Roderick T. Macdonald's Blog, page 26

Why I Write Fantasy: The Why Is So Much Of It So Similar? Edition

Last week I talked about the infinite possibilities offered by the fantasy genre, but buried in there was the nagging question: “Why then is so much of fantasy writing so similar?”

I think any reader of fantasy over the last thirty years knows what I’m talking about, but let’s do a quick recap without falling into a deep, dark trope-hole. That’s what the great site TV tropes is for!

A lot of fantasy is based in worlds vaguely resembling medieval Western Europe circa 1150-1350. Feudalism is alive and well, castles of stone dot the landscape, gunpowder is either non-existent or very marginal. It is a green country across which knights ride, and kings rule. (Yep, it’s pretty chauvinistic. The Damsels, they were in Distress in them thar days. This part of the model has thankfully been abandoned as the primary mode in fantasy writing, I merely mention it as the foundation from which so much else has sprung.) Good is challenged by evil, and unlikely champions arise and prevail. Even in more modern takes on the genre emphasizing morally grey characters, and the squalor of daily life, the setting of a version of Western Europe is most commonly found, with nods north to Scandinavia, and south beyond the Mediterranean.

Why is this? The first and most obvious answer is Tolkien. There are others I have mentioned in a previous column, but let’s shorthand it. Tolkien’s fantasy drew on deep roots in Northern European traditions, he himself studied and translated old and middle English poets: Beowulf and Gawain were very familiar to him. He had survived brutal, industrialized war. He had a clear, unmistakable longing for simpler times, and the greener pastures of yesteryear before the industrial revolution. Michael Moorcock wrote an essay criticizing that very attitude, which is worth looking at.

However, while I think Tolkien is a huge influence on those who have followed in his footsteps, I believe it is worthwhile to look at the habit of mind he had, the looking back to simpler, cleaner times. I think this is something that many fantasy writers share, or want to explore: the idea of simpler worlds in which to highlight dramatic conflict, worlds in which the multiple bureaucratic ties of today are absent. Moorcock may have complained about Tolkien’s backward glance, but Wordsworth and Coleridge a century and more before shared it. A century and more before those esteemed Romantic poets trod the earth Marvell and Milton were also celebrating the unblemished past, the green lands of myth and happiness for all. In fact, we can go all the way back to the Greeks and still find this attitude of looking back to a idealized bucolic past, to Theocritus, and ultimately to Hesiod, who himself looked back to a golden age of humanity, and its successive debasements through to his current day, now our dim and distant past.

I think it is this habit of mind, looking back to earlier eras of imagined grace and simplicity, tied to the prevalence of fairy tales told to so many children in their formative years that has shaped the landscape of fantasy. The yearning to recapture something beautiful, but now lost, or faded from view. Fantasy literature has been dominated, until recently, by writers born of the Western European tradition, and so, when they look to create fantasy landscapes, it is the idealized western archetypes of yore to which they readily cleave. As more writers cast fantasies in the landscape of their own parent cultures outwith the European mould, I think we will see very different settings emerge. This is something that is in progress, I believe. I myself have published a book set in a world that looks very European at first blush, my habit of mind being formed by my Scottish heritage. It is a hard set of shackles to break, and I would argue they do not necessarily need to be broken, as there is still a great deal in that landscape to explore and render fresh. The imagery still has a great deal of power, and a lot of new ideas, or subversions of the old, remain to be profitably explored in that setting.

Of course, there is no reason now not to try something entirely different, but I think the hold of old stories, old cultural touchstones is strong, and that is why so many fantasy novels find themselves set in worlds where the trappings of modernity are cast aside, to leave characters facing more elemental foes than we come across in our daily lives. And of course, we writers often imitate and reimagine what we love, and if what we loved was stories involving warriors and wizards and fantastic creatures, then we will wish to tell our own stories of warriors and wizards and fantastic creatures, but with our own twists. The Dude in Distress is born.

The Writing Life: Sometimes You Don’t

Sometimes, despite your best efforts and most earnest intentions, you just don’t make progress in your writing. Not because you’re blocked, or uninspired, or bored, or frustrated, or overwhelmed by whatever it is that you are working on. Sometimes you just can’t. Life, in capital letters, gets in the way.

