"Knowledge is Power." - Sir Francis Bacon, Viscount St Albans.

"Knowledge is Power, the power to make other people feel stupid." - Unknown meme source.

I'm not going to ask you to be an expert in every possible field there is known to man. But for once, at least try to have some knowledge before you make an assumption about the way things should work in a story universe. What am I rambling on about this time you might ask? Why, the simple idea that you might not drive off readers if you at least look like you know what you're talking about.

"Klondike, what the flying feather fuck are you talking about!"

DO YOUR RESEARCH, THAT'S WHAT! I know, you come and write stories on Fimfiction to escape from study, research and the general acquisition of knowledge. You just flop down in your chair after a long day of work/school/bummin'/eco-terrorism, tear your brain out your ear, toss it in a jar and start pounding keys. When suddenly, a wild complex subject appears!

Writer uses: 'Try to skirt around it!'

Complex Subject uses: 'Disgruntled reader who leaves a comment about how off you are in your understanding of how air thermals work!" It's super effective on your credibility!

In order to be credible on a subject, one must first know the subject. Let's say you wish to write a story in a steampunk setting. To go the extra step, let's assume it is in the city of Manehattan. Okay, what do you know about steam technology?

"....that it has lots of brass and looks cool?"

Maybe it would help if you first acquainted yourself with how steam technology works. You see that bar up there? It's probably white and currently has something along the lines of 'http://www.fimfiction.net/group/916/School-for-New-Writers' up there? That is a magical portal to this wonderful land of Internet! It is a repository of all of mankind's achievement and information, and is the ultimate convenience when researching! .....also porn, lots of porn.

Simply find a credible source of information on your subject, in this case steam technology, and study up!

"Wow, I didn't know steampunk stuff needed to boil water to work!"

Once again , but at least you're learning. Now, what do you know about Manhattan and on that note the ponified city of Manehattan?

"Um, they all hate people from Joisey?"

Okay, find a wall and smash your head against it. Perhaps if you did a little research on the island of Manhattan, you could actually convince people that you may have actually been there, or even live there with your incredible knowledge of the Big Apple!

Just remember, they teach you in school to do research for a reason, and this doesn't just have to apply to things like locations, they can apply to characters and even concepts. Are your readers complaining that Twilight is OoC? Well champ, I got news for ya, you're gonna have to investigate this phenomenon known as Twilight Sparkle. Scrutinize the scrutinizer, scrutinize-ception. Have a little marathon and take notes about Twilight's character.

Just listen to me when I say this, I have read fics that would have been god awful and unsalvageable if not for the writer's in depth knowledge of the subject. Please, for the love of god, do your research!

Sir Francis Bacon

Easily the best last name ever.

At least he wasn't Nathaniel Bacon, though. That guy wasn't nice.

Related, I definitely hate war fics that are completely inaccurate, where Private Parts goes on a mission that should only be for the professionals, then has an awesome time shooting an RPG at some French while in the middle of Afghanistan and then magically get sucked into Equestria. It's stupid and annoying as fuck. BE ACCURATE, PEOPLE!

485409
Best last name indeed. That quote from him is actually engraved into my school, and it's a freaking huge engraving too. I should take a picture of it or something.

And yes, research. Researching is good and I hate it when people just go on a whim and assume.

485409 Exactly; everyone knows that they use M72s (an anti-fortification/tank single-shot rocket launcher from 'Nam) in Afghanistan since they do the same job, and are surplus. Seriously, though, that's just silly.

I've learned the consequences of not doing a whole lot of research in my recent semi-hard sci-fi story. While I didn't make a lot of mistakes, the ones I did made me look quite silly indeed. People still eat up the story, however...

485368
I know you're the professor here, but I disagree. When working in a universe where flying ponies move clouds around to control the weather by pushing them it's unfair to insist on everything being true to life. As long as you set the rules for your own universe and keep consistent with them that should be enough. Insisting that people inject realism into a decidedly fantasy driven universe seems kinda inane.

Yeah, authors getting facts wrong anger me. It's distracting and it shows a distinct lack of care when dealing with their story. It makes it look like they rushed past certain points just to get to the action.

And yes, good lecture. It irks me when people jump into writing without knowing the facts about what it is that they're writing about.

That's why I got two proofreaders instead of one. For my story, DOC (and since I'm not in the military). I hired a former Army soldier that got injured and a Naval Aviation pilot that works on an aircraft carrier.

I don't like being inaccurate, and I certainly don't like rushing out my story.