vanity film

A pet project started by a filmmaker to satisfy their massive ego. One can usually tell because they'll take two or more of the roles of producing, directing, writing, and/or acting. If they're playing the protagonist, expect a "Jesus by a different name" vibe (compare Mary Sue). Most vanity films revolve around a blunt political message. While total nobodies are capable of and expected to create vanity films, the term is generally reserved for established celebrities throwing caution to the winds.

Some infamous vanity films include Battlefield Earth by John Travolta, The Postman by Kevin Costner, The Passion of the Christ by Mel Gibson, and The Room by Tommy Wiseau.

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writer's flood

The opposite of writer's block, but just as debilitating. Writer's flood is when an unfocused, uncontrollable deluge of ideas come to mind, leaving the writer with way too much information to digest. Most of the time, the ideas that spring forth are completely incompatible with the current topic (e.g. robot ideas when the book takes place in Victorian England or recipes when writing an IT manual). The end result is the same as writer's block: an inability to create a functional work.

I started my college thesis yesterday, but I had a writer's flood of cyberpunk plot seeds. I'm still on page one.

fanboy baiting

A phrase with two meanings:

1) When the writer(s) of a geek franchise introduce backstory, characters, rules, lists of information, and other continuity details that are intentionally vague, contradictory, and unresolved. The intent is to provoke fan wank and other arguments while always having the carrot of "this issue, we find THIS out!" to dangle in front of fans. Mainstream superhero comics run almost exclusively on this.

2) When a blogger or other editorial writer does an in-depth analysis of a creative work radically counter to the assumptions of its fanbase in order to provoke outrage and fan wank. Usual tactics include "over-analyzing" fantastical elements (e.g. "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex"), unflattering interpretations of the themes, and otherwise presenting valid arguments why the story does not logically work.

1) Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura's introduction of a dozen vague, unresolved plot points and refusal to clarify anything is classic fanboy baiting.

2) I wrote a fanboy-bait article explaining why Usagi of Sailor Moon is a terrible role-model. I bet I'll have a hundred pissed-off comments by tonight.

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