Things in your work that are clearly non-sensical and inaccurate

that you put in there nevertheless.

Is there anything in your work that you KNOW is inaccurate or just ridiculous but you keep it because it is necessary for the plot?

One of the scenes in my work have an ordinary cop with just decent firearms and other physical training taking out near a dozen highly trained mercenaries. Obviously, this is a total load of crap, to anyone with slightest knowledge on how military or police tactics work.

But hot damn, I want to keep it, only to show how deadly a berserk man fueled by tranquil fury at the risk of his family getting threatened can be. That, and I think it's awesome.

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

I love sailing and ships, and I've done quite a bit of research on them, but I'm positive half the shit I do involving boats is wrong.

Also I've never stepped into a mining facility before, so hopefully my details are vague enough to fool people into thinking one of my settings can logically work.

I'm pretty sure the concept of Law having limits was a translation error. -Wanderlustwarrior

I have a scene in my current Na No work where a group of four Winged Humanoid teens carry a fifth one into the air with them. All of them are also unpracticed fliers. I know it probably wouldn't work, and I don't give a darn. The Fair Folk did it.

Also, I exaggerated the symptoms of radiation poisoning for dramatic effect in another work, though I made sure that the vector for its transmission was accurate.

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

No doubt I'm horribly off in many ways on how much punishment a human body can and cannot actually take, though I can handwave much of it with "they're ninjas".

Shinigan (Naruto fanfic)

Nothing is really wrong per se, but I don't think universes can be killed. And I'm pretty sure that even if they could, they couldn't bestow all their power (energy, whatever you wanna go with) on the last living individual in the universe before dying. And I'm pretty sure that even if they could do that, said power probably would not take the shape of magical flaming chainsaw nunchuks.

You know, there is a lot in this idea that makes absolutely no sense at all. Which is probably why I thought of it in the first place XD

I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial

FTL in one of my settings relies on a bizarre patching-together of quantum entanglement with the now-dubious hypothesis that the speed of light isn't constant. I'm not sure whether an actual scientist would call bullshit, or be impressed.

Also, in the same setting, I have characters talking to each other from environmental suit to environmental suit without turning on the radios in the suits. (I considered mentioning that the suits were among the items reverse-engineered from alien technology, and that they can conduct sound pretty well, but I decided that most people wouldn't care.)

edited 20th Nov '11 3:54:37 AM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

^ Well, light through a medium...

Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka fics

Aside from the obvious (there's no such thing as a planet where every single person has a mustache!), there's a moment where my protagonists visit the Planet of Ninjitsu. I'm fairly certain real ninjas didn't dress in the all-black outfits they appear wearing in my work. In fact, I believe the association with that outfit came from the uniforms of stagehands in traditional Japanese theatre.

Nevertheless, you put someone in that costume, and people think "ninja". Also, they didn't speak with southern accents, but that's what you get when all your actors are from Kentucky.

edited 20th Nov '11 10:25:02 AM by DrFurball

Weird in a Can (updated M-F)

A couple of assorted things including my own set of Minovsky Physics.

"Allah may guide their bullets, but Jesus helps those who aim down the sights."

An ace that aces in every vehicle that can be operated by one.

╮(╯_╰)╭

Disregarding things that can waved away with my local equivalent of A Wizard Did It, I still haven't determined a good explanation for how pre-industrial intercontinental sailing works on a planet with no visible objects in its sky aside from its own sun and moon.

They have very accurate clocks? That was the RL solution.

Da Rules excuse all the inaccuracy in the world. Listen to them, not me.

Everything I write.

All the time.

All over the world.

Teens dress as Batman to catch pedophiles; cops not impressed

Same here, except my excuse of some of them being pirates is, well, I don't think it would stand too strong considering the things they're doing.

