Not Thriving: About The Author

This page has only 20 wicks and zero on-page examples, so it falls under Starving per Wick. Apparently it used to be on Definition-Only Pages, but it has been removed as part of a TRS thread as that seemed like an unilateral early wiki decision. I think it should be re-added, as that clearly did nothing and I question how worth the examples are here exactly, unless someone insists on having them and provides a reason, in which case do a TLP example drive.

Opening

This feels like the Trivia equivalent of a People Sit On Chairs page. There's not really much of a reason to feature it as a trope considering that the kind of information that would be worth covering is stuff we'd already do in either Work descriptions or Creator pages, and I'm not sure if it's even worth keeping around.

While it is chairs as mentioned, I think covering aversions and unusual or deliberately inaccurate "About The Author" sections could work: Lemony Snicket's from A Series of Unfortunate Events immediately comes to mind.

That sounds more like a new trope altogether — perhaps making something to the tune of "Unusual Author Bio" would be a good Work trope or a Trivia trope. Having a trope list made up of nothing but aversions is strongly discouraged, last I checked.

I don't think an aversion would mean anything, but notable or played-with examples??? Oh wait it's trivia that doesn't work either unless they're all in-universe...

The parody one can just be split off into something like Parody About Section.

This definitely feels like a definition-only page, I just...question the need for a definition-only page on "About the Author" since that's Exactly What It Says on the Tin. I think we could just...cut it.

Funnily enough I was gonna suggest a full-on new trope for parodies or playing with About The Author, but for some reason walked back on it. In any case, yeah a new trope would fit. The "played with" ones you mention can be folded into it.

Edited by harryhenry on Mar 3rd 2022 at 8:00:15 AM

I strongly suggest the trope About the Author should be cut. It's a classic example of People Sit on Chairs which would attract Word Cruft and Zero-Context Examples on anything wicked to it..

Just cut it. Or, redirect to Advertising by Association and yard the concept of books putting a biography on the cover.

Edited by Amonimus on Mar 3rd 2022 at 1:08:36 PM

As King Clark said, we could salvage an "Unusual Author Bio" trope out of this, but yeah, About the Author is People Sit on Chairs, and is probably better off cut.

This isn't chairs - information on the author of a work is descriptive information that one puts in deliberately to tell about (and I'd imagine, sometimes advertise for) the author. It's akin to a Trivia item, perhaps.

It should be added to Definition-Only Pages.

100% agreed. This should be def-only.

Keep the page as a definition only page and add it to the Definition-Only Pages index. That's is all we have to do I think.

Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 3rd 2022 at 1:38:22 PM

I think it should be added to Definition-Only Pages.

Yeah, def-only trivia seems fine.

Oh, yeah, I also think it should be Trivia in addition to definition-only.

def-only Trivia

Def only Trivia (since I didn’t mention trivia before)

Is that something that happens? It being on trivia implies it should be linked as examples on other trivia pages, while it being on def-only suggests it should not have examples anywhere (on itself and other pages).

Well, there are a few def-only YMMV pages and stuff, aren't there? I think it's fine, because keeping it in main implies that it's a narrative concept.

wait misread

Edited by MacronNotes on Mar 3rd 2022 at 3:08:59 PM

I suppose. It still feels odd.

To me it feels odd because "trivia-page" refers to things that are external to the work. Paratext is not external. The cover of a book wasn't likely something made by the author, but it isn't external to the work. Advertising by Association isn't external. Death By Newberry Medal isn't external, despite the award being given after the book is published.

If I was at a computer, I'd link to the long D-O thread that did a quick pass over this article. I was distracted during it or I would have added the examples that I showed during that thread. This is a trope, and examples wouldn't all be identical, but I'm not emotionally connected with making sure examples stay. I just would find it an easy way to get another trope for most novels (literature and graphic).

I mean, TBF, there is a weird gray area with those "not actually tropes, but not trivia either" concepts. I feel like we should have another name for it, but for now, it's most definitely not a trope, so what else is it?