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Saxony Tarn · 06-26-2002, 11:14 AM

hey Laie, i'm trying! Okay, so it's still morning out here, and i'm waiting for that caffeine to take effect! Did you answer my "who's easiest to borrow" question yet?

Okay, here's one that i'm sure's been discussed before but it's always good to hash out:

"Need-to-Know" reader info -- how do you give enough but not too much? (and how well did Tolkein pull this off, or not? i've already described the movie as "everything up to the Council of Elrond is exposition" at least once elsewhere)

One way i've found works is to have a character in the know clue in a character not in the know, say, while they're traveling (or waiting out bad weather or... to use examples from mine)

Back in past pages someone made a comment about putting the history after the opening (and i can't find it but it was up front) i bring this up because i just got asked this question by a new test reader, and want to be sure that i'm giving readers just enough info to keep them curious and yet keep the story interesting and active enough that they'll keep reading to see if they can have that curiosity satisfied. (i mean, the characters' newest party member might not consider certain things a high priority, and thus not ask, or just expect that they'll tell him what he needs to know when he needs to know it, but some readers will probably want to know such things earlier than he learns them!)

Anyone else have any ideas - gripes - good or bad examples? Bad example -- a future sci fi book i read once -- 12 chapters, 8 of which seemed to set scene and introduce characters and plot threads. Conflict didn't really get underway until Ch. 9!! i was on a crosscountry flight, so i was a captive audience in that sense. i swapped that book to a lending library as soon as i landed, in exchange for two more installments of the Destroyer series (cheap whiskey and unfiltered cigarettes for the brain) and feel i got the better of the deal...

|_|) <-- keep those pints comin'!

s.t.

[ June 26, 2002: Message edited by: Saxony Tarn ]

06-26-2002, 11:14 AM	#329
Saxony Tarn Wight Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: a western shore Posts: 132	hey Laie, i'm trying! Okay, so it's still morning out here, and i'm waiting for that caffeine to take effect! Did you answer my "who's easiest to borrow" question yet? Okay, here's one that i'm sure's been discussed before but it's always good to hash out: "Need-to-Know" reader info -- how do you give enough but not too much? (and how well did Tolkein pull this off, or not? i've already described the movie as "everything up to the Council of Elrond is exposition" at least once elsewhere) One way i've found works is to have a character in the know clue in a character not in the know, say, while they're traveling (or waiting out bad weather or... to use examples from mine) Back in past pages someone made a comment about putting the history after the opening (and i can't find it but it was up front) i bring this up because i just got asked this question by a new test reader, and want to be sure that i'm giving readers just enough info to keep them curious and yet keep the story interesting and active enough that they'll keep reading to see if they can have that curiosity satisfied. (i mean, the characters' newest party member might not consider certain things a high priority, and thus not ask, or just expect that they'll tell him what he needs to know when he needs to know it, but some readers will probably want to know such things earlier than he learns them!) Anyone else have any ideas - gripes - good or bad examples? Bad example -- a future sci fi book i read once -- 12 chapters, 8 of which seemed to set scene and introduce characters and plot threads. Conflict didn't really get underway until Ch. 9!! i was on a crosscountry flight, so i was a captive audience in that sense. i swapped that book to a lending library as soon as i landed, in exchange for two more installments of the Destroyer series (cheap whiskey and unfiltered cigarettes for the brain) and feel i got the better of the deal... \|_\|) <-- keep those pints comin'! s.t. [ June 26, 2002: Message edited by: Saxony Tarn ] __________________ <-- who, me? Take the Ring? Betray the Fellowship?? Nah -- couldn't be ME, i'm too cute...