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Q&A How much science/medical detail is too much?

I think a better example of "what the people want" would be Tom Clancy. His research, whether it be military, medical, or engineering is meticulous, and its presentation is thorough. He's not afrai...

posted 8y ago by Stu W‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:49:36Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25652
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Stu W‭ · 2019-12-08T05:49:36Z (almost 5 years ago)
I&nbsp;think a better example of "what the people want" would be Tom Clancy. His research, whether it be military, medical, or engineering is meticulous, and its presentation is thorough. He's not afraid to spend thousands of words on intro explanation. But he's Tom Clancy.

My suggestion is to start with too much detail and use beta readers to help edit out the superfluous or simply too technical.

Check out a season of _ER_ or _House_. They use a lot of jargon. The audience is either medical professionals who get it or lay fans who do their best to keep up. These writers won Emmys year after year.

And what about Melville's _Moby Dick_? At least a 100 pages of sailing, ship building, and whaling industry jargon included in what is still considered a classic. Technical can work; it just has to be done well.

Minimize the use of drug names. Unless you're saying something bad about the drug, use brand names—with certain exceptions: lithium, digoxin, maybe a few others.

Good writing!

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-12-26T17:40:43Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 2