You're absolutely right! I really don't want to get bogged down in the details. And the main story will be a suspense romance (yes, a chick book). I'm writing it from the repairman's POV, and since I'm waaaaay out of my element with vintage teevee repair (but I think it's way cool anyway), I want a sentence or phrase here or there for color. I just want it to be correct, that's all. The repairman would look at a set and identify the exact model in his head, I think. Then again, you'd know that best!
Right now you taught me the phrase "bench job" which I take to mean he's gotta spend time testing to diagnose the problem. You taught me there's an acrid scent to burnt tubes. I didn't know that.
I'm not above making things up. Heck, the location I'm using is made up. But I don't really want to make up television repair details. I think it's cooler when real details are provided.
I swear, this is like learning a foreign language and trying to translate correctly! Thank you.
BTW, nice site! I love the Merrill.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve D.
Nice that you're writing a novel that is of interest to us VK'ers. However, way to much technical detail for the average reader to comprehend or even care about. I know your main character is a TV repairman circa 1961, but keep it simple and moving. Ie: Damn, It was an older model RCA color set. He'd worked on his share of these hulking beasts. "I just know this is gonna be a bench job" he muttered, as he started to remove the giant set's back to check the tubes. Sure enough, the acrid scent of burnt electronics invaded his nose. "No simple tube swap here." Guess I'll give her the bad news that I have to pull the chassis and take it to the shop." Then you can get into the woman's reply, how much she paid for the set and there's no damn color shows most of the time. Ect. I'll leave the dialogue to you. If you get into all the details of deguassing the set or changing specific tubes your reader's eyes will glaze over. Have the woman complain and discribe the symptons and your experienced hero TV repair guy do a quick diagnosis, explain the problem, what ever you come up with, and pull the chassis. Hell, it could be the "fringe area localizer switch" for all the woman knows. She just wants it fixed and he wants out of that house.
-Steve D.
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