Young Writers Society

So, I am working on the skeleton of new story idea, and it involves controlling people in their subconscious mind through their nerves. Basically they rig the person so that with a controller they can move the person however they wish. My main character will be 14-17ish and won't know tons of how it works. I don't plan on him finding out most of the technical stuff either, or writing from those who do's perspective.
Do you think it would lessen the book's quality if I didn't explain most of how all the nerve-controlled stuff works?

It'd probably increase it for you not to explain.

Make it plausible, sure. But don't take a break from the actual story to explain it unless the plot centres around it, and it sounds like the plot doesn't.

Plausibility is important, because sciencey people will pick apart how it potentially works. I'd suggest running the technology by somebody sciencey (Usually this stuff is done through spinal column implants in sci fi, though) to get the mechanics in rough.

However, there is this thing called "suspension of disbelief" which is basically when people accept what's going on in the story because it's a story. If you explain the mechanics behind things, then that suspension breaks. This goes double if you force in technobabble to explain something that nobody really feels a need to know.

Keep readers in the dark. They don't need to know everything so long as the story overall is satisfying. You might not know how every single plot thread or world mechanic worked, but the story felt complete. That's what you're going for.

What's the point of the nerve-controlling? Why will the main character know little about this? If you have to limit the MC's knowledge, then I'd suggest jumping to another person's perspective. Readers will, no doubt, be starved for details. Some research may be necessary to flesh out your plot; I've been reading reviews on the Divergent series for leisure, and everyone seems annoyed at Roth's flimsy base. She obviously didn't do a shred of research.

You probably don't have to delve into the science of it, but some general explanation will give the impression that you're in control .

Thank you and thank you. I do plan on writing from another person's perspective who knows more, and a major reveal will happen sometime in the book. I just didn't want to have to find out a horde of stuff. (I hate research) especially if it wasn't needed to keep th readers interested. Also, this is slightly in the future. Not like way ahead, but maybe 5 or ten years.

At the rate technology is going, plus how prosthetics are connecting to nerves in a few special cases, I don't think that's much of a stretch.