@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 @golgaloth

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 @golgaloth

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?