I'm working on book two of my trilogy at the moment, tidying up a couple of scenes based on feedback from a lovely Chronner who helps me with my military scenes (me not ever having known the inside of an army ever and two of my main characters being soldiers, sadly). Since I'm working over a few scenes, I'm flipping backwards and forwards and smiling where I see people's input. I know we've had threads like this a long time in the past, but we've a lot of new members, so I thought it would be useful to consider how much input we've had where, and from whom, in order to create a believable sff world.
So, naming no names, here's where I've had input in book 2 of my trilogy (book 1 would be a book of its own...)
1. I'm not a bloke. Really. I know lots of blokes and have a gang of brothers, but I'm not, actually, a bloke. So I have a few beta readers who are real-life blokes, who let me know if my male characters get a bit off kilter in terms of interactions with others. (This is thorny ground, isn't it? Suffice to say, we're not talking male-characters-by-number. Or any characters by number, for that matter. I needed a bit of help to understand a female character I've written, because I don't know any female soldiers personally, and didn't understand some of her motivations.)
2. I'm also not a scientist. I've had loads of threads here where scientists have helped me out, not least for the geography of planets, for space manoevures, for ship movements etc. So lots of scientific input. Also, I tend to get my gravity impacted scenes a once over as sometimes I get confused as to what all gravity changes can effect.
3. I'm not an expert on totalitarian governments, but one of my clever, clever betas was. So I did lots of brain-picking on that.
4. Medical stuff. From broken ribs and ankles, to PTSD, I have loads of medical things befall my poor characters and I have a doctor who is very patient with me running things past them (and scuppers me from having characters sprinting around on broken legs with bones showing. Or, indeed, point out a character who has been shot with a laser will need to be monitored at least overnight as there can be complications, which led to a lovely scene between two key characters that works well.)
5. Military scenes. I mentioned it above, but I have a military expert who reads my scenes and advises me on language, patrol set ups, that sort of thing. They tend to read out of context, which is really hard betaing, and focus on that aspect, which is really helpful.
6. Point of view discipline. I'm not the worst in the world, but I have a lot of shifting point of views, and they can get muddled. I have a beta who is very strong in catching the slightest shift in focus.
7. Flight manoevures - I've had a pilot read over some scenes (see above re the military) for book one and I've taken their advisory into book two.
In addition to all this, I've also done a load of online research, and book reading and what not.
So, what's your knowledge blindspots and how do you fill them? Whose brains do you pick?
(On another note - because it's useful to know who is specialist in what - I'm pretty strong in corporate structure, management and leadership and things like motivation.)
So, naming no names, here's where I've had input in book 2 of my trilogy (book 1 would be a book of its own...)
1. I'm not a bloke. Really. I know lots of blokes and have a gang of brothers, but I'm not, actually, a bloke. So I have a few beta readers who are real-life blokes, who let me know if my male characters get a bit off kilter in terms of interactions with others. (This is thorny ground, isn't it? Suffice to say, we're not talking male-characters-by-number. Or any characters by number, for that matter. I needed a bit of help to understand a female character I've written, because I don't know any female soldiers personally, and didn't understand some of her motivations.)
2. I'm also not a scientist. I've had loads of threads here where scientists have helped me out, not least for the geography of planets, for space manoevures, for ship movements etc. So lots of scientific input. Also, I tend to get my gravity impacted scenes a once over as sometimes I get confused as to what all gravity changes can effect.
3. I'm not an expert on totalitarian governments, but one of my clever, clever betas was. So I did lots of brain-picking on that.
4. Medical stuff. From broken ribs and ankles, to PTSD, I have loads of medical things befall my poor characters and I have a doctor who is very patient with me running things past them (and scuppers me from having characters sprinting around on broken legs with bones showing. Or, indeed, point out a character who has been shot with a laser will need to be monitored at least overnight as there can be complications, which led to a lovely scene between two key characters that works well.)
5. Military scenes. I mentioned it above, but I have a military expert who reads my scenes and advises me on language, patrol set ups, that sort of thing. They tend to read out of context, which is really hard betaing, and focus on that aspect, which is really helpful.
6. Point of view discipline. I'm not the worst in the world, but I have a lot of shifting point of views, and they can get muddled. I have a beta who is very strong in catching the slightest shift in focus.
7. Flight manoevures - I've had a pilot read over some scenes (see above re the military) for book one and I've taken their advisory into book two.
In addition to all this, I've also done a load of online research, and book reading and what not.
So, what's your knowledge blindspots and how do you fill them? Whose brains do you pick?
(On another note - because it's useful to know who is specialist in what - I'm pretty strong in corporate structure, management and leadership and things like motivation.)
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