u/Educational-Shame514

How can people ask better questions? What information should they remember to include? (meta)

There are whole categories of questions that receive a common clarification question, what do you need to happen for the story? It is not clear when the question is phrased neutrally or ambiguously, as if either way could work.

Other times there is zero or nearly zero information to set the stage. Almost everything with the law needs the jurisdiction and time period. Injuries need at least how advanced medicine is, even if it does not match a real time period. And even then we are back to the desired outcome.

Genre, because the best friend's backstory in a lighthearted romcom has a different importance than your main character in a crime thriller. Fantasy and science fiction have different rules. You could include something like "it is fantasy but there is no magic healing" or "the main character and his friends do not have any magic" and that hopefully will prevent answers that are nothing more than "it's magic do what you want".

So, what tips do you have for the people trying to get help? Do people have difficulty deciding what is unnecessary detail and what is critical information? Feel free to answer generally or specifically, give examples of completely different meanings of confusing questions, however you want to communicate your advice.

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u/Educational-Shame514 — 18 days ago