You want the reader totally immersed in the setting which happens when they can accurately picture the world. This is especially important in books that take place in other times/settings than our reality. I was thinking about this earlier in relation to the ages of the characters and your reasoning for not having Devin mention their ages. I think the problem I'm having (and this could just be me, other readers might not have this problem) is that when no information is provided my mind creates it's own set of details. Like I assumed in ch.1 that Kalen and Calla were around 17. Now if you go and tell me later on they are really 19 my mind is going to have a hard time replacing the image I've already come up with.
I had this happen in a book I read. For some reason I got a picture in my head about a certain character. I could perfectly picture her. But then the author ruined it by saying she looked completely different than what I thought. But the rest of the book I could NOT think of her in terms of the actual written description. Eventually I gave up and in my head she looked the way I envisioned and I changed the descriptions in the book to fit, lol. That seems to be how my mind works. Despite you telling me Devin and Wes are 20 and 21 I still picture them as 19 because that's what I initially figured. That's how I see them now. It's going to take me a lot to shift gears and see them as older. Although I understand your reasoning for leaving it open.
The same thing applies to the world building. With a lack of setting depiction and information about their societies I've already came up with my own ideas which may or may not mesh with what you have in mind and could throw me off later one when things are suddenly changed on me.
Again, some things to think about.
And, also, I really, really hate these character limits in comments. LJ needs to do something about that. Ugh.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
world building part 2
Date: 2013-03-11 09:46 pm (UTC)I had this happen in a book I read. For some reason I got a picture in my head about a certain character. I could perfectly picture her. But then the author ruined it by saying she looked completely different than what I thought. But the rest of the book I could NOT think of her in terms of the actual written description. Eventually I gave up and in my head she looked the way I envisioned and I changed the descriptions in the book to fit, lol. That seems to be how my mind works. Despite you telling me Devin and Wes are 20 and 21 I still picture them as 19 because that's what I initially figured. That's how I see them now. It's going to take me a lot to shift gears and see them as older. Although I understand your reasoning for leaving it open.
The same thing applies to the world building. With a lack of setting depiction and information about their societies I've already came up with my own ideas which may or may not mesh with what you have in mind and could throw me off later one when things are suddenly changed on me.
Again, some things to think about.
And, also, I really, really hate these character limits in comments. LJ needs to do something about that. Ugh.