Editing 483: Fiction Rule of Thumb
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| title = Fiction Rule of Thumb | | title = Fiction Rule of Thumb | ||
| image = fiction_rule_of_thumb.png | | image = fiction_rule_of_thumb.png | ||
| − | | titletext = Except for anything by Lewis Carroll or Tolkien, you get five made-up words per story. I'm looking at you, Anathem. | + | | titletext = Except for anything by Lewis Carroll or Tolkien, you get five made-up words per story. I'm looking at you, Anathem. |
}} | }} | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
| − | + | In this comic, Randall purports that the more words an author makes up, the less likely his book is any good. To demonstrate this, he provides a an example where a hypothetical author uses three made up words, Fra'as, Farmlings, and Krytoses. The latter of these words are is described very unprofessionally as being ''"like swords but awesomer"'' (ironic, given that "awesomer" is itself a made-up word). | |
| − | The | + | The alt text puports that the average author makes up five words per book, but mentions that [[wikipedia:J.R.R. Tolkien | J.R.R. Tolkien]] and [[wikipedia: Lewis Carrol | Lewis Carrol]] are exceptions, as they are both very famous, well-respected writers [[Wikipedia:Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien | who made shit up]] [[Wikipedia: Jabberwocky | all the time]]. |
| − | Randall also makes a dig at | + | Randall also makes a dig at [[Wikipedia:Anathem|Anathem]], a speculative fiction novel by Neal Stephenson about a monastic order on another planet that studies science, mathematics, and philosophy. The book is noteworthy for having a very large number of made-up or repurposed words. |
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
| − | :[Line graph shown with an inverse curve | + | |
| − | :[Y-Axis: Probability book is good | + | :[Line graph shown with an inverse curve] |
| − | :[X-Axis: Number of words made up by author | + | : [Y-Axis: Probability book is good] |
| − | :[The curve becomes less steep as the number of words | + | : [X-Axis: Number of words made up by author] |
| − | :"The Elders, or | + | : [The curve becomes less steep as the number of words increase] |
| + | : {Quote at the bottom of the text}}"The Elders, or Fra'as, guarded the farmlings (children) with their krytoses, which are like swords but awesomer..." {Fra'as, farmlings, krytoses and awesomer are italicised} | ||
| + | : {Alt-Text: Except for anything by Lewis Carroll and Tolkien, you get five made-up words per story. I'm looking at you, Anathem.} | ||
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| + | <!-- The transcript can be found in a hidden <div> element on the xkcd comic's html source, with id "transcript". | ||
| + | -- Tip: Use colons (:) in the beginning of lines to preserve the original line breaks. | ||
| + | -- Any actions or descriptive lines in [[double brackets]] should be reduced to [single brackets] to avoid wikilinking. | ||
| + | -- Similarly for {{}}. Be careful to escape multiple ~s with <nowiki></nowiki>. | ||
| + | -- Do not include the title text again here. --> | ||
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{{comic discussion}} | {{comic discussion}} | ||
| − | + | <!-- Include any categories below this line. --> | |
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