Loved ones get sick. You get sick. A significant relationship ends or begins. Unexpected financial or natural disaster strikes. These kinds of thing tend to take up all of your attention, and leave nothing over for writing. I once emigrated. It was a very all consuming experience. Adjusting to a new country, new culture, new housing, new job, a city full of strangers, there wasn’t much left over in my mental tank. I had a work in progress, and didn’t open it for six months, the best I did was make sure it had survived the journey. It was there. I knew I would return to it, when there was a shred of available mental space.

Sometimes, for one reason or another, your head can be filled with other things, other issues, emotions so strong that the writing you want to do does not have the space to exist. This is okay. Get through the time, or revel in it, if it is a joyous period. If it is less joyful, don’t add to the difficulty by berating yourself for not writing. It happens. The mental decks will clear. The important thing is to deal with what life has thrown at you.

Now some artists thrive on adversity, it acts as a creative spur, giving them lifetimes of material to work with, or dreadful urgency to get what they can done while they still have time. Their art can be the therapy that helps them through. Others will use the hard times as inspiration, once those difficulties have been overcome, returning to them over and over again.

Do what you can when you can. Write (probably bad) poems for the first time in a decade. Dictate stream of consciousness gibberish to your phone. Write one sentence a day. Try for two, maybe even three. But if you do none of that, don’t beat yourself up about it. Sometimes there just isn’t space for writing, and that is okay. The time will come when you do again find yourself with the time and space to write as you wish, and when it does, I think you will enjoy it all the more.

Why I Write Fantasy: Infinite Possibilities

Now I’ve touched on this before in some circumstances, but I feel that it is worth restating one of the greatest draws for me in writing fantasy: the range of possibilities it grants you.

In writing fantasy you are only constrained by two things: your imagination, and your ability to transform your fancies into words. As long as you can persuade your readers to stick with you on the journey, and keep the story and world alive, there is very little you can’t try in a fantasy setting.

And the settings can be wildly varied, alternate worlds of every description, hot or cold, rich or abject, alternate planes of existence where no one can conceive of the idea of a ‘planet’, all are equally possible, if the writer can keep the reader on board. Altered presents, pasts, and futures of this world with fantastical twists and stranger inhabitants can be presented. Nothing is off the table.

Your protagonists don’t have to be human, they don’t have to be living. Destiny or chaos can launch their adventures, love or despair or anything in between can drive them. The worlds they inhabit can present any imaginable political system, variations on ones our known societies have experienced, or entirely new ones we haven’t can be described, offered up to the reader as part of why the story is as it is, and perhaps part of how it will proceed.

The writer can take any theme to explore: duty, revenge, freedom, manipulation, truth, faith, nature are but a tiny fraction of the ideas that can run through the fantasy novel. Any topic that a mind wishes to explore can be created and examined in fantasy. The story (and world) can shape itself around that concept, or be informed by it, or the characters can play out roles informed by themes and ideals, even, and especially if they are unaware of that fact. It is such an incredible sandbox of fun to play in as a writer.

Equally, there is nothing to stop the fantasy novel examining the most intimate bonds of life: love, family, personal successes and failures, writ large or kept small. Characters can struggle with addictions and illness, be representative of any possible race, creed, or sexuality, and receive support or face challenges based on any or all of those things. Fantasy allows ideas to be explored either directly, or through striking metaphor, allowing people in the here and now to see themselves in the strangest of other circumstances, and still keep a tie of identification. That is an incredible gift.

Fantasy novels can be thrillers, adventure stories, murder mysteries, satire, thinly veiled contemporary social commentary (which I think of  as distinct from satire), alternate histories, and romances. And anything else their author can dream up and bring to life. They can mix and match and have more than one element blended together seamlessly into one magnificent story.

Fantasies can be cautionary tales, celebrations of heroism, moral lessons, examinations of ethical dilemmas, and of course, pure, unadulterated escapism. And all of those things at once too!

So why do so many seem so similar? Maybe that’s something to be discussed in another column. But if you want different, and keep looking, you’ll find something dazzlingly original waiting for you.

