RSFitz6
Dave Dawkins (D. Harrigon)Where does your character's knowledge end?
Burnt Veggies@golgaloth
I worked in the automotive field for about 5 years as a bumper to bumper technician. I learned a lot in that time. Before I started my 9 month automotive technology class (where I learned the basics), this is what I thought was under the hood. š¤£š¤£š¤£
I worked in the automotive field for about 5 years as a bumper to bumper technician. I learned a lot in that time. Before I started my 9 month automotive technology class (where I learned the basics), this is what I thought was under the hood. š¤£š¤£š¤£
phi1997@golgaloth
Characters should know everything the author knows, including the plot
Characters should know everything the author knows, including the plot
Betsy@golgaloth šø š¤£ šø
$k313t0n 
@golgaloth take any modern SUV and it's just gonna be one giant plastic cover with the logo of the company who made the engine. not even the car's brand. the engine's.
Gene Thomas ļ£æ
Anne@golgaloth This is me trying to write about my protagonistās work day.
VHaschThat's a Mazda, right? š
Athena L.M.@golgaloth this is really the problem with having major characters set up as being really really smart or knowing everything is then you have to actually demonstrate it somehow
@alilly Who would they have to explain it to? Why? There's always a Dr Watson possibility, but then you have to develop Watson as a character and explain their need to ask.
@golgaloth not explain it to someone, but if you promise "this character is really smart" you kind of have to deliver them being really smart where the audience can see
marionline@golgaloth This is so cute! 
FirefighterGeek 
@golgaloth For so many authors, the character's knowledge ends where the SF author doesn't want to explain how something works.
The SF main character seems to know everything about how spaceships and guns and whatever works to the exact degree that the author has considered it, despite the fact that most people have very little idea how their own cars work and could barely figure out a bicycle.
@FirefighterGeek Yes, which brings up the all important question of, "Why does this character know that?"
RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist...which brings up the all important question of, "Why does this character know that?"
Gah! Bring that question home, why don't ya? I just had to look up a section from a prequel to confirm that my character doesn't know that. Worse, she would never have troubled herself with that minutia.
For so many authors, the character's knowledge ends where the SF author['s knowledge ends.]
I chalk this up as a typical newbie error, and not just in #sf! It can even appear in #mainstream, #thriller, and #romance. Any #fiction.
Where does your character's knowledge end?
My character's knowledge ends way before my knowledge of the subject ends.
#Fantasy #magic systems often fail to impress because lots of detail, except where the reader can intuit a logical loophole, is a bad thing! The reader will often assume the gaps for you. I must remind myself every so often that a story is entertainment, not a treatise or thesis on speculative science, sociology, or engineering, especially after all time I spent on the research. When I wrote from a prize-fighter's POV, I learned how training felt, and the injuries, but I didn't presume to write the coach working their miracles. Only enough to convince.
I try to be imprecise, even about what I know a subject very well. Well, heck, I recognize I could misunderstand somethng! I then lampshade enough to ensure the story makes sense and to keep the plot logically together. I would, for example, make sure to understand the limits of a submersible pressure vessel (I don't) and get that much right. I'd also work on the jargon. My character would then be passenger told not to touch anything, and not an engineer or pilot.
A tactic I use is to consider secondary characters to provide "details." I include lieutenants, clerks, and engineers to do real work, maybe letting them talk down to the MC because the MC couldn't possibly understand and is wasting their time. This excuses lack of detail.
Everyone is a lay person about something, many many somethings, IRL. To the extent that I don't know how to maintain my car, build my house (I actually did), generate my electricity, butcher my meat (thinking about which turns me into a vegetarian for a few hours), and piloting an airplane, I make my characters the same way. Builds a sense of #Verisimilitude
My opinion, anyway.
#boostingIsSharing #writing #writer #author #writersofmastodon #writingCommunity #wrtingAdvice
@sfwrtr @golgaloth Challenging for me. I'm an ADHD guy with a DIY leaning so the list of things I don't do is shorter then the list of things I've at least done once. I'm a professional consultant and software developer, but I build hardware. I was a volunteer firefighter for 20 years. I trained my own horse. I rebuilt cars for my kids. I am pro gun control but competed with targets.
