# Experiencing Reality for the First Time



## TheUnburnt (Jan 19, 2016)

Backstory: she's a girl, she's deadly, she's been 'imprisoned' in her mind for the first fifteen years of her life. now, for the first time, she wakes up.

Question: *how realistic (or cliche?!) is the idea of 'waking up' to reality after living in your head* (with a character specifically crafted by her captors to challenge her logically, linguistically, etc.)? She will be feeling herself and experiencing textures, smells, sounds for the first time. Speaking out loud for the first time. Physically moving for the first time. All in the first chapter. All before she reacts with dangerous magic that triggers the plot, yada yada. *As readers, would you accept the author not spending pages describing the sensations, the internalization, but instead flinging the character into the hurricane?* any words of advice or insight for approaching this? thanks in advance!!


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## psychotick (Jan 19, 2016)

Hi,

Depends how it's written. But one thing I woul expect is for such a person to be very uncoordinated and unbalenced. She should fall over a lot. And things like eating should cause her all sorts of shocks. So maybe instead of doing it as onegiant info dump you have the girl come into new experiences one by one as her plot unfolds.

Cheers, Greg.


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## Fantasia (Jan 19, 2016)

Hey, this sounds like an intriguing hook- but it all depends on execution right?  Your approach will ultimately determine whether it's realistic or cliche. Definitely incorporate some of your world's elements in things the readers know, like eating customs, behavior and interaction, communication, all the rest. The most encouraging thing I can say is that it might takes many rewrites and revisions to achieve that balance, but it's there, the effect will be worth it. I really do like the idea of the readers discovering how the fantasy world works with the character.


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## TheUnburnt (Jan 19, 2016)

> But one thing I woul expect is for such a person to be very uncoordinated and unbalenced. She should fall over a lot. And things like eating should cause her all sorts of shocks. So maybe instead of doing it as onegiant info dump you have the girl come into new experiences one by one as her plot unfolds.



Thank you so much for sharing your perspective! This triggered _so_many ideas and possibilities. I especially like the concept of challenging the character as the conflict unravels. Ooo, this will be fun!!



> Definitely incorporate some of your world's elements in things the readers know, like eating customs, behavior and interaction, communication, all the rest.



AHHH thank you! You're so right, that delicate balance between annoying/intriguing is going to be hard to dig for (but at least I'll have some fun learning about my story world along the way, right)?



> I really do like the idea of the readers discovering how the fantasy world works with the character.



This is so encouraging...thanks again!


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