posted
I have a fictional ball game as part of the YA/teen novel I'm currently re-writing. The POV character is about to be introduced to it for the first time. Does anyone have any suggestions how to describe the game and its rules as I can't have the POV character do it. I noticed in the original, I described it from an omni POV, but that switches the story's POV that once only and I don't want to do that.
posted
Have a friend there to tell them the rules.
There are a lot of jokes about a blond at a basball game. one sort is "the pitcher throws the ball. the batter walks to first base. The blond asks what happened. The man says that the batter gets to walk to first base because he has four balls. She yells out for the player to strut, as a man with four balls deserves to strut. or something like that.
If you don't want to have your character taken to the game who knows your character knows nothing, Your character might ask someone what is going on and the kind strangers around him explains what is going on. The brochure they give people as they come in might give simple explanations of how the game is played and the character might read that to explain some of the rules.
posted
"Ball game." My first thought was "baseball," but your post doesn't actually say that. What did you have in mind?
On baseball specifically---if the lead character is a teenager and, say, ethnic American, no introduction to the game would be necessary 'cause it's done at an earlier age.
On introducing an unfamiliar sport...well, there's no way around it but to have another character explain the rules to your POV character in dialog. Perhaps POV could hear the rules and express doubt about how things are done. Perhaps you could put POV in the middle of the game and have him screw something up, then have things explained to him.
posted
if they have an announcer at the game, the announcer could explain a lot. Or he could end up sitting next to some loud-mouth sports fan who verbalizes everything he thinks while watching. I'm a soccer mom. people yell out all kids of stuff while watching matches.
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posted
If you use the phrase "ball game," many of your readers are going to think of baseball. That doesn't mean you can't use the name. It's just something to think about.
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posted
That would depend on which country you live in. Here in England, we don't play baseball. (As far as I know, but I'll probabaly be told different ) We have cricket, which is a kind of ball game!
posted
Is the character playing in the game or watching?
I don't know the story, but my thought was the amount of detail you give might depend on the importance of the game to the story.
In the Harry Potter series, Harry shows a knack for Quidditch and gets volunteered for the house team. The captain of the team explains it to him, but there is also action involved during the explanation (the balls move on their own). It's a fairly detailed explanation, and that fits because apparently the game is important to the series throughout.
It's been some time since I read it, but I think it seemed to work at the time. You might want to peruse book one (from your library if you don't have it) to see how it is handled there.
posted
The game of quiddich is explained in at least the second, maybe also the third HP book too, in shorter form, but might give you some more examples of how to introduce your readers (and a character or two) to the rules of an unfamiliar game.
The only problem I see with sticking your character in the middle of the game and having things happen to him or her is that, without a frame of reference of some sort - the character would probably be completely bewildered and/or knocked out by an unexpected ball. However, there's probably ways to get around that - perhaps by teasing the point of the game/main features (like your brief explanation did) with a line of dialogue or a "MC had heard that the game was like...but he never expected..."
You could get him into the action by being the "lucky winner" of the contest where one member of the audience gets to play a brief sample game before the main event. (Here in the US there are often gimmicks like this during basketball games - one lucky fan gets to come down and try to make a shot from the half-court line, for a chance to win $1000 or something.)
quote:The only problem I see with sticking your character in the middle of the game and having things happen to him or her is that, without a frame of reference of some sort - the character would probably be completely bewildered and/or knocked out by an unexpected ball
That's kind of what happens to him. He isn't quite knocked out, but he has a nasty injury.
Thanks for all the suggestiosn, They've helped a lot.
posted
Did you see the American Inventor with "Bullet Ball"?
In the first HP book, quidditch is explained to Harry. In the second book, Harry explains it to Collin Creevy in a conversation that doesn't succeed in being a non-info-dump. But that may have been because Harry was exasperated by Creevy. (sp? The stigma of the audiobook fan...)
We had a game we made up that involved throwing cornstalks over the wire that conveyed either phone or power to our house. I think it was called "Aylay!" Or "E'lle'?" See, I can't even spell my own fictional games from my childhood.
[This message has been edited by franc li (edited June 15, 2007).]
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) We have cricket, which is a kind of ball game! 
