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POPULAR: Simple Questions, Simple Answers

all of those are the abstract variant though, the exact opposite of what i need
 
imo "broadening horizons" is the simplest you can get with that or maybe i'm just stupid
 
there's an expression i'm thinking of, but i can't remember what it was exactly. something like "broaden my horizons" but instead of being as abstract as that one, it's more concrete? like geography-wise.
full quote:
"In any case, he’s gone for the moment, which means I can snoop through his maps. I already decided yesterday that I’d focus on Pewter. It’s further beyond my usual range, but I’d like to think my trip to Celadon [broadened my horizons]." (spoken by someone from pallet town)
so something like "made my world bigger" but less clunky. help?
Hmmmm maybe "expand your horizontals"? :p

But yeah, "broaden your horizons" is probably the most intuitive idiom for what you are looking for. If you are looking for a look and feel closer to geography or cartography though, I'd suggest something like "chart the uncharted" or "bring the world wide open".
 
I can't remember if I've asked this question before, feels like I have, but

I'm featuring a piece of technology in an upcoming chapter that's basically a replicator from Star Trek. It can create things out of thin air based on digital data. The main character hasn't seen this piece of tech in person before, and I've established that she's a fan of science fiction, so I'm wondering... In a world that's clearly set apart from ours, but inspired by it, I'm wondering if the character blatantly blurting out "woah, it's like the replicators from Star Trek!" would feel out of place, even jarring. I have subtly referenced that the sci-fi she reads is actually Star Trek without naming it, but... I dunno.

What are peoples thoughts on real world references like this?
 
In my experience, I'm definitely thrown out of the story the first time I see a real world reference like that, especially if it's something related to a real life location, religion, or something big like that. For a TV show, I probably wouldn't care, and if I know the story I'm reading has a tendency to incorporate aspects of real life like that, I stop feeling thrown out of the fic real quick.
 
I have subtly referenced that the sci-fi she reads is actually Star Trek without naming it, but... I dunno.
Could you not describe it using that fact above? Instead of calling it Star Trek, say something along the lines of "It reminded her of something she had seen/read ..."? If you have other outside references, I probably wouldn't notice, but if referencing Star Trek was the first, it might throw me but not enough to make me stop reading or anything.
 
I don't know how many times I had said this before, but still I will say this once again.

The fictional world of your story is merely inspired by our Real-Life, but it is not exactly our Real-Life. So there exist no reason to use any trademarked terminologies that are only known by Real-Life people.

Despite you mentioned your character like to read sci-fi, but unless you directly mention the title of the books she likes to read, there is no reason for the reader to guess that is Star Trek. For a reader that doesn't know Star Trek, that subtle hints you had provided would be meaningless. I can say it is also similar to the technology I saw in Digimon or Megaman Star Force. Also in terms of in-universe world-building, does there exists other fictional sci-fi fictions written by any in-universe authors where your character likes to read? E.g. The Electric Soldier written by Shauntal. Get the inspiration?

In any case, for me personally, I really dislike any fictions that is not set in Real-Life to mention any Real-Life trademarked names. You have a fictional world with its own self-contained culture and history, you don't really need any name from another foreign universe to successfully establish your story.
 
Well, to me, references to real world things are great when the story's set in the real world (as in, non-parallel-universe Earth), but very annoying (unless it's for something funny enough to be forgiven) if the setting is very clearly not Earth.

Like just yesterday, I tried watching that Netflix original movie Sahara, and how the snakes kept referencing human things without really having any reason to know what those things are - especially something like ballet when they were in (unknown time period) Sahara - kept pissing me off. After the realization that I wasn't at all engaged in the movie and generally just hated or felt lukewarm about most of the characters (and after seeing that trip out scene including something I think was snakes acting like sperm? I'm not sure but I'm sure as hell not going back to check.)

Then, as I still felt like watching something, I decided to watch Shrek 2 again. And while that's filled to the brim with pop-culture references, it works because it's creative by mixing them with medieval tropes. And it's simply damn hilarious. So, Rule of Funny, basically.

Back to the real world, though. I think real world references bring a sense of believability and relatability, as it's likely something you'd point out in real life. It's only when it turns into "Wow! This event that just happened reminds me of that one part in the 2015 movie The Revenant starring Leonardo DiCaprio!" or especially "Wow! There are nazis in this place, just like in there are in Captain America's origin story! See guys, we writers are cool and relatable for knowing about comics! Nerd culture rules!" when it gets unforgivably tacky.

Yes, that latter one was a blow at a certain sitcom.
 
I can't remember if I've asked this question before, feels like I have, but

I'm featuring a piece of technology in an upcoming chapter that's basically a replicator from Star Trek. It can create things out of thin air based on digital data. The main character hasn't seen this piece of tech in person before, and I've established that she's a fan of science fiction, so I'm wondering... In a world that's clearly set apart from ours, but inspired by it, I'm wondering if the character blatantly blurting out "woah, it's like the replicators from Star Trek!" would feel out of place, even jarring. I have subtly referenced that the sci-fi she reads is actually Star Trek without naming it, but... I dunno.

What are peoples thoughts on real world references like this?
You could always change the name to another one resembling Star Trek like 'Star Finders' that obviously eludes to it, but dismisses the idea that 'Star Trek' exists in that universe. The Pokemon World might not have 'Star Trek' but it may have a rough equivalent, although this may come across a somewhat cheesy. Another way to do it would be to refer to something like 'that ever so popular sci-fi series where people traveled across the galaxy' without dropping any names but perhaps giving a small hint to the audience.
 
