Post History
Well, the best way to introduce a reader to a world is to describe it to them. It worked for Tolkien. It worked for Rowling. It can work for you. The best way to make a fish out of water characte...
Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2020-01-03T20:41:57Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33734 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T08:08:08Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33734 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
System
·
2019-12-08T08:08:08Z (almost 5 years ago)
Well, the best way to introduce a reader to a world is to describe it to them. It worked for Tolkien. It worked for Rowling. It can work for you. The best way to make a fish out of water character convincing is to have a very good reason why they are out of water, and either show them working as hard as they can to get back in the water, or provide a completely convincing reason why they wish to remain out of the water. Falseness in a character always comes back to motivation. Every character acts in their own interest. Yes, there is such a thing as altruism, but altruism is an act of love and love is an interest. So if you have a fish out of water, tell us a convincing and self-consistent story about how they came to be out of the water. (By self-consistent, I mean consistent with the theme and mood of the rest of the story.) Then filter everything they do and say through the question of their desire either to return to the water or stay out of it.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2018-02-23T18:48:06Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 2