writers need to know everything
Aug. 21st, 2011 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethSo far today I need to know about crystal computer chips for door sensors, plumbing for space ships, and what happens to metals that are left hanging around in space for too long.
... since I made up the technology in the first one it is by far the easiest.
The plumbing thing will have to be plausible to all readers. Everybody thinks they know about pipes. ... I wanted a small, niggly choice of mismatched parts that would be storing up trouble but not trouble in itself, so I said they had a slightly smaller section of pipe in between two wider pipes so stuff would tend to clog up at the join. Hopefully that works.
The space metals thing? Vacuum welding is cool, but not what I need, since it makes things stronger and I need something to break. Since space and vacuum are common words without involving starships and no air it's a bugger to google so I've given up. I'll have to approach the problem from a different angle and make it all about stuff I can plain make up.
Knowledge is hard.
Why didn't I stick to sword fights?
... sword fights are very technical and detailed and full of knowledge, if you care about them, which I do. So that wouldn't actually help.
... since I made up the technology in the first one it is by far the easiest.
The plumbing thing will have to be plausible to all readers. Everybody thinks they know about pipes. ... I wanted a small, niggly choice of mismatched parts that would be storing up trouble but not trouble in itself, so I said they had a slightly smaller section of pipe in between two wider pipes so stuff would tend to clog up at the join. Hopefully that works.
The space metals thing? Vacuum welding is cool, but not what I need, since it makes things stronger and I need something to break. Since space and vacuum are common words without involving starships and no air it's a bugger to google so I've given up. I'll have to approach the problem from a different angle and make it all about stuff I can plain make up.
Knowledge is hard.
Why didn't I stick to sword fights?
... sword fights are very technical and detailed and full of knowledge, if you care about them, which I do. So that wouldn't actually help.