History Website / TurkeyCityLexicon

* '''[[LampshadeHanging Signal from Freud]]''': A comic form of the "Dischism" in which the author's subconscious, alarmed by the poor quality of the work, makes unwitting critical comments: [[WhoWritesThisCrap "This doesn't make sense." "This is really boring." "This sounds like a bad movie."]] (Attr. Creator/DamonKnight)

* '''[[HandWave Fuzz]]:''' An element of motivation the author was too lazy to supply. The word "somehow" is a useful tip-off to fuzzy areas of a story. "Somehow she had forgotten to bring her gun."[[note]]"HandWave" as used on TVTropes is closer to TCL's usage of "Fuzz" than to the next entry, "Hand Waving".[[/note]]

* '''[[BurlyDetectiveSyndrome "Burly Detective" Syndrome]]:''' This useful term is taken from SF's cousin-genre, the detective-pulp. The hack writers of the Mike Shayne series showed an odd reluctance to use Shayne's proper name, preferring such euphemisms as "the burly detective" or "the red-headed sleuth." This syndrome arises from a wrong-headed conviction that the same word should not be used twice in close succession. This is only true of particularly strong and visible words, such as "vertiginous." Better to re-use a simple tag or phrase than to contrive cumbersome methods of avoiding it.

* '''Fuzz:''' An element of motivation the author was too lazy to supply. The word "somehow" is a useful tip-off to fuzzy areas of a story. "Somehow she had forgotten to bring her gun."

* '''[[MeaninglessMeaningfulWords Pushbutton Words]]:''' Words used to evoke a cheap emotional response without engaging the intellect or the critical faculties. Commonly found in story titles, they include [[MadLibFantasyTitle such bits of bogus lyricism as "star," "dance," "dream," "song," "tears" and "poet,"]] cliches calculated to render the SF audience misty-eyed and tender-hearted.

* '''{{Bathos}}:''' A sudden, alarming change in the level of diction. "There will be bloody riots and savage insurrections leading to a violent popular uprising unless the regime [[BuffySpeak starts being lots nicer about stuff."]][[note]]The TCL definition of ''Bathos'' (Greek for "lowering") tends toward what we would call {{Narm}} -- it's an ''accidental'' failure by the writer to maintain a consistent tone. The same term also refers to an ''intentional'' tonal drop used for effect, which we here refer to as SophisticatedAsHell.[[/note]]

* '''Funny-hat characterization:''' A character distinguished by a single identifying tag, such as odd [[NiceHat headgear]], a limp, a lisp, a parrot on his shoulder, etc.

* '''Frontloading:''' Piling too much exposition into the beginning of the story, so that it becomes so dense and dry that it is almost impossible to read. (Attr. Creator/ConnieWillis)

* '''[[TomatoSurprise The Jar of Tang]]:''' "For you see, we are all living in a jar of Tang!" or "For you see, I am a dog!" A story contrived so that the author can spring a [[ShockingSwerve silly surprise]] about its setting. Mainstay of the old ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 Twilight Zone]]'' TV show. An entire pointless story contrived so the author can cry "[[TwistEnding Fooled you]]!" For instance, the story takes place in a desert of coarse orange sand surrounded by an impenetrable vitrine barrier; surprise! [[TomatoInTheMirror our heroes are microbes]] in a jar of Tang powdered orange drink. This is a classic case of the difference between a conceit and an idea. "What if we all lived in a jar of Tang?" is an example of the former; "What if the revolutionaries from the sixties had been allowed to set up their own society?"[[note]]Didn't they actually do that in Christiania, Copenhagen, Denmark, and many alternative communes?[[/note]] is an example of the latter. Good SF requires ideas, not conceits. (Attr. Stephen P. Brown) When done with serious intent rather than as a passing conceit, this type of story can be dignified by the term "Concealed Environment." (Attr. Christopher Priest)

* '''[[FlatCharacter Funny-hat characterization]]:''' A character distinguished by a single identifying tag, such as odd [[NiceHat headgear]], a limp, a lisp, a parrot on his shoulder, etc.

* '''"Burly Detective" Syndrome:''' This useful term is taken from SF's cousin-genre, the detective-pulp. The hack writers of the Mike Shayne series showed an odd reluctance to use Shayne's proper name, preferring such euphemisms as "the burly detective" or "the red-headed sleuth." This syndrome arises from a wrong-headed conviction that the same word should not be used twice in close succession. This is only true of particularly strong and visible words, such as "vertiginous." Better to re-use a simple tag or phrase than to contrive cumbersome methods of avoiding it.

Subtitled "A Primer for SF Workshops", the Turkey City Lexicon (named that way because it was made at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey_City_Writer%27s_Workshop Turkey City Writer's Workshop]]) is a potential goldmine of tropes. It's a list of concepts that professional writers frequently see in stories presented at the workshop, and although the document has a generally DeadpanSnarker tone, both [[TropesAreTools "Tropes Are Not Bad" and "Tropes Are Not Good"]] are in effect. Fortunately, it is listed as being not copyrighted, so here's the lexicon itself, minus the introductions, reformatted for the wiki.

* '''[[AuthorAppeal Squid in the Mouth]]:''' The failure of an author to realize that his/her own weird assumptions and personal in-jokes are simply not shared by the world-at-large. Instead of applauding the wit or insight of the author's remarks, the world-at-large will stare in vague shock and alarm at such a writer, as if he or she had a live squid in the mouth. Since SF writers as a breed are generally quite loony, and in fact make this a stock in trade, "squid in the mouth" doubles as a term of grudging praise, describing the essential, irreducible, divinely unpredictable lunacy of the true SF writer. (Attr. James P. Blaylock)