional character.