In every novel it is essential to have people’s worlds collide. Be it merely a child’s perspective coming to terms with an adult’s view of things, or in a more concrete sense where a character is put in a new environment. For many people this isn’s always such a big issue, but for myself I first have to paint the alien environments in order for the reader to understand the differences. I’m curious what tips/advice/techniques you have for dealing with this area of writing? I am especially thinking about timing and the use of a kind of ‘psychopomp’ who eases the transition so the character can bridge the divide more readily - one that isn’t too blatant. Note: My primary concern is with ‘fantasy’ but is easily part of general fiction. Sorry if this post makes little sense, hard to articulate what I mean.
Point of reference can be a tool to help ease the reader into the new environment. A pretty common trend is having the main character be just as new everything as the reader, that way their observations can double as setting the scene. It doesn't even have to be the main character, it can be a side one with the right dialogue. Noob character: "So we're going to totally frag this bad guy, right?" Main character: "Fragging is for shooting games, this is a RPG" Noob Character: "Rocket propelled grenade?" Main character: "Role Playing Game... explaining this to you is going to be an all day thing, isn't it?" I think worlds colliding is a great way to provide conflict for a story, but it's not necessary by any means. Then again I think the only necessary point of a book is for the reader to be compelled to read more. That's right, conflict is a crutch.
Well, I guess it's depend of the definition you have made of your character. It depends not only on the personnality thant you gave him, but also on the strange of what he sees. In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from Adams, the characters have a book who gave him some advice to adapt himself of what he is confronting to. ("Don't panic") In Harry Potter, it's Hagrid who introduce Harry in the magic world. I guess this is the soft way to carry your characters into a change. By accompanying him. And you have the hard way. Your man is alone, struggling to understand what the heck is happening and there, you should have did the work of his definition. I mean, this is the architecture of a story. Something happen and the character have an issue with that. How did he answer to that ? Did he avoid the problem? Did he destroy it ? Try to understand it ? Put his **** on it ? (maybe you are writting pr0n) Resolving it ? Calling help ? I don't think their is a magic formule to answer to you. Moreover, the answer you will give to that question will define your book. I explain. When you are writting, you show by your character a way of living. Your character can be carried by other because it's the choosen one (aka Harry Potter, Matrix), your character can be depressed of what is happening to him (Stendhal, Goethe), Not understanding (Camus), trying with no purpose neither success (Kafka, Buzzati), seeking for purpose everywhere (Eco), or accepting, finally, their own fate (Tolkienn)... I complete with a personnel exemple. My story are all the same. A character live something terrible (a suicide from him child for my last one), this event brings him to interrogate his place on the world. Did he have a purpose ? He realize suddainly that his live is a struggle between all the purpose that people have assumed on him. The conclusion of the book is the only place where he belongs is where he want to be. The trick to make the novel coherent is to suggest this end in all reaction of the character. Edit: (I forget to conclude) So the deeds of you characters are, by their evolutions, parts of your conclusion, what the character learn and how did it change his life ? I hope my answer is what you expected. I needed to use google translate with some of your sentence where I wasn't confident enough to understanding by myself. Regards
If it's between cultures, I think of a foreign childhood friend and replicate the feeling of entering their home for the first time. The friend is already familiar to the MC, but their culture is still something to learn. I'm also a sucker for metaphors, so I let their floating islands collide to show that neither one of them is the foreigner, just living in different ways. When MC's family feels fake, he's reminded that the island is fake as well, only to remember that real or fake doesn't matter. Only the perception has a true value as if essence transcends existence like in modern religions.
Massive change in setting or location. I myself am planning to go from normal school life.... to high speed action scenes in less than a hundred words.
