David Johnston wrote:
Richard Lawson wrote:
I started to write it in a modern-day setting, some random college
student
being yoinked from Earth, but it ended up sounding way too much like a
self-insert, which I didn't want at all.
Anyone have an idea for a setting for such a story?
I've got an idea but not that kind. If the problem is that you want to
avoid the odor of self-insertion, perhaps what you should go is to make
the character more different, not the world he comes from. For example,
what if he was yoinked when he was eight? He was on the milk cartons
for years, but he's a young adult now because it took time to train the
monkey to dance.
The advantage of taking somebody off the street is that the stuff they
need to learn is the same stuff the readers need to get a handle on the
setup.
But that doesn't have to be the main character. You can get double the
traction by using some agent of these outer gods as the main character.
This elf, ET or AI would then be assigned to abduct and train the human
and you could explore humanity through their eyes.
If this elf princess Lolita of the stars was created on the spot to fill
this role then she would have all the information that was considered
needed but still be very naive.