: Re: Can I assign actions to broad concepts? Whenever I write, I run into the problem where I have to assign human actions to subjects that, when I contemplate about it, cannot realistically perform

Inanimate objects and ideas certainly CAN act in some ways.

Take your first sentence, "Science helps us understand nature." Of course it does. Just because science is not a person doesn't mean that it can't serve a purpose. Inanimate objects still do things. It is completely accurate to say, "The airplane flew across the sky" or "The door swung open". Ideas can have effects. Like "science" in your example.

Now if you said, "Science likes mathematical formulas", that is anthropomorphizing. "Science" doesn't have feelings, it doesn't like one thing and hate another. Still, people say things like this all the time. Often, like here, it's just a shorthand way to say something that would require a long or awkward sentence to describe literally. Sometimes we mean it in a poetic, metaphorical way. "My computer is plotting against me." Of course the speaker doesn't think that his computer literally hates him and is malfunctioning because it wants to hurt his feelings. (He probably doesn't really think that, anyway.) But it's a cute way to say that he's having problems with his computer.

There's nothing wrong with anthropomorphizing. Of course like any literary technique, it can be done poorly, be overused, etc. I suppose that if you do it in a way that sounds like you're being literal, it could come across as silly.

But if all writing was limited to the strictly literal, it would be a lot more boring. Which is more interesting to read:

One: "My new girlfriend is like a cuddly little kitten. I love to watch her run as she chases a dream across the sun-kissed field and the wind whips her hair about her face."

Two: "My new girlfriend is lovable. I have a positive psychological response to watching her run. The sun is bright today and the wind velocity is higher than average."

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: Re: Can I assign actions to broad concepts? Whenever I write, I run into the problem where I have to assign human actions to subjects that, when I contemplate about it, cannot realistically perform

More posts by @Annie587

: Create looping patterns within the dialog, such as the order that people speak, and little mannerisms within their speech. Then repeat the pattern a few times. You don't need to be too rigid

: Dialog problems with a character with only one name? I have a character who starts as a low servant caste and rises up through society. While plotting, I never bothered to give her more than

: How do I ratchet down expectations in a genre that seems to have gone gonzo? I've done worldbuilding and extensive plotting for a Book 1 based around a "detective" (not a literal detective

: Archetype or Stereotype? After feedback on character design for my visual novel, my grizzled Noir Detective is drifting into an Old Jazz Musician. There's a reason I post the artwork: what

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