I just kind of doubt someone could get stabbed about 30 times with a spear, still have the strength to throw an attack, and then proceed to get shield-bashed rapidly in the face, through a stone wall, into the air, and then meteor smashed to the ground from about 200 feet up. And simply go unconscious for a few days. PFFFT. Human pain threshold! What's that?

edited 20th Nov '11 11:52:02 AM by HeavyDDR

I'm pretty sure the concept of Law having limits was a translation error. -Wanderlustwarrior

Gorse don't grow in old forests because 1) they like sunlight too much, 2) they're fire-climax plants, and 3) they grow in rocky soils like grasslands or moors.

I mean, it's in a clearing near the outer edge of the forest and the forest itself is known to move around a lot, but still.

I'm pretty sure I'm stretching the boundaries for Adam to be suffering from a legitimate form of schizophrenia, yet act in the way he does. More significantly, there is just no way whatsoever my pseudo-utopian setting would ever actually exist, though my attitude to the latter is quite frankly "the setting is irrelevant, focus instead on everything else, which is".

My name is Addy. Please call me that instead of my username.

Not sure there's anything there. The boarding of Invincible comes close, but the ranking difference made it possible.

Nous restons ici.

I'm deliberately inconsistent when it comes to the vernacular of my historical characters—I use a combination of phrases from their actual language *

, archaic wording and modern slang.

This means that the same person may say: "Wesaþ ge hale!" "Hail, good lady!" or "Dude, what the fuck?" at any point in the story.

The reason why I do this is because I want the reader to be able to identify with the characters on the same level they identify with people in the present day. It is also just a matter of my using the language that feels most natural for the situation.

edited 20th Nov '11 7:03:53 PM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

A megaman that fires a portable positron cannon at the big fat bads. Heck, even the force field the cannon creates can tear her apart!

╮(╯_╰)╭

I don't know about you, but I initially parsed that as "Wassup!"

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am...

Me Too!. Even though I know it's pronounced more like "Wesath." Thath's the thorn forth you.

edited 20th Nov '11 11:48:23 PM by FreezairForALimitedTime

"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada

Entering Rant Mode

I highly disapprove of anything that is "inaccurate or just ridiculous but you keep it because it is necessary for the plot." I won't write it and I won't read it. In general, it's bad writing to leave something like that in. I hate when so-called 'writers' have the mentality that they just throw stuff in without adequate justification, or justification that is so blatantly BS and just to keep the random thing in, because 'it's cool' or because 'my plot doesn't work if I don't'. It's called writing a plot that makes logical-freaking-sense, you know, like real writers do. And I'm really sick of people writing stories that are more or less Author Appeal and Author Avatar stories. Real published stuff is like this (*cough* like every other urban fantasy, epic fantasy and sci-fi book out there *cough*) I can spot them a mile away. I mean, it's one thing if it's more of a 'what if?' story, or it isn't given much spotlight or mention, but when the whole thing is basically random 'cool' or 'funny' crap happening it gets downright unbelievable and annoying, and I feel like the writer has the mentality of a child. You can write something cool without having to 'cool-it up' with mutant-vampire-robot-dinosaurs wielding katanas, or whatever bullshit it is.

Leaving Rant Mode

edited 21st Nov '11 12:40:26 AM by NoirGrimoir

SPATULA, Supporters of Page Altering To Urgently Lead to Amelioration (supports not going through TRS for tweaks and minor improvements.)

Good thing that's just your opinion on what's a real writer. Writers have been not-making-sense since fiction was first established, so, OK.

I'm pretty sure the concept of Law having limits was a translation error. -Wanderlustwarrior

I have a character whose motored roller blades, combined with sylph summon, can allow her to go to the speed of over 90 kph. She can then gather the built up air in her hands for various purposes, but mostly using it as a blade.

Obviously this clearly violates physics, particularly aerodynamics, but hey, cute rollerblade girl who can air bend.

edited 21st Nov '11 6:25:28 AM by dRoy

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

I have to say that I agree with that comment. If you start adding things that just look cool, but add absolutely nothing to the story (Sucker Punch, Twilight) it shows. That's why I stopped liking fantasy.