All The Tropes

Ass Pull/Analysis: Difference between revisions

Page Discussion

Ass Pull/Analysis (view source)

Revision as of 01:32, 8 May 2015

27 bytes added ,  9 years ago
m
no edit summary
VisualWikitext
m (clean up)
mNo edit summary
Line 4:
Asspulls stem from an author's failure to properly anticipate his story's direction and needs. A good writer will know (at least in general terms) where he's going and what he requires when he gets there—and will lay out all his details and tools along the way so that when they are used, no one will go, "hey, wait a second, where did ''that'' come from?"
 
This is [[ChekovChekhov's Gun]] worked backward—if you know you need a gun to go off in the third act, make sure you hang one on the wall in the first act. If, for instance, a [[Fan Fiction]] writer knows that for his plot to work [[Harry Potter]] needs to prove he's the descendant of a Founder, he'd best show him finding that out at some point ''before'' he needs it. It's not necessary have to actually say what he finds—the author can hide it from the reader, as long as enough surrounding detail is provided that when Harry pulls the the information out, your reader can say, "Oh! So ''that's'' what he learned back in chapter 6!" and not feel like they were somehow cheated by the author. The author can even hide it from the character who needs it by giving it to him in a [[MacGuffin|form]] that requires interpretation, decoding or unlocking, which can then be done at the appropriate key moment. ("Harry, where did you get that ring?")
 
If an author avoids an [[Ass Pull]] with sufficient skill, the reader will probably say something along the lines of "that's very cool". The author should strive for that reaction.
Line 16:
(Text adapted from ''[http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/guide/fwg.txt A Fanfic Writer's Guide To Writing]'' by Robert M. Schroeck, with the permission of the author.)
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Ass Pull]]▼
[[Category:Analysis{{BASEPAGENAME}}]]
▲[[Category:Ass Pull{{SUBPAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Mechanics of Writing]]
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/1279541"