Because in fantasy, the possibilities are endless.

The Writing Life: First Drafting

I’m supposed to be writing my first draft right now. And looking for a job. We’ll talk about jobs later. Right now we’ll talk about writing a first draft, instead of doing it, because dealing with other commitments is a real thing that must be managed, and this blog doesn’t write itself.

I have historically characterized the first draft as the fun part of writing, when everything is new and exciting. You may have a plan, but you can feel pretty free to change it should whimsy and/or a great new idea strike. First drafts are hopefully treasure troves of “Eureka!” moments, where something not outlined occurs to you and just makes so much sense that you sit in your chair and giggle with glee. I don’t have one of those upright walking desk type things, I really should, but a long time ago I invested in heavy oak furniture, and the combination of it and the remaining space in my office (yes, I know how lucky I am) does not leave any room for health preserving devices. Other than an electric coaster designed to keep my tea warm. It keeps the bottom third tepid.

Writers have a lot of things to say about first drafts, I like Terry Pratchett’s take, acknowledge Neil Gaiman’s, laugh ruefully at Ernest Hemmingway’s, and take what solace I can from many others.

I have a love/resent relationship with my first draft. I can’t say hate, because why hate your own creativity? I don’t resent my creativity either; I just resent the work that sometimes needs to be done! But let’s stick with the love for now: I love the excitement of the new, of putting flesh onto the bones of my outline, and being pleasantly surprised by the beautiful additions I find necessary to add that the outline forgot to include, and that enrich the story or characters immensely. (Those “Eureka!” moments.) I love finding a new voice, and writing scenes where I get emotionally involved, really feeling the writing as I go. As a writer you have to hope that some of that feeling is transmitted. You need the craft and the skills to do that, and I’m loving the opportunity to try new rhetorical devices, linguistic flourishes, the whole shebang. I love the challenge of trying something new, and trying to better what you have done before. I love being able to just go for it and write with freedom, knowing that excess fat, overindulgent darlings, and dodgy timelines and plotting can be fixed at a later date, once I have the spirit of the thing down on paper, the rough beginning, middle, and end.

I resent that it’s taking so long. I resent realizing that I have to insert this extra scene because this is the only place I think it will fit, and I really wanted to get to the next scene that I imagine will be more fun. I resent that the fun scene, when I get to it, is more technically difficult than it appeared from afar, and can’t simply be torn through in an hour. I resent my particular inability to not write in a linear fashion, I can sometimes write scenes out of sequence to keep the word count rising, but my preference is not to. I resent knowing how much will be cut/revised into near oblivion, or that what I think are perfect jewels of sentences and paragraphs will be discarded because I was having too much fun writing them and they don’t actually help the story or themes along. I resent fixing that timeline when I could have stopped and worked it out as I drafted. I resent getting stuck over a sentence when you are supposed to be able to barrel along and not worry about such things as it’s ‘only’ the first draft. I still don’t want to vomit poorly written prose onto the page this time out, as it will only cause me more work later, so I try to write as well as I can now, and minimize as much as possible the nuts and bolts revisions of the future. The dream is to not have to rewrite at all! (No laughing at the back!) I resent thinking of it as ‘only’ the first draft, probably a hangover from when I thought the first draft was the completed book and that all I needed to do was a quick grammar check and it would be ready for the public. Halcyon days of youth right there, but the point is that a first draft isn’t ‘only’ anything, it is a massive first step in the right direction, and should be celebrated, not minimised, in my humble opinion.

So I’m conflicted, but the important thing is to keep moving. I’m entering the beginning of the climax of The Killer and The Dead’s first draft, 70K words in, 20-30K to go. I wanted to be done with it all by now, but missing a deadline doesn’t mean I give up, it just means I need to grind on, and get done as soon as I can. By the end of this month would be very nice, and keep me on track for publication by the end of October after all those lovely revisions and editorial passes. I’m staying accountable, and sharing this helps me stick to my goals, so thank you!

First drafting is many things, but in the end I think it is a joyful process, it is creation, it is engagement, it is words being used to try to convey ideas and emotions, to paint pictures, to amuse, perhaps to shock and surprise, and certainly in my case, to entertain. I still think it is the most fun for me in writing (despite those resentments listed above, some of which I may actually like, is that weird?), and I wish all other writers the best when next they face this challenge! Good luck!

