: Re: How to write a character that knows a lot about explosives? I'm writing a story where the main character makes and detonates bombs. The character could be considered a terrorist. I want to

@Kaufman555

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Engineering corps, Explosive Ordnance Disposal

Your character has done military service as a Combat Engineer and/or Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD). As their tour of duty ended (for reasons left unspecified for your convenience) they then transferred to law enforcement, or a private military company (PMC) for the same kind of duty, and/or as an educator on the subject.

Not only does this make them an expert on how things go "boom" but they also have a valid reason to stay updated on the subject. Since today's warfare involves dealing with home-brew explosive devices (IED's) this means that EOD experts must know how the average Joe goes about making their own bombs, as well as knowing how to deal with military ordnance.

For increased flexibility you can have the character originally be something other than a US citizen, but then having migrated to the US. The reason you might want this is that some countries — like for instance Sweden(*) — have a conscription military, which allows for a shorter tour of duty while still retaining the possibility that they served in a hot-spot, like a UN mission to Afghanistan, Africa or the Balkans.

How do you write it in a manner that makes your character seem knowledgeable?

Get in touch with such people that work with this and ask them "Does this sound credible or does it sound ridiculous?". That is research for your book. You can also ask them for general principles that sound credible but do not actually reveal any "trade secrets". You can also ask them for tips... "Hey, if I want to create some kind of tension for this specific scenario... how do you think this person would go about it?".

Some tips in general about writing about people that are experts:

Do not try too hard. If you are specifically trying to make your character sound extremely knowledgeable, cool, tough, whatever... your readers will most likely spot this and get turned off instead. Avoid the "trying too hard" trap. And for goodness sake: never do techno-babble/trade lingo. Throwing fancy-sounding words about will backfire unless you know exactly what the concepts are and how they are normally used in the right context.
Show, don't tell. If you say "They are so good with explosives", then you are telling... that is never good. If you have someone read that character's service record / resumé on the other hand, then you are showing and letting the reader come to the conclusion that they are good with explosives. Which then leads to...
Give a person a reputation to be an early riser... and they can sleep until noon, and no-one will bat an eyelash at that. If you have first given the impression that your character knows their stuff, then you do not actually have to flaunt it any more, nor go into any details about it. From then you just need the absolute smallest of hints (see point 1 again) to keep that fire burning.

(*) Anecdote: the infamous Barret M82 "Light 50" was first acquired by the Swedish military forces for just that: explosive ordnance disposal. Then the rangers got their eyes on it and thought "Ooh.... we want us some of that".

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