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Q&A How can I explain my world if the character is technologically not yet capable of understanding it?

If you are using POV characters to explore a world, you are not doing storytelling, you are doing world building. That is a perfectly legitimate hobby, but it is not literature and the normal conce...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:55Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30404
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T07:03:00Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30404
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T07:03:00Z (almost 5 years ago)
If you are using POV characters to explore a world, you are not doing storytelling, you are doing world building. That is a perfectly legitimate hobby, but it is not literature and the normal concerns of literary writing, such as suspension of disbelief, or, for that matter, point of view, don't apply.

If you are engaged in storytelling, then the world you have build exists merely as the stage on which to tell your story, and should only exist as a distinct world as a literary device for exploring a set of themes that matter to your story. As such, flora and fauna that are not germain to your plot, characters, or themes have no place in the story.

You need to decide if you are more interested in world building or in storytelling. A world builder may tell stories to explore their world, but don't expect them to work as stories, or to follow normal story conventions. A storyteller may invent a world as a stage on which to tell a story, but don't expect all of the features of that world to be explained, or even explicable. Wonderland exists for Alice, not Alice for Wonderland.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-09-26T03:40:30Z (about 7 years ago)
Original score: 0