Editing 483: Fiction Rule of Thumb

{{comic
| number    = 483
| date      = October 1, 2008 
| title     = Fiction Rule of Thumb
| 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.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Randall]] uses a graph that purports that the more words an author makes up, the less likely their book is any good. To demonstrate this, he provides an example where a hypothetical author uses four made-up words in a single sentence: "Fra'as", "Farmlings", "Krytoses", and "Awesomer". The author clearly does not see that having to insert explanations of all the made-up words makes the sentence extremely clumsy.

The title text declares that the average author is allowed five invented words per book before this rule is invoked against them, but mentions that {{w|J.R.R. Tolkien}} and {{w|Lewis Carroll}} are exceptions, as they are both very famous, well-respected writers {{w|Languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien|who made words up}} {{w|Jabberwocky|all the time}}.

Randall also makes a dig at ''{{w|Anathem}}'', a speculative fiction novel by {{w|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 {{tvtropes|CallARabbitASmeerp|made-up or repurposed words,}} enough to require its own glossary. One of the more common other-worldly words is ''fraa'' (without an apostrophe), as an analogue to "{{wiktionary|friar#Noun|friar}}"/"{{wiktionary|frère#French|brother}}".

==Transcript==
:[Line graph shown with an inverse curve.]
:[Y-Axis: Probability book is good.]
:[X-Axis: Number of words made up by author.]
:[The curve becomes less steep as the number of words increase.]
:"The Elders, or ''Fra'as,'' guarded the ''farmlings'' (children) with their ''krytoses,'' which are like swords but ''awesomer''..."
{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Line graphs]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:LOTR]]