Into another world

[Nìmwey]

A rather popular (and I think sometimes necessary) way of starting a new story is to have the main character or protagonist being someone who is as (or almost as) unfamiliar with that world, whether it be fantasy or sci-fi, as the reader is.

Because if the main character is someone who knows about everything around them, then the reader, who knows nothing about the world, has nothing to relate to. And if the POV is of someone who, like I said, is familiar with the world, there is no way to compare it to things that to us and the readers are familiar.

So that's why I think it's so popular (and often necessary) to have the main character being someone who's unfamiliar with the world.

Ways of doing this? (They are probably all overused and clichéd by now.)

* The "farmboy" who lives at the outskirts of civilization and suddenly gets thrown into the action. He (or she) has to learn things along the way, as the reader does.
* Going through a sort of "portal". This can be like the portal in Stargate, or the wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia. The main characters are from our world, so they are even less familiar with that world (meaning, more like us) than the "farmboy".
* Then there is also the example that I don't think fits in either, where the character gets thrown into a world that was hidden in our world, like Harry Potter.
But in the case of completely separate fantasy worlds or alien planets, that is not an option anyway.
* And the most scientifically reasonable one (which would make the most sense in sci-fi), interstellar space travel.

What I wonder is - is there some way of doing this (any of those options, or some other that I have missed) that is not completely overused and clichéd?

What I am doing is "low-tech sci-fi", or "science-fiction without the spaceships". There are different primitive, low-tech cultures, and because I need some sort of comparison with Earth (such as when describing creatures), and for some other reasons, I need the two main characters to be humans from Earth, in our time or near future.

I can't have them coming there with interstellar spacetravel á la Avatar (and countless other science-fiction stories), because it would not make sense for them to get on a spaceship, and there are no other humans in the story. (So far anyway.)

The only solution I have for them being there is to come up with some quasi-scientific explanation of a portal, á la Stargate or even Terra Nova (though in TN it was time, not space to cross). But I know how overused that is.
Is that a big no-no? (I guess one cliché or two doesn't matter if the rest of the story and characters are well thought-through and original.)

And if it is, what other options do I have?

[allmywires]

Do what you feel is right and go from there. I suppose technically my book starts with this sort of thing, where my characters are thrown into a world they known little to nothing about. Does that make it cliche? I don't think so, not the way I wrote it. More importantly, do I care? Not really. I wrote what I wanted to write, end of.

[Alien Dynasty]

My story is gonna be based on a similar premise; main character going to places that he couldn't have even imagined existed before.

[hopewrites]

the other way that I have seen it done is with characters who know the world, but a prolog that introduces it to the readers.

you would have to have them relate everything as they saw it, but I always like the opertunity this presents for giving a different/unlooked-at view of something commonly accepted/overlooked in society today.

[Mouse]

Your idea makes me think of Farscape - John Crichton going through the wormhole.

Really though, nobody particularly cares if it's a cliché. Pretty much everything has been done before. Just write what you want and write it well.

[James Coote]

You missed out a couple:

• Forward in time or frozen in time. E.g. 28 days later / come out of bunker post apocalypse
• Mind transported into a different body / out of body. E.g. brain uploaded into a computer.

However I can't see either of these being useful in this instance

[TheDustyZebra]

So what you're looking for is not so much a way to introduce the reader to the world, but a way that your protagonists can have gotten there in the first place, sans spaceships?

The introduction methods involving "newbies" to the world are by no means necessary -- I look around at my favorite books and series, and most of them do not use the stranger-in-a-strange-land plots. They simply present the world as it is, and expect us to follow along. And we do.

But it appears that you need a way for your humans to actually be in the strange world in the first place. If you have no spaceships, there pretty much has to be a portal from Earth somewhere, or it has to be an alternate reality existing on Earth without our knowing about it. I don't see any way around it -- either it IS Earth in some fashion, or they were transported by some means or other to wherever it is. You'll have to explain it somehow, but it doesn't really matter if it's been used before, as long as it's believable.

