but the same characters probably never poop either, let alone spend weeks with dysentery from foreign microbes in the exotic cities they've travelled to.
They sure as heck never menstruate. :-) SF authors will provide descriptions of a space suit's waste collection systems and at least an offhand explanation of how people sleep in zero G. It's not the focus, but they'll mention it because it shows normal day-to-day activities in the interesting setting. Then they'll send crews out for several two-day treks across a new world, back-to-back, and somehow not one of the gals ever has to figure out how to change a tampon in a space suit. I think menstruation is a huge taboo.
you also have the problem of reading about a subject you personally know.
It's sad that that's automatically a problem. I have the additional problem of being picky. If someone doesn't know something, and advertises that fact by making stuff up about it and not asking around, it disappoints me.
...doesn't occur to many authors who've never had it-- how would they know to ask?
I think this is part of the FUN of writing: you get to think up bizarre things to ask about! Hey, my main character is iron-thewed and a head taller than everyone around him. I'll ask my ultratall coworker what it's LIKE to be a head taller than everyone else. I might remember a conversation with a bodybuilder friend wherein he notices that he intimidates people without meaning to. Stuff. Maybe I won't use it, 'cause I suck, but for me figuring out what *would* or *couldn't* happen is part of the fun. Or else I just like annoying my friends with questions. That could be it.
To answer a little more seriously, I would guess that visualization might help a lot. Beautaia's hair falls to her knees (or Zaphod has a third arm or whatever), and now s/he's scooting backwards through a narrow tunnel: if I'm writing that, I'll try to imagine what that scene and its actions and movements look like.
no subject
They sure as heck never menstruate. :-) SF authors will provide descriptions of a space suit's waste collection systems and at least an offhand explanation of how people sleep in zero G. It's not the focus, but they'll mention it because it shows normal day-to-day activities in the interesting setting. Then they'll send crews out for several two-day treks across a new world, back-to-back, and somehow not one of the gals ever has to figure out how to change a tampon in a space suit. I think menstruation is a huge taboo.
you also have the problem of reading about a subject you personally know.
It's sad that that's automatically a problem. I have the additional problem of being picky. If someone doesn't know something, and advertises that fact by making stuff up about it and not asking around, it disappoints me.
...doesn't occur to many authors who've never had it-- how would they know to ask?
I think this is part of the FUN of writing: you get to think up bizarre things to ask about! Hey, my main character is iron-thewed and a head taller than everyone around him. I'll ask my ultratall coworker what it's LIKE to be a head taller than everyone else. I might remember a conversation with a bodybuilder friend wherein he notices that he intimidates people without meaning to. Stuff. Maybe I won't use it, 'cause I suck, but for me figuring out what *would* or *couldn't* happen is part of the fun. Or else I just like annoying my friends with questions. That could be it.
To answer a little more seriously, I would guess that visualization might help a lot. Beautaia's hair falls to her knees (or Zaphod has a third arm or whatever), and now s/he's scooting backwards through a narrow tunnel: if I'm writing that, I'll try to imagine what that scene and its actions and movements look like.