How much of a wordsmith are you

[Agentt]

So, you just made a time machine in your book by placing a nail clipper in a cardboard box.

The logic is that since nail clippers have the natural tendency to travel through time and space, the cardboard box is supposed to harness it.

But we all know readers won't be satisfied with that.

So use some big words like 'continuum' or 'anachronistic' or 'photosynthesis' to confuse your readers into thinking you know your stuff

 

[GDLiZy]

Using big words to hide your boring idea is a sign of an amateur, not a sign of a great author. Chances are instead of just boring, technobabble will make it both boring and confusing, telling the readers that the author is slipping and he should close the book and move on to other stories.

Anyway, here's a technobabble generator to demonstrate how ridiculous they are: https://www.scifiideas.com/technobabble-generator/

 

[BenJepheneT]

Which sounds more impressive?

by utilizing the portal bracket of the steel composition, I can generate a big electromagnetic field using the influence of the potential gluon hyperactivity within said portal bracket to radiate enough kinetic energy to shake the atomic core of the composition that the bracket is built in. I can tear into the hyperscape of within the area of the portal bracket and link a two-way triple dimensional wormhole. But I have to use the same substance to calibrate the phenomenon. It both stabilises the travel and the erbium gamma waves so that our bodies won't undergo systematic neutonium disfiguration.

or

I built a portal with a nail clipper. I made it safe by using another nail clipper to build it.

Spoiler: extras

Let's be real: technobabble on its own is boring. Why the fuck would I spend my time reading shit I don't know? In more unkind words, it's damn near masturbatory for sci fi egomaniacs. It's only made to make a character sound smart when all it really does is betray the author's lack of storytelling abilities.

Technobabble only works WHEN the concept is established and conveyed well from the start. Those sick space moves you see in Star Wars? They are established in the first place. Hyderdrive was introduced early before someone made a stunt using the same mechanics, and thus the audience is well aware of it before something smart was made of it. Whether you've conceived it from the start or not, introducing a mechanic/term BEFORE utilizing it as a plot point is a great way to prevent yourself from looking like a "magician writer". What's a "magician writer"? A writer that's amazing at pulling rabbits out of hats on the fly, or in other words, bullshit out of their asses.

I'm not saying technobabble is bad. It can be used for great world building effect and bring great advantages to the unique factor of a story. What I'm saying is that Technobabble that sounds good are established technobabble whose terminology is well conveyed through physical examples of what the fuck said technobabble meant in the first place.

Or, you know, just dumbass-explain that shit. Instead of "I USED [MARVEL CHEMISTRY] AND [BATMAN TECHNOLOGY] TO BUILD A [ELONGATED NAME FOR DRAMATIC SAKE]" you could just say "yeah, I used this alien spoon and this bat shaped dildo to make this gun. it doesn't even shoot bullets, just concentrated lube."

 

[Kenjona]

George slowly palmed his face "So let me get this straight, you bought plastic Dollar store nail clippers, stuck it in a used pizza delivery box, wrote some gibberish on the outside and think by slamming your hand down on it, we will go back in time? God your such a whack job!"
Steve "It's old Norse! Not gibberish."
George slamming his hand down on the box... "I DONT CARE!".

VRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Bright sunlight dapples through the palm trees as the waves slowly lap on the shore, bird calls ringing out as they cross the sky....

Steve turning to George with horror on his face. "DAMMIT! George, we left the other clippers behind!"

Kenjona: Sorry keep coming back and tweaking it as I see things written slightly off.
From: and think by slamming your hand down on it, you think we will go back in time
To: and think by slamming your hand down on it, we will go back in time

 

[LostLibrarian]

I built a portal with a nail clipper. I made it safe by using another nail clipper to build it.

THIS ONE! =)


---------------------
In all honesty: 50% of readers don't want to read the reasoning behind your time machine. And the other 49.9% just don't know how boring an actual explanation would be. The reasoning behind time travel is pages full of math with symbols most readers (and authors) have never seen in a formular :D

Technology in SciFi is the same as magic in fantasy: it has to survive/work within the rules of your world. And that's it. It is a tool to make your story more believable and exciting. Everything else is just you flexing, that you could google for an hour without really understanding what you are writing so that readers can skip it...

 

[GDLiZy]

Which sounds more impressive?

by utilizing the portal bracket of the steel composition, I can generate a big electromagnetic field using the influence of the potential gluon hyperactivity within said portal bracket to radiate enough kinetic energy to shake the atomic core of the composition that the bracket is built in. I can tear into the hyperscape of within the area of the portal bracket and link a two-way triple dimensional wormhole. But I have to use the same substance to calibrate the phenomenon. It both stabilises the travel and the erbium gamma waves so that our bodies won't undergo systematic neutonium disfiguration.

or

I built a portal with a nail clipper. I made it safe by using another nail clipper to build it.

Spoiler: extras

Let's be real: technobabble on its own is boring. Why the fuck would I spend my time reading shit I don't know? In more unkind words, it's damn near masturbatory for sci fi egomaniacs. It's only made to make a character sound smart when all it really does is betray the author's lack of storytelling abilities.

