Thread: How to Explain Character's Ability?

So, prepping for a writing project, I see great potential and don't want to ruin it, it should be a great fantasy novel *if* I pull it off, but I do have a question. One of the characters I'm designing (as part of the preparation I vividly describe everything about my main characters) has a unique ability, and I'm wondering how, or if, I should try to describe it in the novel.

So, in the story, there are two realms, there's the Saeir, which is the main setting, as it's where all the life of the story exists, and then there's...another, unnamed realm (dimension, if you will). This unnamed realm is a mirror image of the Saeir, except that everything is composed of an energy, which also flows in between the two realms. There is a lot of sentient life on Saeir, though on the other realm, the only life is three sentient beings which *make up* the energy flow. In the 'other' realm, time has no meaning but to reflect on what's happening on earth. In this way, the three beings have already seen the past and the *potential future* .

This is where things get...complicated...

The specific character I'm focusing on, who acts as a protector of one of the three "beasts", uses his connection with this 'beast' to forsee any action his opponent might take. It's here that things go to hell.

The main problem is I can't really explain his power. Imagine time as a river, and we are all flowing perfectly down it without any resistance. He moves 'sideways' through this river, and as a result all we see of him is where he used to be. We continue experiencing time while he seems to be motionless. Except he's still moving through time, just...sideways.

An example being if I were to fight him. If I ran at him, he would 'Sidestep', making it seem like he's still there, when in reality, he could be behind me already. It's really close to freezing time, but...not quite...

Does this make sense? I can't describe it properly, and it's really bugging me. It's the coolest ability I've ever envisioned (granted he has his limits), and I really want it to work. Any suggestions on how to explain it? Or should I not bother explaining it at all? All comments are welcomed

Well, the types of terms that come to my mind after reading your description are 'supernatural', 'psychic', 'extrasensory perception', 'teleport' etc. I understand that if your character's powers were really that simple, you wouldn't be asking us for help, but I think it might not be a bad idea to slowly introduce them to your readers by referring to them with maybe one of these words they already know first, and then as your fantasy world unfolds your readers will probably grow to understand it as you slip in explanations of the theory involved in it. Once they understand your dual worlds and that your character's concept of time is unique to most others, and his connection to the being that provides them with those powers, I don't think you'll really need to come up with any kind of label.

In fact, I'd try to avoid doing that, if I were you. One of the things that really irks me in some fantasy stories is when the author comes up with some clever term to explain their character's powers that they constantly repeat rather than attempting to describe it. Using your character as an example here, let's say you decided to call his ability to quickly get behind you in combat "Shadow-stepping". All of a sudden the term is on every other page and your character is doing this to get around each and every obstacle... or so it feels like. It kind of cheapens the idea of his powers and makes them feel more gimick-y.

To be honest, it seems like you explained it well enough above. I think avoiding narraration of the problem, but instead sticking to "showing" instead of "telling" allowing the reader to see what the power does through the protagonist's perspective is best. If his connection to your "beast" slows down time for him or allows him to manipulate time or allows him to see the future, then show him seeing it, show him existing in a slowed reality, describe the thoughts or impulses that he feels from the beast, etc.

AA, thank you so much. That'd been bugging me for a while and I was really worried. Aello, thank you, I will try to avoid this, and it won't be the same "Naruto" esque book where people shout out the same thing over and over again until you realize that you've just read ten pages of the same work being repeated a hundred times....I'll make sure to avoid that. Thank you