Overread
Searching for a flower
So I was in a discussion with some others about writing and what makes a poor/good book and I got thinking on the subject of confusion of the reader with regard to detailed technical language. It made me think about a lot of combat scenes involving sword play and other hand to hand combat which often crops up in fantasy and how its very easy for the author to lose the reader.
Hand to hand combat has a whole range of styles and manoeuvres unto itself which each have a specific meaning and pose or flow of motions. Pirouettes, lunges, various types of deflection and stances etc... As a writer one can do extensive research and even go to re-enactment groups and play out these different sword manoeuvres before committing to paper complex and highly thrilling battles.
But are they thrilling to read? Well that depends on the reader, but I would argue that as time has gone on they are increasingly getting a little less exciting to read. More modern authors are using more advanced language to describe their battles and that is a good thing; it reflects a more detailed approach and really lets the author make effective use of limited words to describe a battle in a way that can be used to visually re-create it in the reader's minds eye.
However its like technobabble. Without the readers understanding of the subject much of the terminology becomes unintelligible. They get lost. That leaves them the option to either go find a book/google to work out what is happening or try to plod on and at least work out who won and lost the fight. Much in the same way that many don't have physics degrees enough to understand a lot of technobabble in a sci-fi novel; but will rely on the outcome and character reactions to it to tell them what is going on.
However there are other tools one can use too which are often forgotten. One is to be more descriptive early on; to use the technical terms, but to also mix them with more extensive description. To outline the steps and process going on so that you are in effect "teaching" the reader. Extensive use of heavier descriptive elements early on means that later they can be dropped as you don't have to tell; the reader now knows and they've not had to leave your book to find out. One or two tells and they've got it - or at least they also know another page in your book to come back to should they get lost in the future.
Now many reading that last bit will think "ahh neat so I'll do a "guiding teacher" approach to the early part of the novel to teach the protagonist what they mean too. However that is not what I'm saying nor suggesting. Indeed such methods must be very carefully used otherwise you run the risk that your "wise old man" going to appear too much the information source and less and less a character. Indeed for things like this you don't even need a guide to explain; you just need the variation in how you describe. Early battles might be simpler, shorter affairs; letting you devote more description to the terms, whilst latter battles might involve many complex moves and terms - easily done now because the reader is armed with the understanding - your fights just got more epic.
Now this doesn't just apply to fights; there are many many subjects that can be touched upon in a novel like this which can seem to the writer as easy to understand terms; but which can throw a reader. Indeed I feel that sci-fi deals with this better as often it is higher level science and as such most consider their readership needs the help. In fantasy so much is "old" science and "old methods" or technology so we less feel the need to explain it. It's "been done" and its "not new" but we fail to forget as a genre that just because its from our past doesn't mean we all know it. Indeed one can argue that any knowledge that is not current and modern is highly likely to require more detail.
So there are some of my thoughts and feelings and suggestions; what do you feel about this subject in general (remembering that the last point is expanding it out beyond just sword fights).
ps - I am amused that my spell checker software highlights technobabble as incorrect and thinks it should be technophobia.
Hand to hand combat has a whole range of styles and manoeuvres unto itself which each have a specific meaning and pose or flow of motions. Pirouettes, lunges, various types of deflection and stances etc... As a writer one can do extensive research and even go to re-enactment groups and play out these different sword manoeuvres before committing to paper complex and highly thrilling battles.
But are they thrilling to read? Well that depends on the reader, but I would argue that as time has gone on they are increasingly getting a little less exciting to read. More modern authors are using more advanced language to describe their battles and that is a good thing; it reflects a more detailed approach and really lets the author make effective use of limited words to describe a battle in a way that can be used to visually re-create it in the reader's minds eye.
However its like technobabble. Without the readers understanding of the subject much of the terminology becomes unintelligible. They get lost. That leaves them the option to either go find a book/google to work out what is happening or try to plod on and at least work out who won and lost the fight. Much in the same way that many don't have physics degrees enough to understand a lot of technobabble in a sci-fi novel; but will rely on the outcome and character reactions to it to tell them what is going on.
However there are other tools one can use too which are often forgotten. One is to be more descriptive early on; to use the technical terms, but to also mix them with more extensive description. To outline the steps and process going on so that you are in effect "teaching" the reader. Extensive use of heavier descriptive elements early on means that later they can be dropped as you don't have to tell; the reader now knows and they've not had to leave your book to find out. One or two tells and they've got it - or at least they also know another page in your book to come back to should they get lost in the future.
Now many reading that last bit will think "ahh neat so I'll do a "guiding teacher" approach to the early part of the novel to teach the protagonist what they mean too. However that is not what I'm saying nor suggesting. Indeed such methods must be very carefully used otherwise you run the risk that your "wise old man" going to appear too much the information source and less and less a character. Indeed for things like this you don't even need a guide to explain; you just need the variation in how you describe. Early battles might be simpler, shorter affairs; letting you devote more description to the terms, whilst latter battles might involve many complex moves and terms - easily done now because the reader is armed with the understanding - your fights just got more epic.
Now this doesn't just apply to fights; there are many many subjects that can be touched upon in a novel like this which can seem to the writer as easy to understand terms; but which can throw a reader. Indeed I feel that sci-fi deals with this better as often it is higher level science and as such most consider their readership needs the help. In fantasy so much is "old" science and "old methods" or technology so we less feel the need to explain it. It's "been done" and its "not new" but we fail to forget as a genre that just because its from our past doesn't mean we all know it. Indeed one can argue that any knowledge that is not current and modern is highly likely to require more detail.
So there are some of my thoughts and feelings and suggestions; what do you feel about this subject in general (remembering that the last point is expanding it out beyond just sword fights).
ps - I am amused that my spell checker software highlights technobabble as incorrect and thinks it should be technophobia.
