Title: Theory / Unimportant / Art / Writting / Yudkowsky
Tags: examplesSwitchExample1

Question: How to imagine a strong character, when the story requires them to be weak ?
Answer: Imagine that, in a sequel, they'll have to become strong enough to fight Chtulu, conquer earth, etc.
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/page/3

Name: Hollywood «genius»
Definition: Said to speaks a lot of languages, seen to win over a grand master in any intelectual game, speak technobabble
Definition2: Often have relationship problem

Name: Level 1 intelligent character
Definition: A character trying to do what's best for their own goal, and not for the plot
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/empathyrespect
Example: at least the hero
Applied to: in most story
Counterexample: Thorin throwing the key of the important cave because he fails to see the keyhole

Name: Hollywood zombie
Definition: A character who act to create dramatic moment, advance the plot, but not for its self interest
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/empathyrespect
Abbreviation: H-Zombie

Question: Tricks to write an intelligent character level 1
Answer: Have empathy and respect for them
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/empathyrespect
Answer2: Steal some person or character you already have respect for, and use them in your writing
Answer3: Assume the character knows the kind of story they are in

Question: Trick to get in a character's head
Answer: Self-insertion
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/empathyrespect
Answer2: method of respect

Name: Self-insertion
Definition: Imagine yourself in place of your character, and try to write him as you'd act if you were there
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/empathyrespect
Context: Writing technique

Name: Method of respect
Definition: To write a character, try to have as much respect as you can for them. Ensure that, to them, their goal and idea are the real important one, and not less important than the truth you try to convey in your book
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/empathyrespect
Context: Writing technique
Definition2: If they learn a lesson, its the hard way, and not only because the hero told him
Intuition: If you respect your character, you'll hesitate makes them do stupid things

Question: What kind of error makes an intelligent character
Answer: Plausible ones. Errors which makes sens given there point of view.
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/thoughtful-responses
Answer2: Not the error every character in their situation makes in every movie, because they know those errors already

Question: How to makes ennemy's point strong
Answer: Make him defend something you really think might be true
Context: Eliezer Yudkowsky

Name: Shannon Information philosophy of originality
Definition: When you write something, makes it new. Otherwise, it contains no information and it is not required to send this message
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/originality
Context: Eliezer Yudkowsky

Question: Yudkowsky's process to generate Crabb and Goyle
Answer: Crabbe and Goyle are idiots—-it’s been done, you’ve read that a dozen times before.
Okay, try inverting the cliche: Crabbe and Goyle are secret masterminds. No, that requires Draco to be an idiot, which doesn’t fit, and this story has enough secret masterminds already.
Crabbe and Goyle are Mr. Vandemar and Mr. Croup from Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (the brute enforcer who rumbles and the clever enforcer who speaks formally; what TV tropes would call Those Two Bad Guys). Still no. I can’t remember it being done in the Harry Potter fanfiction that I remember reading, but it’s still a cliche, and it doesn’t really fit the surrounding story…
And that was the point at which my trope-subverter module blurted out, “Crabbe and Goyle are eleven-year-olds who’ve grown up watching plays with Those Two Bad Guys in them, and that’s who they think they ought to be”. Which I’d never seen done in Harry Potter fanfiction, which I’d never seen done anywhere, and it fit and it was awesome; so there the search stopped.
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/originality
Context: Eliezer Yudkowsky

Question: Most important step in the art of having good ideas
Answer: Learn how to reject all unoriginal/dumb ideas
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/originality
Context: Eliezer Yudkowsky

Question: Rule for originality in fan fiction
Answer: Write ONLY the thing which change between original and your FF. If absolutly require, in a few sentence, speak of the event afterward, anyway the reader already know it
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/originality
Context: Eliezer Yudkowsky

Question: When not to do change from original to fan fiction
Answer: The hero can't win only because something just changed. It would be a deus ex machina.
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/originality
Context: Eliezer Yudkowsky

Name: Fair Play Whodunnit
Definition: a detective-story plot that the reader could in principle solve with the information the detective has discovered, that the reader is invited to solve

Name: Fair Play Insight
Definition: the solution the character proposes must be one that, in principle, the reader could have thought of.

Smaller0: an author’s ability to solve conflict with magic
Greater0: how well the reader understands said magic
Smaller to greater: is directly proportional to
Name: Sanderson’s First Law

Smaller0: to know what a would do
Greater0: you are at least as intelligent as a
Page: Sanderson’s First
Variables: a an agent
Name: Vinge Law

Name: Reverse Lionheart Trick
Definition: If you need your character to be able to do something, teach them a way which will allow them to do it, some chapter earlier than required
Page: Sanderson’s First
Example: To win against two army, the winning condition was introduced to be «four head on the door, and one person through»
Example2: If someone need to start a fire, give them a lighter beforehand

Question: How to cheat to write a level II intelligent character
Answer: Make him try ideas to push its boundary, but only occasionnaly fail, and not fail 9 out of 10 things, as it would be in a realistic world
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/level2intelligent
Answer2: Reverse Lionheart Trick
Answer3: Present to your character only problem they can solve

Question: If a character does something useful that nobody have done before,
Answer: the author must have a convincing explanation for the reason this never occurred before
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/level2intelligent
Context: Yudkowski about inteligent character
Example: Harry is not the first to figure out Patronus 2.0. He just understand it's a secret, and other also kept the secret
Other thing he discovers uses muggle's science's secret

Question: What is the main advantage of fan fiction over original world
Answer: you don't have to justify the absurd things in the cannon, you can directly use them to your advantage
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/level2intelligent
Context: Yudkowski about inteligent character

Question: New Improved Recipe for how to build mysteries, clues, and hints into your story.
Answer: First, know some really important and plot-determining background facts that your viewpoint characters won’t know and that the text is not going to state explicitly until the end of the story.
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/solvable-mysteries
Answer2: Then make absolutely no effort at all to conceal these facts. Absolutely do not leave false trails for the reader, besides any misdirection that antagonists may realistically employ to deceive protagonists. Don’t try to obscure hints and clues that you think are too explicit. Don’t worry about the reader figuring things out too early. Just let the facts cast whatever blatant huge shadows they want, so long as the story doesn’t literally, explicitly blurt out the actual truth right there in the text.

Question: skills that you need to write real science into fiction
Answer: Know the actual material to one technical level higher than the level that appears in the story.
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/solvable-mysteries
Answer2: Be able to see the material as it applies to story situations. «loot at the water»
Answer3: master the art of relevance
Answer4: Explain things in your own word. (rationalist taboo)
Answer5: imagine what it feels like to not know the material, without being stupid.
Answer6: You must be able to explain technical ideas to other people

Name: «Look at the water» principle
Definition: When you try to imagine something in your universe, think about what it implies in the concrete universe.
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/solvable-mysteries
Context: Yudkowsky writing tips
Etymology: R. Feynman tries to tell student to imagine water instead of equations
http://v.cx/2010/04/feynman-brazil-education.html

Name: art of relevance
Definition: When you use science, use only the details which are related to your point.
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/solvable-mysteries
Context: Yudkowsky writing tips
Intuition: How would the story change if one of the stated fact changed
Counterexample: If you use Mendelian genetic, don't state uselessly that humans have 23 chromosomes pairs

Name: Level 3 intelligent character
Definition: A character having constantly the habits of thinking, and considering thing. Having thought process, discarding ideas, trying things, thus explaining how it arrives at the Ahah! moment showing Level 2 intelligence
Page: http://yudkowsky.tumblr.com/writing/solvable-mysteriesa
Context: Yudkowsky writing tips