For a general consensus, how do people spell PokeDex: with the accent on the e, with a capital or lower case d, as one word or two? Bulbapedia says Pokédex while also putting it next to a logo with a capital D so I am a bit unsure.
 
I feel like, as it is kind of a brand item, it could be capitalised the same way that iPhone has a capital P. But that's getting into capitalisation drama for a different thread :p What about the plural - Pokedexes?
 
I feel like, as it is kind of a brand item, it could be capitalised the same way that iPhone has a capital P. But that's getting into capitalisation drama for a different thread :p What about the plural - Pokedexes?
Since PokéDex comes from index, should the plural be PokéDecies?
 
^ PokéDices, you mean?
(Corrections are annoying, but we're literally talking about spelling itself, so...)

But, I mean, I type "pokédex" for the same reason I type "growlithe". You just wouldn't think of it as a trademark in casual speech. "pokedex" without the fancy é is fine in my book too, but i wouldn't use it myself.
 
You just wouldn't think of it as a trademark in casual speech.
You don't really pronounce capital letters anyway when talking, do you, so why would it matter in fiction? I have seen iPhone spelt the way it is meant to be in text quite a lot, I don't think I have ever seen it written iphone (Grammarly, for one, has flagged the latter spelling as incorrect, if that's worth anything)
 
Doesn't matter if you think of it as a trademark or not, unless you're in first-person narrative where the narrative directly reflects the way the character speaks. If Pokédex is a genericised (I think that's the term) trademark you could drop the capital.

Anyway, I think it really boils down to what people would actually say. You can complain about how "octopus" is Greek so the plural should be "octopodes", but people will still say "octopi" anyway. I suspect people in Pokémon would use the same plural we do, Pokédexes
 
Yeah, I see possibilities in capitalization and lack thereof. In speech, there are a lot of variables in tone and delivery, which you're not going to be able to point out every time. Capitalization can clue you in on if the speaker respects that thing or despises that thing. If you hate something and don't consider it worth your time, you wouldn't bother respecting any wishes of a corporation in terms of capitalization. Are you going to say "kids these days with their facebooks and googles and youtubes and reddits and tumblers(sic)" or are you going to individually search up every site's official preferred spelling and spend good seconds of your life on casually putting down some example sites? Because the latter wouldn't be as rhetorically effective, in my eyes.

I mean, consider Sans and Papyrus. Not only do their fonts convey their personalities, but note how Papyrus is loud and hammy and only speaks in uppercase, while Sans is laid back and lazy and speaks in lowercase. Lowercase (and unpunctuated) is also how a lot of tumblr users (and me, when I'm not trying to make a pretentious point like right now) speak, which (usually) fits the fast, unsure, awkward and hopes-not-too-high-up delivery of jokes. It shows humility and a casual attitude, which are more approachable than headstrong rule-followers. (Do note how misspelling non-brand words isn't an item in this list. Misspelling something only really works if you can overdo it enough to ensure it's on purpose and a part of the punchline and not just because of ignorance. Using the wrong "their" just eats away at your credibility. You want the illusion of incompetence, not actual incompetence.)

Consider also the following: how many neo-nazis are going to capitalize "jew" when they speak among each other? Yeah, likely not many.

...So, this is just my reasoning for why I type what I type. There are a gazillion different situations and of course these aren't going to apply to all of them. I try to do whatever benefits the mood.
 
You don't really pronounce capital letters anyway when talking, do you, so why would it matter in fiction? I have seen iPhone spelt the way it is meant to be in text quite a lot, I don't think I have ever seen it written iphone (Grammarly, for one, has flagged the latter spelling as incorrect, if that's worth anything)

Apple probably made it a point to have that autocorrected whenever possible. :p
 
I was joking about PokéDecies.

I once saw someone who captialised "you" because it looked more formal...?

I once read a Pokémon/My Little Pony crossover which capitalised every form of the world "evolution", even the verb, and sometimes the MLP races/species, and it really annoyed me.

Do note how misspelling non-brand words isn't an item in this list. Misspelling something only really works if you can overdo it enough to ensure it's on purpose and a part of the punchline and not just because of ignorance. Using the wrong "their" just eats away at your credibility. You want the illusion of incompetence, not actual incompetence.
Reminds me of this:
17. Dialogue is a get-out-of-grammar-free card. Even the most hardened grammar nitpickers know not to critique you when your characters are talking -- and if they don't, tell them, because they've got it coming to them. Characters are allowed to ignore the rules of grammar. They can (and should) speak in incomplete sentences, speak in run-on sentences, use wrong word choices, dangle their participles, end sentences with prepositions, use made-up words, use double-negatives, and break just about any rule of grammar they want. This is an important step in giving each of your characters a unique voice that the reader will identify them by. In real life, everyone has a different grasp on the spoken language due to their age, their reading comprehension, their level of social skills, and so on; characters should be no different. When a character speaks, consider their personal language skills and their mood, and try to imagine just how they would express what they want to say, imperfections and all.

Note that this is not an excuse to write badly and get out of being criticized; you probably still have to follow the correct rules of sentence punctuation and capitalization, because those things can't be spoken by the characters and only exist in the manuscript you are writing. You may of course misspell words in your character's dialogue, but only if you are trying to imply the character is mispronouncing the words; using the wrong homophone (such as "your" instead of "you're") is still bad.

Oh, and by the way: if you are able to set up your story's narrator as a character, then even your narrator is free from the constraints of grammar! Just remember to be consistent with your stylistic choices. Also, under certain circumstances, you might even be able to break the rules of syntax, formatting, and other deeply-rooted language principles, just as long as there is a point to doing so. Remember the basic rule of artistic license: you must first be artistic if you want to use the license.
 
Please note: The thread is from 2 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
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