- if anybody’s carrying a bag of groceries, it won’t have French bread in it
- nobody will flick playing cards into and around a trashcan or hat
- if the characters need to hack into somebody’s computer, the password will be unguessable
- if there’s some big and final showdown on a boat, then it won’t be finally decided with a flare gun
- if somebody cuts their wrists in the bathtub, there won’t be a lit candle there
- if there’s a detective of any kind in my story, then he won’t keep a bottle of bourbon in his drawer
- nobody will say “in English, please”
- if someone throws up then the amount they throw up will be more than a mouthful
- if there’s a slam-dunk, it’ll be one continuous shot rather than cutting to above the rim
- if voice-over is used, then we’ll get to ‘see’ that voice-overer at the end
- if there are aliens, then they’ll be neither bipedal nor bilaterally symmetrical
- the news broadcast won’t immediately deliver exactly what my characters need
- the gun won’t slide away. it’ll just land there, stay there
©Stephen Graham Jones, 2006