going on the internet to stare at things. going to a antique mall to stare at things. going to the aquarium to stare at things. going to an art gallery to stare at things. picking up a book to stare at things. going to the cinema to stare at things. &other such cases
the cruel choice between pdf (free) vs physical copy (annotatable)
(As requested by both an anon and @my-words-are-light)
One of the hardest parts of writing speculative fiction is presenting readers with a world that’s interesting and different from our own in a way that’s both immersive and understandable at the same time.
Thankfully, there are a few techniques that can help you present worldbuilding information to your readers in a natural way, as well as many tricks to tweaking the presentation until it’s just right.
1. The ignorant character.
By introducing a character who doesn’t know about the aspects of the world building you’re trying to convey, you can let the ignorant character voice the questions the reader naturally wants to ask. Traditionally, this is seen when the protagonist or (another character) is brought into a new world, society, organization. In cases where that’s the natural outcome of the plot, and the character has a purpose in the story outside of simply asking questions, it can be pulled off just fine. But there’s another aspect to this which writers don’t often consider:
Every character is your ignorant character.
In a realistic world, no person knows everything. Someone will be behind on the news. Someone won’t know all the facts. Many, many someones won’t have studied a common part of their society simply because they aren’t large part of that fraction or don’t have the time for it.
Instead of inserting an ignorant character and creating a stiff and annoying piece of expository dialogue, find the character already existing in the story who doesn’t know about the thing being learned.
2. Conflicting opinions.
A fantastic way to convey detailed world building concepts is to have characters with conflicting viewpoints discuss or argue about them. Unless you’re working with a brainwashed society, every character should hold their own set of religious, political, and social beliefs.
Examples of this kind of dialogue:
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body hair appreciation post
reeeeally been learning a lot about myself lately like oh. my life is actually just beginning
can’t criticize plastic surgery as an institution because it’s none of your business if a woman wants to “fix” her insecurities. can’t criticize the makeup industry or beauty standards because some women feel good when they shave and wear makeup. can’t bring up the challenges women face in the workplace because some women want to be stay at home wives instead of working. everything a woman does is automatically feminist and we shouldn’t stop to think about the context surrounding her actions because that would be misogynistic. here’s what i had for girl dinner. according to my girl math the barbie movie was a revolutionary piece of feminist media. i may not show it but i feel the life slowly draining from me day by day.
PASTEL BEIGE AESTHETIC.
points to a sign that says “sometimes two people from the same marginalized community will want/need two very different things from their representation in fiction and they should both be allowed to find and make that representation to suit their own needs and neither should be criticized for not making the representation that the other wants”
Hogwarts first year: PART 1
First semester, September to December
like the first rule of cooking is to have fun and be yourself and the first rule of baking is to stay calm because the dough can sense fear