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Q&A The polymath's dilemma...?

There a couple of ways to deal with the issue. Maybe he knows a bit of everything, but not a lot. Have issues in the plot where his lack of specialist knowledge causes him issues. Great at learni...

posted 9y ago by MrDracoSpirit‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T00:58:12Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/17326
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar MrDracoSpirit‭ · 2019-12-08T00:58:12Z (almost 5 years ago)
There a couple of ways to deal with the issue.

- Maybe he knows a bit of everything, but not a lot. Have issues in the plot where his lack of specialist knowledge causes him issues.

- Great at learning in some areas, but terribly inept in others. A lot of Anime with powerful heroes balance them out by having them completely inept at things like notice a girl hitting on them or balancing household budgets. Go with something that matches the tone of the story, but terrible people skills is typically a safe one.

- They're good.. and they know it. Have their ego be a issue for them.

- Have them figuring out how to solve problems with their varied skill half the charm. It's tricky, but if you can charm the readers with his improvising, last minute thinking and ability to take knowledge from one field and use it another creatively, you should avoid the Gary Sue tag by everything hard, but overcome, rather than easy and overcome.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-05-18T12:21:43Z (over 9 years ago)
Original score: 1