Why I Write Fantasy: Because it is the Mother Genre

Fantasy is a universal touchstone. Every culture has its myths, its origin stories, its tales of creation and destruction through which stride gods, monsters, and heroes. The first stories that we crafted were all fantasies. They formed frameworks to explain our world, and ourselves, to pass on cultural traditions, to reinforce social norms. Fantasy came first, all other genres came later. Gilgamesh, Achilles, and Bhishma were rendered immortal in the poetry of their people. The myths of the Maya and the Norse told of beginnings and endings, individuals and peoples wrestling with their own mortality, the devastating sense of the impermanence of even their entire culture’s way of life. They knew they were teetering on the brink of disaster, and told stories to try to make sense of that feeling.

Today fantasy has been reduced in the minds of many to Tolkien and his successors, forgetting the wellspring of culture from which Tolkien drew his own inspiration: the rich tapestry of ancient human experience and literature. Fantasy is at the bedrock of human expression, no matter where you look.

Now I love me some Tolkien. One day I hope to write my own full-on Tolkien trilogy, complete with elves, dwarves, a pair of warring siblings and a character who walks out of a mountain with no memory, and who may be an agent of light or dark, that both court and neither trust. It’ll be awesome. Especially the dwarves. Oh yeah.

But the fact is that Fantasy is so much more than the admittedly rich modern tradition Tolkien is in large part responsible for. (Lord Dunsany and E.R. Edison were very significant in their time and largely forgotten now. They were influences on Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and thus on myself and many others at a step removed. I think I once read some Dunsany but have little recall. E.R. Edison I enjoyed as some wildly over the top writing, with florid characters absolutely ruled by their passions. One day I would love to give full blooded voice to a world of Edisonian characters ruled by high emotion, with all the drama and disaster that would accompany such creatures of unfettered extremes!) So to denigrate the fantasy genre (given its true scope and ancient origins) is to me somewhat foolish, as you may as well discount the bible as being influential in the world of literature, which I don’t think anyone would reasonably attempt to argue. Fantasy also deserves its place of honour.

So for me, in writing fantasy I am not just writing stories filled with wonder and excitement (though that is a huge draw!). There is a small part of me that delights in touching one of our most ancient traditions. I may be turning it to modern purpose, seeking to entertain, engage, and provide enjoyment to my audience, but speaking in the original vocabulary of our first story tellers, with their gods, monsters, and heroes, is a joy and a privilege.

It seems to me that we instinctively love the idea of the unexpected being just around the corner, the curtain of normality being pulled back to reveal the magical. We want to accompany that named hero to those strange lands, to see wonders and return home, enriched by the experience. That for me is one of the strengths of fantasy fiction, the ability to take people on that journey, a journey many of our ancestors have shared, when they listened to the fantastical tales and myths of their eras.

The other great advantage is that fantasy can encapsulate or incorporate almost any other genre within its expansive bounds. Romance, thriller, detective story, horror, satire, social commentary, can all easily be found within the realm of fantasy. About the only thing that may escape it is the closely drawn study of modern contemporary life, the ticking clock of our current obsessions and struggles, though many contemporary literary heavyweights have not been immune to the adoption of magical realism, which is to say, elements of fantasy. Universal human truths and struggles can be touched upon and revealed without the need for a contemporary setting, however, else our old myths and the fantasy fiction that draws upon those stories would not have such enduring power.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

P.S. The Kindle edition of The Thief and The Demon is on sale for one more day at 75% off – get it cheap while you can!

The Writing Life: Juggling Workload, the Dizzying Kaleidoscope

So the New Year is in, and it’s time to get on with hitting those goals.

What are mine? In writing it is to draft, edit, and publish The Killer and The Dead by the end of October. That’s a tough, but doable ask. I stand in awe of folks who boldly declare they will write two or more books this year. I’m not built for that kind of speed.

