: Re: How to avoid or mitigate heavy science lingo and "technobabble" in a science fiction story? Background I am currently working on a small science fiction story (as referenced in a previous question

@Welton431

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Have you read the Ender Series? And its Formic War Trilogy? The difference is fairly stark sometimes.

The original series treats most things the way we treat cars, internet, and smartphones. Just as a matter of course. It only explains just enough to develop character (often two ver charismatic characters trying to explain something to the other in a back and forth converstation rather than the author just describing it) or to let you know why something is important or its ramifications so you understand the plot.

Then in the Formic Wars there are some long sections describing the functionality and use of gear that sound like a director's screenplay rather than a book and which sucks to read. It sometimes gets into way too much detail about how the technology works and what it does (parts about a soldier describing how he is using all his gear, scopes, HUDs, and drones to infiltrate a facility) and it is just not relevant to the story. It might work on-screen where charisma and acting can carry it through, but it sticks out like a sore thumb on a page.

If you try to explain how something works, it had better be obvious to the reader fairly quickly why they should be interested in what you're saying. (i.e. it is crucial to the long term plot, etc.), and not sound like someone trying to describe something in a screenplay. That is, don't describe things that would have never had their absence noticed if you had not drawn attention to them by talking about them unless they are relevant. If my mind automatically filled in the blanks, don't try and overwrite that with your own overly detailed description or one of two things will happen:

I will just notice how lacking your description was compared to
something in my mind or,
I will notice it is taking up way too much useless text if you do try and use enough words equal something in my mind.

In other words, so long as they are not important, let me take for granted the things that I take for granted.

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