Infodumping

I love reading blogs, and blog comments. You often find some pearls buried in the comments.

Detectives Beyond Borders often comes up with gems supplied by commenters. In a recent discussion on the phenomenon of the info-dump, or CSI effect, where writers feel the need to educate the reader on every technical detail, to the detriment of the plot and pace, Linkmeister referred us to this from the Science Fiction Writers Association - The Turkey City Lexicon. It's a glossary of terms, often with attributions, of shall we say, interesting plot devices, characters, structures and words.

An example: Roget's disease: "The ludicrous overuse of far-fetched adjectives, piled into a festering, fungal,tenebrous, troglodytic, ichorous, leprous, synonymic heap"

It's quite a long article, and geared for science fiction writers, but can apply to any writing. It's definitely worth a look, and a giggle.

By the way, the Sci-fi people call the info dump the "As you know, Bob."