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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 602256" data-attributes="member: 812">Thank you, NoOneOfConsequence! What a great recollection!Hurrah for Phil and Dixie.Why anyone cares about making distinctions between "Fantasy" and "Science Fiction" is beyond me If you're a bookseller then I guess it makes sense, but otherwise -- who cares? You're never, ever going to come up with a definition that A) Everyone agrees on, andB) Easily distinguishes not just every book under scrutiny but every possible book that might be written.So given that there will always be people who disagree with any definition, and that no definition will allow us to separate all books in a snap, it's clear that no definition is ever going to, for once and for all, solve the problem of "Is this book SF or Fantasy?"Which, frankly, isn't a problem. Not in my life, anyway. A much bigger problem is, "Is this book worth my spending the time to read enough to find out if it's worth reading the rest?" That's got nothing to do with what genre or category it falls into.Good writing has nothing to do with rules. It has nothing to do with avoiding deus ex machina or anything like that. There are no rules in writing. It's a sad fact to anyone who has struggled to learn those rules. For people who have spent years trying to be good writers, learning their grammar, or expanding their vocabulary, or watching carefully for the 101 Most Common Errors of Young Writers (as seen in Writer's Digest), it can come as a horrible shock to learn that no, Virginia, there are no rules.It's a funny thing about art. As soon as you erect a boundary, it immediately finds a way around it. As soon as you figure out how it works, somebody comes along, breaks every rule you ever wrote down, and turns out a tremendous story.Spending time figuring out rules and distinctions only gets in the way of telling great stories. Or painting great pictures, or whatever. Don't worry about whether or not your story is Science Fiction or Fantasy. Worry about what people say when they read it, how you feel about the characters, or whether or not you want to bother continuing with this no-good piece of tripe that you'll never finish anyway and even if you did who's ever going to read it Oh Dear Lord why did I even start this thing?Um, where was I? Oh yeah, Phil and Dixie. I love them.</blockquote>

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