When the apocalypse comes, there's room for me behind the wall because I can make the toilets and lights work
@FirefighterGeek @sfwrtr First question I would ask when someone turns up at the gate is, "Have you ever picked up a plunger?"
@golgaloth @sfwrtr LOL, plunger, I mean I can design, build, and implement a siphon valve (the principle by which a toilet works).
@FirefighterGeek @golgaloth I used to keep aquariums. I could actually manage it. Having it last more than a day, maybe not.
@FirefighterGeek @golgaloth
Ah. A jack of all trades, master at none. Genuinely, I'm envious. Do you live in my neighborhood? Willing to do odd jobs? šā
Ah. A jack of all trades, master at none. Genuinely, I'm envious. Do you live in my neighborhood? Willing to do odd jobs? šā
@sfwrtr @golgaloth grew up in the desert southwest, lived in big cities, now I live in tiny lobster fishing village in coastal Maine, 20 miles to a full sized grocery store.
I llive in tiny lobster fishing village .. 20 miles to a full[-]sized grocery store...
And... You love steak and hate lobster? Am I right?
@sfwrtr @golgaloth i can take it or leave it. If i want lobster i can walk a quarter mile to the commercial dock and buy for a few bucks a pound depending on the time of year, or get a lobster roll up the street.
Where does your character's knowledge end?
My answer:
My character's knowledge ends way before my knowledge of the subject ends.
I'm quoting myself, because this is one of the heartbreaks of self-knowedge. I have a great naval-airship story I'd love to write, and I even know most of what would happen. The problem is I'm neither military or navy, and while I'd get most of it right, I am sure I'd miss enough of the details that I could not pull it off. So I am not writing it. Now. I hope in the future to find a collaborator to co-author with me.
For now, the story starts in another novel as set of scenes in which the perspective MC appears. The battles and bravery happen off screen. Discussion of the result provides impact (without too much spoilery detail) at the end of the novel. Oh, and I did write a first chapter, but I can't go beyond that at this time.
š¢ā
#fiction #fantasy #sf #sff #sciencefiction #writing #writer #writers #author #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #wrtingAdvice
apophis@golgaloth iām in the middle of a lengthy hiatus of a fanfic for a work thatās set in the Oregon coast, canonically featuring a good deal of paranormal and supernatural phenomena
when i started i knew there was absolutely going to be a lot of worldbuilding and interaction with the spirit world
about a third of the way through i realized just how extremely christianized and eurocentric (or if/where not āeuroā then certainly hollywood white yankee) all of that spirit world stuff was, both in my writing and in the canon work (and pretty much all the extant fanfic iāve read that touched on similar things)
i have no idea what the local indigenous spirituality is like and how much of it can possibly be tweaked to fit canon events without being appropriative or offensive or just cringe in its wrongness
how do you even approach real people about their real ancestral culture for info for a video game fanfic
and finding online sources i can trust is hard
my main solace is that thereās no way i can do worse than canon
Theta Sigma@golgaloth I donāt know about anyone else, but thatās exactly what the inside of mind looks like. (Although I have two rats in a twin wheel rather than a single hamster).
rosa 
@ThetaSigma @golgaloth
pff. a real car doesn't even need (to imprison) animals. my car has a pot for plants instead. depending on the season i have to switch.
i heard that some kinds of cactus work the whole year with lower speed... but in my country the damn plant lobby has their fingers everywhere it seems and driving cactus is forbidden. so sad.
pff. a real car doesn't even need (to imprison) animals. my car has a pot for plants instead. depending on the season i have to switch.
i heard that some kinds of cactus work the whole year with lower speed... but in my country the damn plant lobby has their fingers everywhere it seems and driving cactus is forbidden. so sad.
@kittenface @golgaloth I did not know thisā¦ theyāve clearly done a huge job at covering this up. Seems absolutely typical behaviour of big plant.corp. Iām going to need to research more into cacti alternatives.
@kittenface @ThetaSigma Tulips give a real boost in spring. It's like a little nitro system.
@golgaloth @ThetaSigma but you gotta be careful that you don't park near cars with beedrive. once tulips are pollinated they drop their leaves within minutes.
rag. Gustavino BevilacquaIf a person drawing a car is a cartoonist, a person drawing a bike is a biketoonist?