Saturday, June 04, 2005

TV Tropes and Idioms

I've just lost an hour on this site, which is no bad thing. Apart from anything else, there's a sort of guilty pleasure in spotting how many cliches I've fallen prey to - not that everything in there is to be avoided at all costs, just if you're using any of these because you can't think of a better option, it's probably time to go and get some fresh air, or swim with a dolphin or buy your mistress a new flat or something. Take five, basically.

Personally, I'm particularly prone to LampshadeHanging, but most script editors notice it and quietly delete them with out me noticing. I'm going to go and read up on ScriptSpeak now, so I no longer have to pretend to know what editing-type people are talking about. Actually I've found it much better to just ask if you don't know - no-one really expects writers to know anything practical, and people are usually pleased to tell you what their job entails. And quite often people slip in fake words just to see if you're talking bollocks.

1 comment:

Maus said...

that page is great. Also enjoyed "as you know"...reminds me of Kryten's "best guess" from series 5 onwards on Red Dwarf.

One of the story tapes I made as a kid employed clumsy exposition in the form of half a conversation on the phone. The whole plot was explained in the form of questions, supposedly repeating the unheard half of the conversation. My brother and I still use "The Lord? At the Manor?" as coded shorthand for, "I see this program's using a crude form of exposition."

Neighbours is hilarious for it.