In a message dated 9/17/99 7:40:38 PM Mountain Daylight Time, 
tzubi@ns.sympatico.ca writes:

Larry F wrote:
 > 
 > Gary Kleppe wrote:
 > 
 > >
 > >
 > > OK, overall, could've been worse, could've been better. The 

storytelling

 > > was quite thick with explanations that tended to crowd out the drama 

and

 > > humor. Try to concentrate more on the story and characters and keep the
 > > exposition to a minimum.
 > 
 >     I think I have to disagree with Gary on this.  That "show it,
 > don't say it" bias on the list is just that: a bias.  It ignores the
 > fact that professional writers often use extensive exposition, and are
 > as prone as any to skim over scenes rather than scripting out
 > everything with character dialog.
 
 And many of us find it bad when they do that too.
 Proffesional writers aren't always good writers. 

Granted, but being deemed a good writer is subjective... and if you are going 
to use a majoity opinion on how well a particular author sells, you aren't 
going to be able to touch Heinlein... he was well liked although he used a 
great deal of exposition.  And for me it depends on the subject matter.  I 
can easily read through that.  But I could never get into "Last of the 
Mohicans."  I found what I did read of it to be drawn out and sometimes 
boring.  As to the fic itself that was written... there wasn't anywhere 
enough character development to make it a good story.  It also certainly 
lacked any description of how some things came to be.  I like many styles of 
writing, and I do, on occasion, enjoy expository.  I think it depends on my 
mood though...

That's my 0.02

--
Ron