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How To Write The Future
The How to Write The Future Podcast offers fiction writing tips for science fiction and fantasy authors who want to create optimistic stories because when we vision what is possible, we help make it so. By science fiction and fantasy author and fiction writing coach, Beth Barany.
How To Write The Future
16. Embedding Setting Details
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Edit the Future: Sci‑Fi/Fantasy Revision Lab
Exclusive access to premium content!Embedding Setting Details and Explaining Acronyms Through POV
In this premium Edit Lab episode, Beth Barany answers Amanda’s question about embedding setting details without interrupting action and handling long scientific terms that become acronyms.
The key approach is filtering descriptions through the point-of-view character’s voice in both exposition and dialogue.
For acronyms, Beth recommends either using the acronym first and explaining it in the next sentence or explaining the term first and then switching to the acronym, using “AI” as an example.
She suggests avoiding overly complex terminology unless necessary, using context when possible, and sometimes letting an unexplained term remain until characters need it, including by having characters ask questions.
Examples from Into the Black (Janey McCallister Mystery, Book 1) by Beth Barany, show how to introduce organizations and world building elements one at a time with brief explanations tied to character perspective.
00:00 Episode Intro
00:27 POV Filters Setting
00:48 Acronyms Made Clear
01:54 When To Explain Terms
02:50 Dialogue As Exposition
03:33 Organizations And Worldbuilding
04:22 One New Thing At Time
05:00 Wrap Up And Farewell
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