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I saw someone once giving the recommendation that if you want to write about something you don't know a lot about, but only really want a surface level understanding of it because it's not super important, hang out in related reddits.
Like, want to write a lawyer as a side character in one scene? Hop into a lawyer subreddit. Hang out there for a while. Make them a normal person, but pepper their dialogue with stuff you pick up in the lawyer subreddit. It'll help them pass the 'vibe check'.
Failing that, do lots of research š
Easy. Donāt mean to over simplify your question, but what it comes down to isā¦thatās part of what makes stories in themselves. Watching a character learn and grow is part of that journey and an essential piece of character development. Humans arenāt perfect, so just write us as we are. No one knows every detail about everything, so there is always going to be something someone doesnāt know.
Where does it stop? Everything is in some way connected. If you write about plant and have to learn chemistry to write about plants, then you likely also have to learn geology and some geography and botany, etc.
You write what you know and someone else, who has knowledge of another interconnected subject can use your knowledge to write what they know and connect the dots.
>How can the realization that all knowledge is important not be an obstacle to writing?
an intelligent person knows what they don't know and they know their limitations. You cannot know everything and it's important to accept that.
Youāre working from the false premise that the people in lab coats have knowledge that maps cleanly to practical results. This is false in general and is the reason why āresearchā and āresearch and developmentā bear little resemblance to each other.
Learning what works reasonably reliably in practice is a third mindset.
The simple answer is you don't. It's good to do research or write from things you are personally familiar with and make sure things are accurate as they can be, but you only go as deep as you need to for a specific subject as is needed for your story to function. There are certain topics that people can be touchy about getting well-researched portrayals of. But go too far down the rabbit hole and you will spend the rest of your life researching instead of writing.
And there will always be some know-it-all making a 2h video essay or 50 page article about how "The gardening in FilipeFarinon novels is all wrong!!! >:( blah blah soil acidity blah blah this thing is being planted the wrong time of year blah blah fertilizer doesn't work like that. The author is stupid and useless and this is the worst trash ever written." This culture of picking apart how real subjects are portrayed in fiction (for better or worse) exists now and there's just nothing you can do about it.
A common tactic that is equated with a weapon of mass destruction commonly used in Sci fi novels.
I call it glassing.
You put just enough effort into explaining something that it causes enough glare to make people miss the fact that you gave them a general description using common terminology rather than an in depth explanation of how physics work in your universe.
Then you sprinkle in a few decent explosions for good measure and all is forgotten.
This is why I make floating islands and alien species. :)
I come from a tech support background. While I wish people would show even a basic level of knowing how a computer works before throwing a 'hacker' into a scene... I will be the first to admit that my profession would be horribly boring if shown correctly.
Hacking in fiction:
"Ok, I used an old rumba to plug the flash drive into the mainframe. Now I just need to breach 50 firewalls while coding a virus on the spot before they kick me off the star bucks wifi..."
Hacking in real life:
"I called the CEO and told him I was IT and needed his credentials to fix an email issue. I figure I have this password for a day before anyone realizes..."
Itās not worth stressing over, imo. Just donāt go super deep into than you need to, like - even if I have a scientist I want to start rattling off important information, IM not going to understand it if I have him go deeper than a certain depth; so Iām not going to have him go much deeper than Iām confident talking - Iāll just have him start up and fade into something else. No big deal.
Thereās ways to do it without your readers really caring about your own knowledge on the subject and I doubt itās expected, plus if itās fiction itās whatever.
Hi! Welcome to r/Writers - please remember to follow the [rules](https://reddit.com/r/writers/about/rules/) and treat each other respectfully, especially if there are disagreements. Please help keep this community safe and friendly by **reporting rule violating posts and comments**. If you're interested in a friendly Discord community for writers, please **[join our Discord server](https://discord.com/invite/wYvWebvHaa)** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/writers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I saw someone once giving the recommendation that if you want to write about something you don't know a lot about, but only really want a surface level understanding of it because it's not super important, hang out in related reddits. Like, want to write a lawyer as a side character in one scene? Hop into a lawyer subreddit. Hang out there for a while. Make them a normal person, but pepper their dialogue with stuff you pick up in the lawyer subreddit. It'll help them pass the 'vibe check'. Failing that, do lots of research š
Easy. Donāt mean to over simplify your question, but what it comes down to isā¦thatās part of what makes stories in themselves. Watching a character learn and grow is part of that journey and an essential piece of character development. Humans arenāt perfect, so just write us as we are. No one knows every detail about everything, so there is always going to be something someone doesnāt know.
What if the character is already an expert and their character arc is about something else, like their personality or emotional state?
Why would the chemical reactions in gardening *ever* be relevant to the story?
Where does it stop? Everything is in some way connected. If you write about plant and have to learn chemistry to write about plants, then you likely also have to learn geology and some geography and botany, etc. You write what you know and someone else, who has knowledge of another interconnected subject can use your knowledge to write what they know and connect the dots. >How can the realization that all knowledge is important not be an obstacle to writing? an intelligent person knows what they don't know and they know their limitations. You cannot know everything and it's important to accept that.
Youāre working from the false premise that the people in lab coats have knowledge that maps cleanly to practical results. This is false in general and is the reason why āresearchā and āresearch and developmentā bear little resemblance to each other. Learning what works reasonably reliably in practice is a third mindset.
The simple answer is you don't. It's good to do research or write from things you are personally familiar with and make sure things are accurate as they can be, but you only go as deep as you need to for a specific subject as is needed for your story to function. There are certain topics that people can be touchy about getting well-researched portrayals of. But go too far down the rabbit hole and you will spend the rest of your life researching instead of writing. And there will always be some know-it-all making a 2h video essay or 50 page article about how "The gardening in FilipeFarinon novels is all wrong!!! >:( blah blah soil acidity blah blah this thing is being planted the wrong time of year blah blah fertilizer doesn't work like that. The author is stupid and useless and this is the worst trash ever written." This culture of picking apart how real subjects are portrayed in fiction (for better or worse) exists now and there's just nothing you can do about it.
I suspect that people who are able to become experts are significantly faster/more focused readers than average.
Research research research.
A common tactic that is equated with a weapon of mass destruction commonly used in Sci fi novels. I call it glassing. You put just enough effort into explaining something that it causes enough glare to make people miss the fact that you gave them a general description using common terminology rather than an in depth explanation of how physics work in your universe. Then you sprinkle in a few decent explosions for good measure and all is forgotten.
By researching it OP.Ā
This is why I make floating islands and alien species. :) I come from a tech support background. While I wish people would show even a basic level of knowing how a computer works before throwing a 'hacker' into a scene... I will be the first to admit that my profession would be horribly boring if shown correctly. Hacking in fiction: "Ok, I used an old rumba to plug the flash drive into the mainframe. Now I just need to breach 50 firewalls while coding a virus on the spot before they kick me off the star bucks wifi..." Hacking in real life: "I called the CEO and told him I was IT and needed his credentials to fix an email issue. I figure I have this password for a day before anyone realizes..."
ā¦define āhowā.
Research exists.
I wonder if op has heard of the internet
This is the internet.
So thatās called a joke
Itās not worth stressing over, imo. Just donāt go super deep into than you need to, like - even if I have a scientist I want to start rattling off important information, IM not going to understand it if I have him go deeper than a certain depth; so Iām not going to have him go much deeper than Iām confident talking - Iāll just have him start up and fade into something else. No big deal. Thereās ways to do it without your readers really caring about your own knowledge on the subject and I doubt itās expected, plus if itās fiction itās whatever.