Plot Devices: Should we use them? (Week 2, part 6/10)

I'll admit it, I'm using a plot device in the story I'm writing for The Star Legation visual novel, and I'll share it with you. Visual novels, by nature, have less expository writing—descriptions of people, places, and objects are rarely given through text because these things are often represented through the art in the game. There is less of a need to spend time on description, and that results in a much faster novel-reading experience. Most, if not all, of the writing is dialogue between characters, so any descriptive text is usually included in their spoken conversations. However, the problem I ran into was that there were times that it wouldn't be natural to go into such descriptions at the time that something was observed. I found a way around this by using a character who communicates over long-distance with the protagonist, as a hologram. This long-distance character can ask questions of the protagonist about his observations, which allows me to enter more descriptive text as he tries to explain to her, in more detail, what the readers might not have been able to see represented in the art. Plot devices can be very effective techniques to help you get the most out of your story, so don't hesitate to use them...as long as you don't use them to write yourself out of a corner!