Feedback Wanted
Research detail is odd in fiction. Too much of it and the scene starts wearing a badge. Too little, and the whole thing feels airbrushed.
I keep coming back to the question of what belongs in the foreground and what can sit quietly in the background doing its work. The accurate version is not always the readable one. But the tempting shortcut, the small lie that makes the paragraph smoother, can be the sort of thing a specialist spots at once and never forgets.
Curious how other writers decide where that line is. Do you keep the fact, or keep the feeling?
I keep coming back to the question of what belongs in the foreground and what can sit quietly in the background doing its work. The accurate version is not always the readable one. But the tempting shortcut, the small lie that makes the paragraph smoother, can be the sort of thing a specialist spots at once and never forgets.
Curious how other writers decide where that line is. Do you keep the fact, or keep the feeling?
Most readers won’t notice the exact fact unless it’s wrong in a way that breaks the spell. They notice the wobble. A detail can be technically right and still feel dead on the page.
I usually care more about whether the thing behaves like the world it lives in. In The Borrowed Weather, I’d rather get the texture of a rationed storm system right than spend three lines proving I know how climate towers work. The paragraph has to earn its keep.
I usually care more about whether the thing behaves like the world it lives in. In The Borrowed Weather, I’d rather get the texture of a rationed storm system right than spend three lines proving I know how climate towers work. The paragraph has to earn its keep.