McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Pacing of information in a fictional world
Aludra:
--- Quote from: neurovore on June 15, 2010, 05:17:30 PM ---Well, yes, ideally. The problem is that "counterintuitive" is in the eye of the beholder.
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It is in the eye of the beholder to an extent. It sounds like alpha readers are what you need for this project; you can have a variety of opinions on what clicks easily and what people are still struggling with after 2 or 3 chapters.
I think John Scalzi does a great job with balancing pacing and explaining things. Have you read Old Man's War? Granted it doesn't have a whole lot of new things, and he doesn't try to explain cold fusion or anything, but there are some points where he has to both inform the audience and keep their interest and does a good job. Particularly the chapter where he introduces 'brain pals' is a golden example of how to correctly do this.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: aakaakaak on June 15, 2010, 04:35:47 PM ---Something Asimov did in the Foundation series was to start his major break points with excerpts from The Encyclopedia Galactica. Could you use a similar technique by outlining the new technology pieces used maybe?
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Not really; it's a pretty tight first-person POV. I am inclining myself more toward leaving the clues in text for the reader to work out, but, well, there are enough arguments about different interpretations of such things in the Dresden Files in the on-topic parts of the board to make it clear that it's hard to make that unambiguous, and the Dresdenverse has a lot more background stuff that readers will be familiar with - being set in Chicago and having cars and dogs and cats and so on - than the setting I am working on here. Besides, Harry knows that as a wizard he's unusual in the mundane world and spends a fair bit of time explaining things that he has in-text reason to assume non-wizards will need explained to them; that much is not necessarily the case for a character who is much more within the norm of their world.
--- Quote ---You could describe the item through the individuals senses. "He heard the familiar whine of the laser cannon charging up as the beam of light increased in speed, moving from dipole to dipole." (probably not the correct way to explain charging a laser gun.)
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The thing that one suggests to me is "gosh, we are in a really weird alternate-physics setting if the beam of light is speeding up... "
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Aludra on June 15, 2010, 05:10:54 PM ---Another example of pacing balanced with brand spanking new world is Snow Crash. You could read the first 15 pages of that for an idea.
Although it doesn't do quite enough explaining in the beginning for people like my dad, but I was ok with it.
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I think Snow Crash kind of does assume that one already has some familiarity with the basic furniture of cyberpunky SF, though.
--- Quote ---You could try putting in a glossary / reference section at the end and keep the pace high. Sort of like an extras section on a movie DVD.
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That... feels like admitting defeat, though. I have always hated getting those in a novel, it feels like either not bothering or not succeeding at getting enough in the text to work.
AsaTJ:
You know, there's always the technique of introducing a character that is just as foreign to the world of the story as the readers are. He can act as the readers' proxy, constantly asking how everything works. The other characters can either explain it to him or snarkily remark that "It's magic," depending on the tone you're going for.
Don't have to involve time-travel or anything. Maybe your low-tech character comes from a primitive planet or has liven in a vault all his life.
Aakaakaak:
--- Quote from: neurovore on June 15, 2010, 05:22:21 PM ---The thing that one suggests to me is "gosh, we are in a really weird alternate-physics setting if the beam of light is speeding up... "
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I already admitted that probably wasn't the best way to explain the principles of a laser. If you'd like to dwell on nit-picking instead of commenting on the actual advice I can simply stop offering it.
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