Technobabble only works WHEN the concept is established and conveyed well from the start. Those sick space moves you see in Star Wars? They are established in the first place. Hyderdrive was introduced early before someone made a stunt using the same mechanics, and thus the audience is well aware of it before something smart was made of it. Whether you've conceived it from the start or not, introducing a mechanic/term BEFORE utilizing it as a plot point is a great way to prevent yourself from looking like a "magician writer". What's a "magician writer"? A writer that's amazing at pulling rabbits out of hats on the fly, or in other words, bullshit out of their asses.

I'm not saying technobabble is bad. It can be used for great world building effect and bring great advantages to the unique factor of a story. What I'm saying is that Technobabble that sounds good are established technobabble whose terminology is well conveyed through physical examples of what the fuck said technobabble meant in the first place.

Or, you know, just dumbass-explain that shit. Instead of "I USED [MARVEL CHEMISTRY] AND [BATMAN TECHNOLOGY] TO BUILD A [ELONGATED NAME FOR DRAMATIC SAKE]" you could just say "yeah, I used this alien spoon and this bat shaped dildo to make this gun. it doesn't even shoot bullets, just concentrated lube."

Unironically I would read more about the second one. It is a lot more interesting than just vague tech about something most people won't care or know enough to care about. The first one is just noises that people will skim to get to the good part, while the second one is weird and will capture attention. How do you build a time machine with a nail clipper? Who thought of that? What is happening? It's so absurd the readers want to know more.

Effectively, the second one works better to invite the readers to read more than the first.

 

[War_and_Poetry]

My time machine built a time machine. Whose flexing now?

 

[PhillisCreziles]

"Potatoes have potential energy residing within their chemical compounds. If you just bolt in some nails and wire it with copper you have... A potato battery!" - Said Some Smart Character

 

[Jemini]

I agree with all the other people here on how technobabble would actually harm the concept.

This one actually reminded me of a Sci-Fi mini series called "The Lost Room." It's a series that did exactly what everyone else in the comments is saying you should do with a concept like this. It imparted ridiculously powerful abilities onto mundane objects, and then it really doesn't do anything to explain exactly how "it" happened. All they know is that these objects with these powers were all once objects that were in the same hotel room. Something happened in that hotel room, the hotel room vanished from existence, and the objects were scattered all over the world and now each object has special powers.

The idea around the series is that the main character managed to acquire the single most powerful item from the room. The door key. It has the ability to enter "The Lost Room" from any door he opens using the key. Once in the room, he can then leave through any other door in the world. So, it provides instant teleportation. It also provides access to any and all items that have been returned to the room.

In the case of this series, it is the complete lack of any kind of technobabble that manages to make this concept EXTREMELY interesting. It doesn't even explain what happened in the room to cause the objects to have these powers, or the room to disappear. All of it is left to the viewer's imagination, and that just makes it more interesting.

TL;DR, sometimes it is the lack of an explanation and keeping things mundane that makes the story interesting.

 

[Ai-chan]

Which sounds more impressive?

by utilizing the portal bracket of the steel composition, I can generate a big electromagnetic field using the influence of the potential gluon hyperactivity within said portal bracket to radiate enough kinetic energy to shake the atomic core of the composition that the bracket is built in. I can tear into the hyperscape of within the area of the portal bracket and link a two-way triple dimensional wormhole. But I have to use the same substance to calibrate the phenomenon. It both stabilises the travel and the erbium gamma waves so that our bodies won't undergo systematic neutonium disfiguration.

or

I built a portal with a nail clipper. I made it safe by using another nail clipper to build it.

Spoiler: extras

Let's be real: technobabble on its own is boring. Why the fuck would I spend my time reading shit I don't know? In more unkind words, it's damn near masturbatory for sci fi egomaniacs. It's only made to make a character sound smart when all it really does is betray the author's lack of storytelling abilities.

Technobabble only works WHEN the concept is established and conveyed well from the start. Those sick space moves you see in Star Wars? They are established in the first place. Hyderdrive was introduced early before someone made a stunt using the same mechanics, and thus the audience is well aware of it before something smart was made of it. Whether you've conceived it from the start or not, introducing a mechanic/term BEFORE utilizing it as a plot point is a great way to prevent yourself from looking like a "magician writer". What's a "magician writer"? A writer that's amazing at pulling rabbits out of hats on the fly, or in other words, bullshit out of their asses.

I'm not saying technobabble is bad. It can be used for great world building effect and bring great advantages to the unique factor of a story. What I'm saying is that Technobabble that sounds good are established technobabble whose terminology is well conveyed through physical examples of what the fuck said technobabble meant in the first place.

Or, you know, just dumbass-explain that shit. Instead of "I USED [MARVEL CHEMISTRY] AND [BATMAN TECHNOLOGY] TO BUILD A [ELONGATED NAME FOR DRAMATIC SAKE]" you could just say "yeah, I used this alien spoon and this bat shaped dildo to make this gun. it doesn't even shoot bullets, just concentrated lube."

The second one is better. You built a wormhole with a nail clipper? That's total bad ass. If Ai-chan wants technobabble, Ai-chan would've read a science journal, and even science journals don't normally have technobabble. It's written so that people can read, after all.