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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26486
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

The sentence where you explain the following is your way into how it should be done:

> The story is set on the fictional world and narrated in the eyes of that world’s natives.

Now, think about how people tell stories on Earth.

Suppose your friend is going to tell you about a car wreck he just saw right outside before coming into your house. One of the parts of the story is that the driver of one car flew through the windshield.

Now, might your friend tell the story and then say something like:

> There was a terrible wreck. Your front lawn is a beautiful shade of green and I love the native lilies you have growing in the front flower bed. The stamens on those lilies are quite interesting. If you look closely you can see each fleck of pollen within the flower bloom. The driver of the Camry went straight through the windshield. She was a bloody mess. The red blood stood in stark contrast to your lovely front lawn. However, it almost matched those red lilies.

No.

Now, if you were writing a non-fiction story about flora and fauna, would you include the following:

> I was staring at the beauty of the inner leaves of the lily blossom when a car smacked into a pole in front of our house. A woman flew through the windshield and landed in the flower bed. Her body smashed the flowers flat and I was quite annoyed. I pushed her body to the side and continued my examination of the lilies.

No.

**The Point**

    Focus on the story you are telling.

If some alien in your story ends up crushing the leaves of an exotic plant to make a poison to kill another character, then show me the plant as the character gathers it and crushes the leaves. Otherwise, leave it out.

For it seems, that aliens tell the same stories we on Earth tell: ones that are relevant to the context. :)

When people drone on about things that are not in context, we call them bores.

Original score: 12