*isn't sure where the right place to post this is* So if one of you feels the need, feel free to move this thread somewhere else.

I was wondering what your opinions are on instantaneous "training" is. you see, I'm trying to figure something out in my current WIP. The characters are getting ready to go to earth, and their going to be trained to behave like those of us who live on earth.

A special woman is going to "train" them...but it might be more of a one day thing where they're suddenly experts after only several hours. Kind of like brain surgery...or something like that.

So I don't know if that wouldn't be a good idea. If you need clarification, I can try. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Well, this is Spec Fic... so you can get away with just about anything. So long as there's nothing important a long period of training would add to your story, I think you can have fast training.

A simple example: perhaps this woman has, herself, trained to blend in with Earthlings. Then, by some magical ability, she pass the knowledge on to your main characters. (That's really obvious and un-artistic, in my opinion, but I'm sure you could come up with something better along those lines.

Thanks, Jakarosin!


*wonders if he has the gift of telepathy* That's pretty much exactly how the story goes. It's not quite that obvious, but that's the underlying principle.

I've seen several fast-training systems in science fiction and fantasy authors' works. Three leap to mind.

• In H. Beam Piper's Paratime stories, the Home Time Line has a technology that puts a person under hypnosis and then feeds whatever information is available about a topic (including how to speak a language, for example) into the person's subconscious, so that it will be remembered when the person needs it.
• Some of Larry Niven's stories posit that some forms of memory are stored in RNA, so RNA injections are used as part of training. The "memory" here is not "book knowledge" of facts, but includes (again) languages, at least a degree of "muscle memory," and some personality-instincts.
• The Harry Potter universe includes two ideas that fan-fiction authors have occasionally used for quickly training their protagonists: the "time turner," which allows people to go a few hours back in time (and the "canon" never says that you can't use this to get two years' training in a month! ), and the idea of "extracting memories"---to view in a "pensieve"---which can then be put into someone else's mind.

Hm. Interesting. Thanks so much, Kingjon! I've never heard of these (well, except for Harry Potter which I haven't read)...I should check them out. But yeah, thanks for taking the time to reply.