lessons learned from CGAG
Nov. 30th, 2006 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauraanne_gilmanJust passing this along, in the hopes it might be useful to someone else as well.
One of the group members is working on a project that takes place in previous decades (specifically, in London during the Blitz). Several times, references made in the project were questioned, because they didn't seem to fit with the time period.
In each case, the reference was both true and factual (example: they had dry cleaners back then).
Discussion followed, with majority opinon holding as follows:
A fact may be true and correct, and be wrong.
"Wrong" because a fact which is true and yet not obvious to the average reader can have the same result as an anachronism -- the reader stops, and is thrown out of the period/story.
Does this mean that you shouldn't use period details? Of course not. World-building is all about using the details.
However, if you're going to mention something that is not common knowledge, then use it fully in support of the world-building. example: instead of referencing the need for a dry-cleaner, show the character actually going to the dry-cleaner's, so the reader can see the differences between then and now (machinery, time it took, expectations, etc). In that way, you support your world, rather than undermining it.
And if a trip to the dry-cleaners has no place in your book? Then do you really need the reference in the first place?
One of the group members is working on a project that takes place in previous decades (specifically, in London during the Blitz). Several times, references made in the project were questioned, because they didn't seem to fit with the time period.
In each case, the reference was both true and factual (example: they had dry cleaners back then).
Discussion followed, with majority opinon holding as follows:
A fact may be true and correct, and be wrong.
"Wrong" because a fact which is true and yet not obvious to the average reader can have the same result as an anachronism -- the reader stops, and is thrown out of the period/story.
Does this mean that you shouldn't use period details? Of course not. World-building is all about using the details.
However, if you're going to mention something that is not common knowledge, then use it fully in support of the world-building. example: instead of referencing the need for a dry-cleaner, show the character actually going to the dry-cleaner's, so the reader can see the differences between then and now (machinery, time it took, expectations, etc). In that way, you support your world, rather than undermining it.
And if a trip to the dry-cleaners has no place in your book? Then do you really need the reference in the first place?
