- Joined
- Feb 12, 2014
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I have a slice-of-life story about a character who is living with ALS and the conflict that occurs with his caregiver.
Do I need to define the acronym ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) for the reader?
I don't think I should, for the simple fact that there's no elegant way for me to do it. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis isn't going to come up in conversation - all the characters know what ALS stands for (because the only characters in the story are the husband, wife, and a nurse) and one does not typically use the full meaning of AIDS or HIV, they just use those acronyms. So I would only be putting it in the prose to tell the Reader what it is, and I can't think of a way to do that without it being so utterly blunt that it will pull the reader out of the story.
Because when creating new words for worldbuilding I've had readers complain the direct explaining the word in the prose is too jarring for them, too obvious that it's for the reader.
Do I need to define the acronym ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) for the reader?
I don't think I should, for the simple fact that there's no elegant way for me to do it. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis isn't going to come up in conversation - all the characters know what ALS stands for (because the only characters in the story are the husband, wife, and a nurse) and one does not typically use the full meaning of AIDS or HIV, they just use those acronyms. So I would only be putting it in the prose to tell the Reader what it is, and I can't think of a way to do that without it being so utterly blunt that it will pull the reader out of the story.
Because when creating new words for worldbuilding I've had readers complain the direct explaining the word in the prose is too jarring for them, too obvious that it's for the reader.