http://cache.io9.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png http://io9.com/tag/bad writing http://io9.com/tag/bad writing Fans of the science fiction newsletter Ansible already know the joys of "Thog's Master Class," a recurring column featuring bad SF prose from famous sources. Now you can get all the joys of Thog with just one click. Over at the Thog website, there's a little tool called the Thogomatic for pulling up a random Thog's Master Class column, each with several lovely bits of awfulness contained therein. Here's a great (random) sample: More »
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If you think a lot of drek appears on science-fiction bookshelves every year, imagine the stuff that passes across a literary agent's desk. Just check out one writer's particularly horrendous query letter. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5211816&view=rss&microfeed=true Did you know the Bulwer-Lytton Contest (for intentionally bad writing) had a science fiction category? Here's 2008's winner, from Cartersville, GA's Joe Schulman: "Timothy Hanson, Commander of the 43rd Space Regiment in the 52nd Battalion on board the USAOPAC (United Space Alliance Of Planets Attack Carrier) and second in command to Admiral L. R. Morris of the USAOP Space Command, awoke early for breakfast." (The runner up, by Mark Murata, is also pretty great.) [Bulwer-Lytton Awards] More »
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Classic science fiction novels have many annoying writing tics that make it hard to enjoy them, but the word "grimly" has always seemed the worst. People are always speaking grimly, or staring grimly, or even smiling grimly. Of all the adverbs that attach themselves, like alien facehuggers, to science fiction prose, "grimly" is the worst — and the most unnecessary. And it's still cropping up all the time. More »
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