SW10/HCC: Superhuman World 2011: The Element of Surprise

[Scott Eiler]

On 2/23/2012 1:52 PM, Adrian J. McClure wrote:
> Mystical infighting is fun! I think I'm starting to sort of understand
> what's going on in this world now. :) I like the editorial footnotes
> as links to past stories. That said, I never actually felt the need to
> use them, as the past bits of this story were well-explained enough.
> The council meeting was a good way to work in exposition organically.
>
> I notice your writing doesn't tend to include any description, and I
> have no idea what any of these people or things look like, but I think
> it works for the kind of story you're telling, which is very idea-
> centric. It reminds me of "Golden Age" SF stories.

Thanks.  I suppose I could have mentioned that Lady Ebony is black. 
Indeed, she's the returning villainous Black Girl From Indianapolis.  I 
could yet have some snarky mage mention that on the rewrite... oh well. 
  I've had to work at changing my writing style from Wyatt Ferguson's 
rambling diaries, so I've landed at the opposite extreme.  I hesitate to 
go back

> The subject of description is on my mind becuase Andrew noted, when he
> edited Ultimate Mercenary #6, that my work tends to have an unusually
> profuse amount of description.

And it's big, too.  I've given up complaining about that, though.  Y'all 
want to give me free novelettes to read in my e-mail, I'll get to them 
eventually.

> Anyway, I sometimes wonder if there's too much description in my
> stories. RACC issues are meant to be rather short and quickly read,
> often equivalent to an average comic book issue.

I actually try to make mine shorter than comic books.  My stories get 
published as text on computers, and most people don't have a long 
attention span for that.  But that's a style thing.  It's not as if your 
style violates the RACC charter or anything.

Oh, and by the way, UM #6 was very stylish and elegiac, though with 
plenty of action too.  Hey, I used elegiac in a sentence!  Andrew taught 
me that word.  8{D>

> AJM (also liked the irony of having "^&%! the Challenge" in an HCC
> story)

Heh.  I hadn't thought of that.  But the Black Mage Challenge is a bit 
older than the RACC High Concept Challenge.  I first wrote about it in a 
1995 story.

-- 
(signed) Scott Eiler  8{D> -------- http://www.eilertech.com/ ---------

Turns out I'm an anally-fixated oedipal paranoid with 
south-of-the-border schizophrenic delusions...  But never mind, I've 
found me the ideal job.  I'm going to run for President!

- Major Honey, scripted by Grant Morrison... *Mister* Morrison to you.