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Hey Saxon Scribes,

To be honest, this post is more about me learning from you all then offering any great wisdom. When you have a complex story world, anything from a fantasy world or ancient Persia, you’ve probably faced this huge dilemma.

On the one hand, readers could be extremely confused (maybe they’ll even completely misinterpret what is going on) if you don’t explain your story world. You can’t just assume readers know what it’s like to live in your world.

On the other hand, your characters won’t see their world as unusual. For them, it’s everyday life. It’s unnatural for them to go rambling on about the political theory behind their government or how a magic system works.

So here are three questions:

1. How do you handle this dilemma?
2. How do you catch when you’re having trouble with this in the first place? (Often, the story world feels so natural to me I completely forget that readers may need a specific cultural detail to understand what’s going on.)
3. What authors do you know that handle this very well?

@ethryndal @corissa @raemarie @bama-rose @kate @r-m-archer @literatureforthelight @j-parkhurst @gabbyj @cassandraia @chalice @noahlitle @julianne @germaine-han @maddiejay @sesi @r-j-karas @rosemarylouise @msqueen8 @samuel @eden-anderson