[Esfires]

It neither has to be earth, nor does there have to be a portal. There are lots of ways to accomplish your goal, here. This is the fun part of writing.

For instance, maybe your humans (or humanity itself) actually died a long time ago and the aliens found their remains and resurrected/cloned them as part of some sort of archeology project.

[Sapheron]

Don't forget good old amnesia. They are from wherever they happen to be, they knew it all, but a good bash on the head/illness/bit too much heroin and now they don't remember. Then either people can fill them in or they can remember it in convenient chunks at convenient moments to give it to the audience bit by bit.

[Ursa major]

I'm not sure whether this is what you're looking for, but many non-SFF books have characters entering a world of which they no little or nothing. The most obvious are crime novels, where the detective - amateur or police officer - investigates a crime in a location - or social stratum - alien to them. (A good example of this in a SF context is Altered Carbon, by Richard Morgan.)

[TheDustyZebra]

But if they are humans on a non-human world, they have to have gotten there somehow, and assuming the absence of spaceships, there has to be some other form of transportation. There's no limit to the things one could imagine in order to accomplish that, but it has to be something and it has to be explained.

[Venusian Broon]

To be honest Nimwey, as long as your main character goes on an interesting, nay captivating, journey through your story then really anything goes.

Worldbuilding can be a lot of fun, and many enjoy reading books heavily egged with such material but don't let it take over from well-written characters and a good strong plot.

[Nìmwey]

Thanks to all of you, I guess I will do what I want to do, and come up with some quasi-scientific explanation for it.
Like I said, a "cliché" here and there doesn't matter if it's well made and most of it is more or less original anyway.

[James Coote]

Just remember these 'magic' words: It was all a dream

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Originally Posted by Nìmwey

A rather popular (and I think sometimes necessary) way of starting a new story is to have the main character or protagonist being someone who is as (or almost as) unfamiliar with that world, whether it be fantasy or sci-fi, as the reader is.

Because if the main character is someone who knows about everything around them, then the reader, who knows nothing about the world, has nothing to relate to. And if the POV is of someone who, like I said, is familiar with the world, there is no way to compare it to things that to us and the readers are familiar.

So that's why I think it's so popular (and often necessary) to have the main character being someone who's unfamiliar with the world.

Ways of doing this? (They are probably all overused and clichéd by now.)

* The "farmboy" who lives at the outskirts of civilization and suddenly gets thrown into the action. He (or she) has to learn things along the way, as the reader does.
* Going through a sort of "portal". This can be like the portal in Stargate, or the wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia. The main characters are from our world, so they are even less familiar with that world (meaning, more like us) than the "farmboy".
* Then there is also the example that I don't think fits in either, where the character gets thrown into a world that was hidden in our world, like Harry Potter.
But in the case of completely separate fantasy worlds or alien planets, that is not an option anyway.
* And the most scientifically reasonable one (which would make the most sense in sci-fi), interstellar space travel.

What I wonder is - is there some way of doing this (any of those options, or some other that I have missed) that is not completely overused and clichéd?

What I am doing is "low-tech sci-fi", or "science-fiction without the spaceships". There are different primitive, low-tech cultures, and because I need some sort of comparison with Earth (such as when describing creatures), and for some other reasons, I need the two main characters to be humans from Earth, in our time or near future.

I can't have them coming there with interstellar spacetravel á la Avatar (and countless other science-fiction stories), because it would not make sense for them to get on a spaceship, and there are no other humans in the story. (So far anyway.)

The only solution I have for them being there is to come up with some quasi-scientific explanation of a portal, á la Stargate or even Terra Nova (though in TN it was time, not space to cross). But I know how overused that is.
Is that a big no-no? (I guess one cliché or two doesn't matter if the rest of the story and characters are well thought-through and original.)

And if it is, what other options do I have?

Well, in my Tooninoot series, characters got to other worlds by shrinking themselves and going down kitchen sinks. No mention of any portal opening to them, no board of light, no shimmering, nothing along those lines.