Eight Deadly Words

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The Eight Deadly Words are “I don’t care what happens to these people,” whereupon a reader shuts a book and DNF, the ultimate criticism of weak character writing.

Dorothy J. Heydt popularized the phrase in the Usenet sf newsgroups beginning in 1991, codifying it as the “Eight Deadly Words” two years later. It was subsequently picked up by other amateur and professional reviewers.



Fanspeak 1991
This is a fanspeak page. Please extend it by adding information about when and by whom it was coined, whether it’s still in use, etc.