Describing the Insider and the Other

In one of her reviews of the Silver Phoenix and Fury of the Phoenix, the blogmistress of Requires Only Hate astutely points out that author Cindy Pon falls into a common trap of writing about an environment unlike one's own: mixing up the author's 'default' and 'other' with the 'default' and 'other' which would be natural for the characters. This disconnect between the character's world and the author's sense of what is 'normal' usually jars the reader out of the viewpoint and the story, as well as creating an uncomfortable dynamic.

It's hard to get out of our own 'default' settings as far as what counts as 'typical' behaviour, appearance, and cultural standards, since we don't often think critically about them. However, it's imperative we look at the world through the eyes of our characters, particularly as we describe people and settings through their point of view.

Revealing through descriptive language choices what your characters take for granted and what your characters find unusual is a subtle and effective technique for worldbuilding. Without a single info-dump, you can share a lot of the physical and social environment of your setting, and give the reader an insider's view of the world.