Sense, Nonsense, and Not-Sense

Stories in words are sometimes longer time commitments than shows and movies, too. So if there's going to be a lot of words of detail dragged into focus, it might be worthwhile to ask "is this important, or is the writer just making wordcount?" And that usually means spoilers. Sometimes those details can be great jumping-off points for fanworks, but for people who aren't looking for transformative uses, it's a slog.

I think in shorter stories there's an even greater need or tendency to try and use tropes in different ways, or to set audience expectations and then subvert them. Lots of good short stories that I've read hinge on a single idea and dash toward it with the expectation that it's going to be resolved by playing a trope straight, only to reveal that it's a lot more twisty than it looks.