How to introduce a foreign idea to readers
I'm writing a book with a world similar to ours but at the same time is very different. I don't know how to do it smoothly without overloading the reader with information but at the same time giving them enough information so that everything makes sense.
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Like with so many non-mainstream settings or ideas, just present it as normal. Give a minimum of information but allow the reader to figure much of it out.
Many works use the troupe of using a naive character as a stand in for the reader. While this sometimes works, it's also overdone and usually fairly tedious. Only do this if there is a really good reason to have a naive character there. And don't have other characters explain everything to her/him.
Sometimes just a few words is all it takes to explain a radically different setting. For example, instead of a long infodump about the effects of having two moons, maybe have a couple kids laugh at the families at the beach who didn't plan on it being double-moon tide and getting all their stuff wet.
A wonderful example of how to do this is The Golden Compass. That world is like Earth in many ways, down to the British college system. And at first the book doesn't seem like fantasy. Then the author matter of factly mentions "daemons." The word is puzzling but then the reader sees it means visible energy manifestations into animal shapes, something that every person has exactly one of. Yep, not our world. It goes on from there, getting more and more fantastical with every page.
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Vampires and werewolves are such a staple of folklore that introducing the reader to the fact of their existence can be done in many ways.
In Interview with the Vampire a nervous journalist saw something he couldn’t explain and learns about vampires from a world weary vampire.
Perhaps your MC collects the various items that are said to be weaknesses of vampires. His home might have many mirrors, garlic hangs from his door and festoons the kitchen. His picket fence looks remarkably like a series of stakes hidden in plain sight and he never invites people into his home.
You could mention the various things he collects and the reader will probably start wondering if there might be a vampire in the closet.
Perhaps a neighbor who watches too much television or reads gothic novels stops by and wonders if the man is preparing for vampires. He might even joke about it.
Drop hints about why your MC is in on the secret - was a loved one killed? Did he witness something that changed his life?
Moonlight did it well - a private investigator who works at night and has some odd quirks because he a vampire living among us.
In Forever Knight, the MC is a detective who is a vampire and his partner learns the truth - and that there is a hidden subculture of vampires in the city he thought he knew so well.
There are so many vampire/ werewolf tales out there that you can be rather subtle and build to the first time it is crystal clear that there are other species among us. Your reader will probably figure it out rather quickly.
Prey took that and gave it a twist - a new species of human that is stronger, faster and smarter than homo sapiens. The enemy was evolution.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41940. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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