McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Alternate Realities vs. Ease of Reading
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: The Corvidian on June 18, 2007, 04:29:00 AM ---Put an Appendix in the back.
--- End quote ---
That's a damn good way of making me and many like me not read the book at all.
If somebody's reading SF or fantasy, it's reasonable to expect them to take in things being different. There are publishers out there who insist on appendices and lists of characters and maps and so forth, so I'm aware that it's not always the author's fault, but it still really irritates me, it's a crutch for not having the information adequately in the text.
If you really want to actually explain it, have a kid or a character from another country around who needs it explained to them over the course of the text. I'd think showing your characters interacting, about the course of their jobs, with each other and the world around them, should convey enough of what their positions are and mean that you wouldn't need to do that, though.
There are readers in the world who want every strange word and concept explained the instant they meet it, before anything else happens, or they start to complain; they also tend to want an explanation of who anyone is the instant they get mentioned. The technical term for these people is "idiots". Assuming your readers are not in fact idiots, and not spoon-feeding them, is better in the long run.
meg_evonne:
Nah, I'll disagree neurovore, but rather than appendix a family tree in the front can sort out a lot of characters in an extensive character list and would also solve the problem. Neurovore could skip it completely...
If you are using 1st person it's sort of tough to do the "stranger in a strange land" routine and it can really get expository, which apparently everyone hates at publishing houses or agents these days. I'd balance chart vs expository in the Beast of Burden words and then pick the one that is easiest and simplist for the reader.
Keep your Beast under control!
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: meg_evonne on June 18, 2007, 06:56:59 PM ---Nah, I'll disagree neurovore, but rather than appendix a family tree in the front can sort out a lot of characters in an extensive character list and would also solve the problem. Neurovore could skip it completely...
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The big big problem I have with that is that it's giving you information outside the order of the story.
--- Quote ---If you are using 1st person it's sort of tough to do the "stranger in a strange land" routine and it can really get expository, which apparently everyone hates at publishing houses or agents these days.
--- End quote ---
Not everybody; look at Neal Stephenson. Write your exposition well enough and it works on its own ground. Though I will grant that not everybody can be Neal Stephenson.
--- Quote ---I'd balance chart vs expository in the Beast of Burden words and then pick the one that is easiest and simplist for the reader.
--- End quote ---
These are not the only two answers. Get the clues smoothly and well and you don't need so much of the exposition. It's the difference between stopping the story for three pages to explain how airborne mutagens were developed during the Great Zombie War and how everybody now has to go through complicated medical tests regularly to make sure they haven't been infected, and just showing characters going through that testing and grumbling about it and the friendly neighbourhood security guard running the test joking with them about what will happen if they fail, while also having a plot-relevant conversation. That tells the reader what they need to know for the story to work, and it does not break the point-of-view.
I'm not saying it's trivially easy, but it is doable and it is worth doing.
meg_evonne:
Willing to conceed point to neurovore! Good points made. Especially as a final solution.
For whatever reason Tasmin is having a communication breakdown in getting the titles across to the readers that have read pages for her. It also appears that those reader's haven't found or suggested a way that seems to work either. Tamin wouldn't have brought it to the forum unless a solution hadn't presented itself and is frustrated as a result. The four titles seem simple & logical, so why isn't it working?
I'd still probably go ahead with the chart just for ease and as the "Beast" proceeds forward some wonderful solution might present itself? Can you give us that much leeway neurovore? Creativity needs a lot of time to bubble and boil sometimes, I think.
So query for neurovore: I'm curious what type of writer you are and how you proceed with a story? Always interesting to see how the process works for different people. I get the sense that you are a very good writer. The example you presented was wonderfully crafted.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: meg_evonne on June 18, 2007, 09:01:45 PM ---For whatever reason Tasmin is having a communication breakdown in getting the titles across to the readers that have read pages for her. It also appears that those reader's haven't found or suggested a way that seems to work either. Tamin wouldn't have brought it to the forum unless a solution hadn't presented itself and is frustrated as a result. The four titles seem simple & logical, so why isn't it working?
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It could just be that these particular readers are not people for whom that is ever going to work, was the point I kind of got distracted from in my own rhetoric, to which there's no real solution short of better test-readers. It could alternatively be that the clues need to be in more effectively.
--- Quote ---I'd still probably go ahead with the chart just for ease and as the "Beast" proceeds forward some wonderful solution might present itself? Can you give us that much leeway neurovore? Creativity needs a lot of time to bubble and boil sometimes, I think.
--- End quote ---
I'm not telling anyone what to do, I'm just expressing opinions; rather strongly-held ones, granted.
--- Quote ---I'm curious what type of writer you are and how you proceed with a story?
--- End quote ---
I'm not sure I have an informative answer to that general a question, I'm afraid. I write SF and fantasy and points in between; am currently actively working on two fantasies, one a roughly alternate Earth with magic that works likes science - because most of the good "magic as science" novels out there are magic as industrial science, almost magic in place of electricity, and I really wanted to do magic that felt like actual cutting-edge scientific research, with which I have some experience. That one I have the main sections of plotted out and have been working on since January, got about 30,000 words and have slowed right down on it for odd personal reasons that I do not think I could communicate in ways that would make sense to anyone not me. The other one I'm actively working on has reached about 20kwords in the past couple of months, and is exploring the question "what happens when you follow the prophecies, find the hero, set out on the quest, track down the ancient sword, and then realise you've got the wrong guy and by doing this you've messed things up irrevocably for the right guy's chances to actually save the world ?" the elevator pitch for the science-as-magic one is "Dyson epicycles ! Drexler nano-golems ! Singularity vs. Rapture steel cage match !... oh look, it's your floor. Why are you running away ?"
I have various SFnal things at various points in the submission cycle, but nothing published as yet, and this year I appear to be a fantasy writer whether I like it or not.
--- Quote ---I get the sense that you are a very good writer. The example you presented was wonderfully crafted.
--- End quote ---
Thank you.
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