Simple, quick tips for improving both your writing quality and your Wattpad experience. Open, friendly, and conversational, this book will give you that little info boost you need to tackle common problems and often-overlooked issues.
Wherever you a...
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Fair warning—we don't write a lot of science fiction, and what we do tends to be on the softer side. However, we have read a lot of sci-fi, and it has a lot of overlap with fantasy (even when describing). So, while this article will be geared toward sci-fi gear specifically, the principles can also be applied to any element in your story that the audience might have no idea how it works. (;
When designing your device, there are three main world-building elements to keep in mind:
1. How It Looks 2. What it Does 3. Why It Works
When writing, you also need to keep what your readers are expecting in mind. Is your audience children or adults? Are you writing soft sci-fi or hard sci-fi? This is going to affect the way you hit all three of the above points.
But maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's break it down in detail.
Section 1: Designing Your Device
Part 1: How It Looks
This is part one not because it's the first thing you need to do but because it's probably the simplest of the three. Is your gadget palm-sized or plane-sized? Is it a shiny silver or a rusty brass? Does it have levers or buttons? Basic questions like these will help develop the aesthetic to your device and your overall world.
Just like any other description in your story, these choices shouldn't be arbitrary. It's form should have something to do with its function (which we'll talk about below). For instance, it doesn't make sense if you have a device to make you undetectable, but it constantly emits blinking lights and beeping noises. It's appearance might also have something to do with the person who owns it. Is the grip to your laser gun worn and the trigger loose because your MC is a little too fire-happy? You might also consider the person or entity that built the device. What would they want it to be able to do, and how does what it looks like help it do that? What materials did they have in order to develop this technology? Is it state-of-the-art or a knock-off? Does it have a particular company's or inventor's insignia on it? And so on.
If this is an important element to your story, we suggest writing a lot about it—for yourself. Know in detail where it came from and why. We'll talk more about how much of this you should work in during Section 2.
Part 2: What It Does
This is the most important part of the equipment. You should know what it can and cannot do. When world-building, draw out the benefits and drawbacks of your device. When does it fail? When does something else work better? What is it used for? How good is it at that job? How hard is it to use?
