Agro's Fic Planning Thread

[Agro]

So I made a thread for myself for the three fics I write but only update every four months... yeah.

So I'm only going to be focusing on one story at a time (and more than likely, for an extended period of time)

Currently, I'm working on chapter 2 of my Digimon fic. Specifically on the meeting between Tahiro and the forest guardian Lotosmon.

What I'm trying to figure out right now his how to write out the elongated explanation about the current state of the Digital World from Lotosmon without it getting too long and uninteresting. Does anyone have any suggestions about how to go about it?

[Crystal Remnants]

A fanfic planning thread huh? Very interesting... gonna have to look at your fics now that I know you write.
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As for your question, I would say that the problem lies in the scenario itself. If Lotosmon's explanation isn't interesting enough for the reader on it's own, that could very well be a problem. Assuming it's interesting enough though, but it's just too long, then we reach another problem. If you have something truly great to tell, but require the reader to go through a wall of text first before you can explain it to them, then most likely the reader will consider your information worthless. That is, who's going to read through the boring story just to reach a [b]potentially[/b] good part the end? Chances are they won't. However, there are a few ways to avoid this:

You could use humor, charm, or some other characteristic to get the information across. Personally, I don't like this, as different people have different views of what's funny and whats charming, and this can lead to characters who seem too weird or annoying for the reader to possibly like.

The other option is hinting at the information before you reveal it. Whenever I read something, I'm ALWAYS more interested in the plot if I know what it's about (assuming it has a moderately interesting plot). For books you see at the store, this is like the summary on the back-cover or inside-cover. In your case, you would want to reveal something about the Digital world that would make the reader interested in finding out just exactly HOW the world got to that state, and WHY it's important.

A big part of writing exposition is getting the reader interested. Most of the time, the reader isn't as interested in the detail. Whether it's in the past, present, or future, a character can do the exact same thing with only changes in detail that relate to the setting. What's truly important is getting the reader interested in the character. If I care about the character, then I care about what he cares about. If the main character earnestly wants to learn about the information, or if Lotosmon is in desperate need to explain it, I would support these characters because they are interesting, and I want to see where their actions take them. Otherwise, you're giving the reader details that they don't have a reason to care about, because they don't know and/or don't care about the people these details affect.

Another important thing is finding ways to weave the exposition into the plot. If the details revolving around the state of the digital world are truly important to your story, then they probably affect the world in some way. If, for example, the digital world was being deleted by a virus, then that virus would most certainly not only affect Lotomon, but several other individuals as well. These chain reactions can not only be used as plot, but they explain the state of the world without having the action ever stop, since every detail will always be tied to some kind of event in the story. This ties in directly with getting the reader to care, in that no matter how much action there is, if I don't care about the characters involved, I won't care about anything that happens to them, and usually that means I won't care about the story.

TL;DR - The best way to get the reader interested is to write out scenes, not explanations. Scenes imply action. Explanations imply long-winded monologues, which are not always great ways to start a story.

Hope this was helpful, and good luck with your writing!

[Agro]

[quote name='Remnants' timestamp='1354594195' post='6084692']
A fanfic planning thread huh? Very interesting... gonna have to look at your fics now that I know you write.
[/quote]
[b]Just check on mah sig.[/b]

[quote name='Remnants' timestamp='1354594195' post='6084692']
The other option is hinting at the information before you reveal it.
[/quote]
[b]I've been hinting at it throughout the first chapter. The only issue is that I'm basically just explaining the whole world to someone that's just entering it. Half the information I'm going to extrapolate on is in the poem I have before the first chapter.[/b]

[quote name='Remnants' timestamp='1354594195' post='6084692']
What's truly important is getting the reader interested in the character. If I care about the character, then I care about what he cares about. If the main character earnestly wants to learn about the information, or if Lotosmon is in desperate need to explain it, I would support these characters because they are interesting, and I want to see where their actions take them. Otherwise, you're giving the reader details that they don't have a reason to care about, because they don't know and/or don't care about the people these details affect.
[/quote]
[b]This is actually a good help. Just had a moment of insight on how to go about revealing the character. Thanks for that![/b]

[quote name='Remnants' timestamp='1354594195' post='6084692']
Another important thing is finding ways to weave the exposition into the plot.
[/quote]
[b]The exposition here is going to be explaining the Digital World to someone who just entered it. So I also want to make it realistic and sincere as well as interesting.[/b]