Oh yes. Sort of. I had two ideas for this. One. Where you followed a spec ops group chasing down a lead for terrorists. They're tough. They're the best of the best. They've got years of experience. They've got the best equipment money can buy. And some more of that. They've had inhuman luck. And then they bust into the warehouse... To find out that they're in a magical girl anime. And it's Nanoha. Yes. That Nanoha. Another one took place in a stereotypical high school... And at the end of the day, our MC gets home from a workload of normal life... And steps into the teleporter. Turns out he's a junior interdimensional cop. And for political reasons. He's got to stick himself in a high school.
For me personally it is a difficult problem for the story I am thinking of. This is because I have to introduce the reader to two unfamiliar places with odd customs and traditions and then have the reader understand the complex interactions between these two ‘worlds’. If the reader doesn’t understand the differences then there is going to be almost no real impact as individuals move from one to the other. I’ve basically gone for the ‘day-to-day’ life of each culture during a normal day with a certain event (festivity/celebration/ceremony) that helps emphasis what is ‘normal’ for each culture and what is ‘unique’. There is no ‘human’ guide within the story for the reader. I could add a human, but it would be superfluous to the story as humans don’t play a major role in this story. The main character isn’t even likely to be seen up close or interacting with anyone for half the novel. The main character being the ‘third world’ - a common thread - that ties the two cultures together in a significant place in history. Note: I don’t want to ‘tell’ people about the clash. So adding a third party to explain is not something I find even slightly appealing.
You don't have to paint the alien environment before getting into the story. In fact, I would way that's a bad move. Feed readers the information as needed in THE STORY. If the story starts with the collision of two worlds, start the story there. If you have the readers attention, they will likely stay with the story long enough to find out how it all works.
Did you actually write half a novel without allowing readers to get to know your main character? I can't imagine a novel where for the first half there is a main character, lacking contact with other characters. I can't imagine this working well. Your characters don't have to be human, but it's important to keep in mind your readers will be. Regardless of what your characters are they have to be relatable to humans. They have to have some sort of human side that readers can connect with and understand.
I wasn’t talking about the ‘environment’. If someone is a doctor and another person is a shopkeeper they have different lives. But we know what a doctor does and what a shopkeeper does. I’m talking about alien cultures. eg. “He sat on the floor. She was so shocked that she threw up and started to clip her hair and nails.” - silly example, but the point is it disorientating as we cannot relate to what is going on or why.
THE main character, not a main character. The opening is a character who has recently met THE main character. Through this person’s experience I have managed to reveal parts of the unusual ‘culture’. My personal problem is not repeating the same means of revealing the ‘culture’ for another part of this world. Generally my experience, through experimentation, in this area is to show EXTREME cases/behaviors in order to establish with the reader what is deemed ‘normal’ for each social group. I am asking what you, or anyone else, does when you are not able to rely on something within the ‘world’ to something else in the world. For example in my case it is easy enough to have characters fill the role of ‘doctor’ or ‘shopkeeper’ without naming the profession - the needs of a society/culture dictate the acts/roles of the individuals. What do you do in our fiction? It doesn’t have to be ‘fantasy’ or any particular genre as I am looking for nuanced techniques rather than sledgehammer solutions like some local guide who can explain the traditions and ways of some peoples. I am going to be using some more ‘cliched’ techniques but only because I want to turn them on their heads. One of the most obvious things to do I can think of is to simply show a day-in-the-life of the people of a given culture and pepper it with little instances of ‘unusual’ behavior. I am planning of having some ‘initiate’ to a certain cultural niche, but - as I said - I’m going to flip it on its head and have the character going through the ‘initiation’ becoming completely confused and effectively knowing less about the said ‘culture’ after the attempt at ‘initiation’. The classic ‘reversal’ in a narrative - which is also meant to create a sense of ‘confusion’ in the reader too (or rather REALISATION without a sense of feeling like they’ve been duped; but also FEELING how the character - in this case - has been ‘duped’). Anyway, off on a tangent there a bit! Haha! Thanks for your responses btw Hope what I’m fishing for is a littler clearer now? How to bridge bridge gaps between ‘worlds’ - via build up, rather than direct show and tell.
