: Re: How to introduce a foreign idea to readers I'm writing a book with a world similar to ours but at the same time is very different. I don't know how to do it smoothly without overloading

@Smith147

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Like with so many non-mainstream settings or ideas, just present it as normal. Give a minimum of information but allow the reader to figure much of it out.

Many works use the troupe of using a naive character as a stand in for the reader. While this sometimes works, it's also overdone and usually fairly tedious. Only do this if there is a really good reason to have a naive character there. And don't have other characters explain everything to her/him.

Sometimes just a few words is all it takes to explain a radically different setting. For example, instead of a long infodump about the effects of having two moons, maybe have a couple kids laugh at the families at the beach who didn't plan on it being double-moon tide and getting all their stuff wet.

A wonderful example of how to do this is The Golden Compass. That world is like Earth in many ways, down to the British college system. And at first the book doesn't seem like fantasy. Then the author matter of factly mentions "daemons." The word is puzzling but then the reader sees it means visible energy manifestations into animal shapes, something that every person has exactly one of. Yep, not our world. It goes on from there, getting more and more fantastical with every page.

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