Conversation

Plot and character are in some ways the commodity elements of fiction, and how-to books spend 90% of their words on those. But good genre fiction usually seems to center a non-basic element: LOTR: fake languages Culture: names of ships Star Trek: species This seems important.
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Plot and character are like a platform, but the centered non-basic element (non-basic as in stories can work without them) is the killer app. You don’t need any specific non-basic thing (few works develop fake languages as deeply as LOTR), but you do need some non-basic things.
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Replying to
I always thought lightsabers was this for Star Wars. The concept of light swords is so compelling it adds a surprising amount to the entire series of films
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