Post · bonfire.cafe

#WritersCoffeeClub Feb 4
How much detail do you use to describe your settings?

The reader's imagination is very good at filling in gaps in the picture, you just need to nudge it in the right direction. As I write SF/F, a lot of this amounts to dropping alienating details: a family gathers around the dinner table to eat, their father picks up the carving knife then begins to carve up a small velociraptor. You don't need to describe the table or the knife! "Here, have a drumstick."

#writerscoffeeclub

Robrab

@MortonRobD@mas.to · 3 months ago

@cstross Roger Zelazny wrote that if he introduced a character and described more than 3 attributes the character became less clear in his mind rather than clearer.

Charlie Stross

@cstross@wandering.shop · 3 months ago

@MortonRobD Object of emulation, that man.

Wendy M. Grossman

@wendyg@mastodon.xyz · 3 months ago

@cstross I assume velociraptor tastes a lot like chicken?

Charlie Stross

@cstross@wandering.shop · 3 months ago

@wendyg That'd be my guess, too! (I've tried saltwater crocodile, and *that* tasted like chicken.)

HighlandLawyer

@HighlandLawyer@mastodon.social · 3 months ago

@wendyg @cstross
OTOH ostrich meat definitely doesn't taste like chicken, so it's not a given.

Robrab

@MortonRobD@mas.to · 3 months ago

@cstross @wendyg a pal did a few survival courses in the army learning to eat almost anything. He believed that people think various meats taste like chicken as chicken is the bland starting point. We were drinking snake wine at the time. The Object class of meats.