Connecting Readers and Writers discussion

Seems it's been a bit since Elle challenged us with a topic so here's one to chew on:

Preface: I really want to write more Genre fiction, specifically Historically Inspired Sci Fi. I love the idea of playing in the future with the ideas of the past. But I'm also writing a lot of short stories that are "modern day" just to flex the muscles. (Specifically for the "Weekly Short Story Contest" group)

But recently I found myself in a bit of a bind trying to explain a story that used CraigsList as a major plot point to a coworker who is over the age 50. The concept of Craigslist was so far off his radar that the story itself just wasn't approachable.

So is this an issue for anyone else? Taking what we use (or our kids use) and then figure out how to make it "Work" for a larger audience? I mean most people know what an App is now, but 2 years ago having a smart phone in a story would require either a lot assumption of prior knowledge or a lot of explanatory exposition. Do we assume that our audience is relatively up on current events/ tech/ fads or do we explain them into the story and hope we don't offend any readers?

It doesn't matter if it's realistic fiction or not... It seems that for any writer at all, the most difficult question in the entire world is, "So... What's your book about?"

One of the issues that I wrestled with in my historical magic realism novel was "what would people in the 6th century understand about X," or "would anyone even have known about Y?"

Also, the main character is from a very remote, backward (even for the Dark Ages) village, and many things were new to him: glass, stairs, multi-storey buildings, etc. Also, he has an autism-spectrum disorder, and I had to think about how people would describe and relate to him, 1,500 years before anyone ever heard of autism.

Don't worry about how the gadget works. Just SHOW (don't tell) the audience what it does. For example, science-fiction writers don't explain HOW faster-than-light travel works. They just throw in the words "hyperdrive" or "subspace" and show their characters traveling between stars.

Rob wrote: "Seems it's been a bit since Elle challenged us with a topic so here's one to chew on:

Preface: I really want to write more Genre fiction, specifically Historically Inspired Sci Fi. I love the id..."

I believe it's best to avoid insulting someone's intelligence or knowledge, whenever possible. If your target reader is young and tech savvy, then you should write for him in a language he will understand. And if by chance an over fifty picks up your book, or reads one of your stories and runs across something he doesn't quite get, then he can Google it (provided he's familiar with Google) or look it up at the library. Just as a young person reading a memoir set in the 1970's might have to Google an eight-track cartridge. It's been my experience that most avid readers appreciate a challenge and are eager to enter into a "new world."

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
http://callme2sday.blogspot.com/

Writing for a YA audience, this one is particularly tricky.

I wrote a historical fiction book set in WW2, in which in a very minor point in the book, a character enjoys listening to long - playing vinyl records.

Ask most 11 - 16 year olds what an LP is and give you a blank look and they'll have to go and look it up. Without wishing to drop in a page of explanation, I just left it as 'long-playing vinyl record' and moved on. It was really all I could do.

Were there LPs in the 40s?

Scott wrote: "Were there LPs in the 40s?"

They were just starting to come in...something like a symphony would be on multiple disks.