Craft Glossary · term

Human pitfalls (not AI-specific, but degree-level basics)

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• Info-dumping / the "as you know, Bob": backstory or worldbuilding delivered in a lump,

often via dialogue. → Distribute, delay, dramatize. (See Exposition.)

• The saggy middle: Act II with no midpoint pivot and no escalating stakes. → Give the

middle its own turn and rising cost. (See Three-act, Stakes.)

• Passive protagonist: events happen to the hero; coincidence solves problems. → Restore

agency and scene-goals. (See Agency, Scene & sequel.)

• Mary Sue / sainted character: flawless, unchallenged, beloved by all. → Add a real flaw

with cost to others. (See Characterization by contradiction.)

• On-the-nose dialogue & emotion-naming: characters state feelings directly. → Subtext;

render, don't label. (See Dialogue — subtext, Interiority.)

• Purple prose: ornament with no occasion. → Earn lyricism with surrounding plainness.
• Head-hopping: unsignaled POV slips. → Hold one head per scene. (See POV.)
• Deus ex machina: an unearned external rescue resolves the climax. → The resolution must

be paid for by the protagonist's choices and the planted setups.

• Telling the climax / unearned emotion: asserting the big feeling instead of building to

it. → The reader must be invested before the payoff; dramatize the beats that matter.

• Cliffhanger-as-substitute-for-arc: ending a volume on a comma instead of a resolution.

→ Each book completes its own promise. (See Standalone-completeness.)

• Starting too early: the "average Tuesday" opening. → Start at the change. (See Opening.)
• Physical-plausibility gap: a load/lift/travel-time that's internally consistent but

physically impossible — continuity tools cannot catch it. → A deliberate physical-limits read. (See Worldbuilding; memory: real-world plausibility gap.)

Arjuna Badger Press · Craft Library

Glossary · Doctrine · Anti-patterns · Triptych form · LLM tells

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