#Heck I'm not even Bamsara with like a really cool big fanfic

[shirajellyfish]

i am doing the sky cotl crying and faint expressions at you, how did you write such good fake coding stuff for 'i see you, sundrop!'

i am ✨struggling✨ for a y/n fic i'm writing OTL

(Eyeballs emoji. I want to read your fic.)

Mostly making up stuff with confidence, to be honest.

This is gonna be long, so I'll put the details under the cut. No spoilers, just a long post!

You only need a little tiny bit of tech knowledge to start making stuff up, and since Security Breach is set in a future with advanced technology it's easy to say "Well this isn't how things go irl, but maybe in the future it could work."

Use what you know! I love video game glitches and learning how they work, which made writing the "broken down bus" explanation easy and fun to write. Take what technical knowledge you do have and make up things you can see fitting in with what you know.

You'll also notice that I avoided things I don't know anything about. I don't know how to code, so there isn't really anything about the process or details of creating coding in my fic. It's usually glossed over, not described in detail.

Anything code-like in my fic is generally technician commands, which only have to sound technical. Since they're made for humans to enter and not for computers to follow line for line, they can be a little off from how actual coding works. You don't need to go over details you don't know about, if you don't want to.

And if you do want to despite not having the knowledge, there's always research! I didn't know how anti static mats work, so I googled it! (And then had to simplify that down for the fic, because some of the finer details were sorta boring and would have broken the flow of the scene. No one has called me out on it yet haha.) I also did a LOT of googling about electricity in the Live Wire chapter, and about batteries for Truce.

I didn't exactly understand everything I researched, it can get very complicated fast. But! As long as I understood enough of the surface level stuff, I could make up things based on that. Do it confidently enough and most people won't notice. I got a lot of really funny comments from people assuming I must have a lot of advanced tech knowledge, not realizing I was just making things up confidently.

Most importantly, write what is fun. The fastest way to get stuck is to try writing something that bores you. If it's unrealistic but FUN, write it anyway. As long as you stay consistent, it will make sense within your story. If it's realistic but boring, cut it! Leave it out entirely, or have another character handle it offscreen. Readers can feel your passion, if you're having fun writing it they'll have fun reading it.

The amount and type of technical stuff in your fic should depend entirely on what and how much technical stuff you personally enjoy writing. Really, that applies to every element. Make what you want, the way you want it.

I believe in you! Sundrop believes in you! Have fun!