I am probably somewhat scarred (and thus overreacting) because of one particular trainwreck of a story that was almost nothing but tediously detailed descriptions of British life that were always almost, but not quite, right. The author used to hang out on a lot of the britpicking forums and I both dreaded and looked forward to whatever question would come up next. The temptation to feed false information has never been greater.
I have a terrible feeling I may have read the same story ...
Yes, you're quite right about the evils of too much detail. The problem I find myself coming up against again and again is how to keep an American reader travellling with the story without dumbing down desperately. I set one story in Australia (it seemed a good idea at the time) and found myself with the same problem for British readers, too.
And then, of course, there is the other side to the issue: does this all make a difference or is the author better off just going straight to the snogging?
I just haven't really found that this is a problem. Occasionally an American reader will query something or leave a comment that shows they didn't quite get something, but on the whole, it seems to be fine. Maybe there's a whole host of Americans out there who've never read more than one chapter of my stories because they had no idea what was going on! But as a reader (of novels set in other places, rather than fic) I've never really struggled either. My natural tendency is always to let the context dictate and not worry too much if I don't get every detail. And if there's something I really don't understand, I'll look it up. I wouldn't expect an author to 'dumb down' by explaining everything for me, and I wouldn't do it for my readers either.
You know, I am beginning to suspect that I agonise over things that may not really be such issues; will anyone die if I misrepresent the Anglo-Finnish relationship?
I'm a journalist in real life and spend a lot of time ringing people to check that I am not misrepresenting them. It is quite possible that this dribbles out into my writing ...
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-12-18 03:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-12-18 03:22 am (UTC)Yes, you're quite right about the evils of too much detail. The problem I find myself coming up against again and again is how to keep an American reader travellling with the story without dumbing down desperately. I set one story in Australia (it seemed a good idea at the time) and found myself with the same problem for British readers, too.
And then, of course, there is the other side to the issue: does this all make a difference or is the author better off just going straight to the snogging?
no subject
Date: 2008-12-18 03:29 am (UTC)LOL. If in doubt, go straight to the snogging.
no subject
Date: 2008-12-18 03:42 am (UTC)I'm a journalist in real life and spend a lot of time ringing people to check that I am not misrepresenting them. It is quite possible that this dribbles out into my writing ...