Wednesday, 3rd of May, 2006

One of the big literary crutches of the science fiction world is the infodump, in which either the narrator or some character is enlisted to explain a Big Idea, fill in background, etc. Sometimes it works, oftentimes it bogs down the text terribly. So you’ll be delighted to read Jed Hartman explain:
“How I explained infodumps and saved humanity”

PS “skiffery”? “Skiffy” is a term of endearment for sf (= sci-fi = skiffy, see?)

One Response to “skiffery”

1. Kutuzov says:
   May 5th, 2006 at 9:10 pm

   hahaha, clever article.

   I like the “Ancillary Documentation” device used in Donaldson’s Gap series. Simple and effective :)