: Re: How to show characters learning something in a non-boring way? Okay so I want to write a fiction where a character is learning something, for example a language, such as Japanese. I want to

@Nimeshi163

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Your fears are correct: "all the details included" is a terrible way to write fiction. If all the details were included it wouldn't be fiction, it would be a textbook--and we all know how much fun those are to read.

The power of fiction lies in the reader's imagination--what you want is enough detail to prompt their imagination, while still giving it some room to work with. In your case, what this means is that you should provide the reader with only the most interesting or surprising details, then let them fill in the rest. Your readers can probably guess that Japanese has vowels--that is not a very interesting detail. However, it might surprise them to learn that written Japanese is a mix of letters (representing sounds) and pictograms (representing concepts). That is the kind of detail that might be good to include, especially if it has some other relevance to the plot (see Dale Emery's answer).

It's easiest to separate the interesting details from the boring ones when you yourself have some familiarity with the subject, so you might want to go do some research on the Japanese language first, then take the details that surprised/delighted/intrigued you and put them into your story as your character's thoughts and observations (see Lauren Ipsum's answer).

EDIT: For the advanced techniques, go read this essay.

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