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A lot of this depends on where the focus is. If it is a psychological piece, the focus is on the psychology and inconsistencies in the use of technology won't matter much. If it is a love story, di...
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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25862 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25862 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
A lot of this depends on where the focus is. If it is a psychological piece, the focus is on the psychology and inconsistencies in the use of technology won't matter much. If it is a love story, dito. But if it is a technical how do we get out of this mess story, then the focus is on the tech, and an inconsistency is likely to be noticed. Part of the problem is that if you are calling attention to the tech, you are calling attention to the inconsistencies in the tech. Part of it is that if the resolution depends on tech and you are inconsistent about it, it feels like a cheat, or even a deus ex machina. So, there are definitely techniques that will let you paper over the cracks, but you have to think carefully about how the crack affects the main story arc or theme of the piece. In stories as in life, whether you notice a crack, and how much you worry about it, depends on whether it is in you line of site, and whether it threatens anything you care about.