The Noob

There are times in a story where you need to explain things to your readers. It all depends on the type of story you are writing. If you are writing a story about middle school students in daily life, you can assume that your reader will already understand most things in the story (even this isn’t always true, depending on the culture where the story takes place). However, if you are writing a fantasy or science fiction story, or one that involves very technical things about science or the way the stock market works, for example, you need to explain new concepts to the reader to make the story make sense.

There are times when you don’t want to explain anything to the reader and just have them pick it up by context clues. In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess does not give any explanation of the Nadsat dialect the book is written in since it would stop the story in its tracks to present a dictionary at the beginning of the book. The reader gradually picks up the meanings by context.

When you do want to explain something quickly, there are several ways to do it. One way is just to have a narrator tell the reader. For example:

“We found it,” Harbo said. “The Glintstone.”

For the tribes that lived under the Flint Tooth Mountains, the Glintstone was the ultimate relic of the past ages. Legend said that it would glow whenever anyone nearby was thinking of food, but since no one had ever seen it, it was impossible to verify this.

I could really go for a sandwich, Harbo thought. The stone in front of them glowed with a faint blue light.

In this excerpt, the second paragraph is an aside from the main story where the writer gives exposition (story information) directly to the reader to give them context. If you took that out, the story would still flow, but the reader would have no idea why the stone glowed when Harbo thought about food. Sure, they could pick it up from context, but sometimes it’s more efficient to give the information directly.

The second way is with a character that I call the Noob. This is a character that is new to the situation, putting them in the same situation as the reader. That way, when the Noob character learns things, the reader learns it too. There are many examples of this in stories since it is an easy and natural way of presenting information. For example, in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, Harry doesn’t know anything about the wizarding world so as Hagrid and others explain it to him, we learn it all too.

Here is the excerpt with the Glintstone from before, only with a noob character in it.

“We found it,” Harbo said. “The Glintstone.”

“What’s that?” asked Dexter, his apprentice.

“For the tribes that lived under the Flint Tooth Mountains, the Glintstone was the ultimate relic of the past ages,” Harbo said. “According to legend, it glows whenever anyone nearby thinks of food.”

“Is that true?”

“No one knows since no one had ever seen it. Before now.”

Dexter sighed. “Can we stop by lunch? I could really go for a sandwich.”

The stone in front of them glowed with a faint blue light.

As you can see, this is the exact same information as in the first one, but it is presented as part of the story instead of outside of it.

Here are some things to remember about using a noob character in your story:

1. The noob does not have to be young or uneducated.

The concept of a noob is relative. Sure, it’s easy to make it a young person since there is a lot they don’t know, but everyone on earth is a noob about certain subjects. I know a lot about English and geography and history, but I am a complete novice when it comes to the game of cricket, for example.

2. Make sure that it makes sense for the character to be the noob.

There is a bestseller thriller that I read in the past where one of the characters was a world-famous scholar, but he kept asking questions that someone in his position should probably know. The author was using him as the noob but it did not make sense. Imagine a story where a professional basketball player asks “so how many points do I get if I get a basket from the middle of the court?” He would know that better than anyone, so it makes the story sound unrealistic.

3. Don’t use a noob where it doesn’t fit.

There are a lot of situations where it makes to have someone there who is still learning and who you can use as the noob. However, if you have a group of nuclear scientists who are racing to save the world by building a high-tech device, it doesn’t make sense they would have a beginner with them who they are explaining things to as they go. They don’t have time to explain how nuclear fusion works and anyone who is in that room, should be an expert.

Instead, make the noob someone outside the group that they are reporting to, such as the president or other politicians. It would make sense that they would not know all the technical details so as the scientists explain it to them (in simple terms), the reader learns it as well.

The basic point to take away is to make your story as plausible as possible and not to sacrifice believability when getting the necessary information to the reader.

Next time you are reading fiction, look at how the writer presents information. Is it through exposition, through a noob character or some other way? Does it make sense in the story?