Speak Stiltedly and Wear a Yellow Shirt

I was checking out Roll Call for some unfortunates to put in Sickbay, and I
ended up at the Coffee Nebula
reading up on Seven’s favorite word (say it with me now), “irrelevant”. I have
my own page of Voyager Links, which fortunately
doesn’t require much upkeep since the show is off the air and new writers are rare.
Even old writers are getting scarce…

Anyway, further along the surfing path, I reached
Watt-Evans’
Laws of Fantasy, and was struck by #6, If a story can be written without
a fantasy element, then don’t bother with the fantasy element. I want to
rewrite that one a few different ways to apply to sci-fi and fanfic, but I’m
supposed to be rewriting Colony at the moment.

One last rule, from the same page: Debra Doyle’s Rule: If it has
horses and swords in it, it’s a fantasy, unless it also has a rocketship in it, in
which case it becomes science fiction. The only thing that’ll turn a story with a
rocketship in it back into fantasy is the Holy Grail.

Thanks to the holiday, I’ve already added a few scenes to the beginning
of Colony. All my deep thoughts are about subplots - I think I’ll get Harry in trouble
with an ABOTW. In fact, I think I need to involve all the crewmembers I neglected
the first time around, except the Doctor. He’s always left me cold. Give me Tuvok
any day…