Of course, there is so much more to the writing life than just writing your newest opus. Would that were the only task at hand! There is so much more to do, like promoting, advertising, and selling my first book: The Thief and The Demon. (Kindle version on sale right now at 75% off!!) Embracing the new project cannot mean abandoning the old. (Which isn’t even old – it was released last October – it’s a veritable baby!) I have these blogs to write, Facebook presence to maintain, advertising campaigns to write and curate, decisions to make on paperback distribution, which then leads to the need to speak to book sellers, gaming stores, libraries, anywhere that might have an interest in my book. There is even discussion of a YouTube channel. Oh, and narrating an audible version of The Thief and The Demon. No problem, I’ll get it all done by Tuesday!

Most importantly I need to pursue the epic quest for reviews. Writing to bloggers and vloggers who might be a fit, asking if they have the time to read a copy of The Thief and The Demon that I shall most happily supply them with! (A variety of formats are available, including paperback! If you are a book blogger looking for a fantasy novel to review, please get in touch, I’ll be delighted to chat with you!) In addition I must try not to constantly, boringly, cajole those who have read my book to do me that most solid of favours by writing and submitting an honest review. But I still bug them, you know, a little. I need those reviews! On Amazon preferably, as it can help drive sales and hopefully boost my algorithm visibility, but frankly, any book friendly site will do now!

I’m a first time self-pubbed author. I knew before I started I’d make mistakes, and promised to be forgiving of them. I’ve made a few I know of and moved on, probably made others without realizing it. This is life when you try new things. This is a glorious learning curve. I’m getting a little better with each experience. Of course so many of these new things I’m doing require research, reading, watching, note taking, all of which suck more time away from writing anything, let alone my next novel.

The one I’ve scheduled for release by the end of October. How do people release multiple books a year? How? The discipline involved must be tremendous!

Oh, and I’ll need to do all of this and more stuff that I’ve forgotten to mention while working a new job. Nobody said the writing life was easy, bub. But jobs are great – they pay for lots of the things this author cannot do on his own: editorial work, cover art, and formatting, among other things. Yes, I could try to do my own formatting, but time versus money is a calculation I made, and came down on the side of spending money to save me time.

Juggling the writing life with the rest of your life is a tricky process. I mean, how much time is left for reading random articles on the internet (always call it writing research, it makes it feel less wasteful – if you bookmark the page, it was definitely time well spent!) and playing frankly silly online games? Not a lot, not if you want to write. And maintain a relationship with your spouse. I think her name is noted around here somewhere… No way could I do this with kids. Writers with kids, you have my utmost respect.

This isn’t a poor me. This is just a clear eyed look at what lies before me this year. It’s a lot, but as I said in my New Year reflection, I’m calm about it, and ready to go. Some extra reviews would be nice though!

The Sale Awakens

January the second. The New Year is in, time to be getting back to reality…

Not so fast! Now is the time to complete your recovery from New Year revels by curling up with a fantastic book! This year I received my first Kindle, and to celebrate my entry into the wild world of ebook reading, the Kindle edition of The Thief and The Demon is on sale for one week, starting today! From now until January the 9th you can get quality entertainment for $0.99, reduced from $3.99! (Similar reductions in your local market for my friends outside of the US!) In the bleak midwinter (or sweltering midsummer!) escape from it all with a quality book at a bargain price! Find it here, or at your local friendly amazon site!

 

 

[image error]

The Long Road: New Year’s Reflections

This is a special New Year for me. There is something genuinely, thrillingly new for me to celebrate in my writing life.

This is the first year I don’t have to wearily resolve to get published. The first year I don’t have to make that resolution as shadows of doubt inhabit my mind, knowing how many times before I have failed.

New Year’s Day with its resolutions, birthday wishes and candles, coins in wells, they all mocked me for years on end. I made those wishes, committed to those targets, promised to do better, and always another year slid by and the goal was unmet, the wish unrealized, the bell unrung.

It wears on you after a while.

Before the years of the “getting published” wish there was a decade and more of resolving to “finish the book”, when I had no idea that what I was really wishing for was to finish a first draft, and that “finishing the book” as I understood it was a total understatement of the work needed to finish a draft and then transform it into publishable form.

But all that is behind me now. The resolution I made last year, uttered in ferocious desperation (not for the first time), has been held to. The goal has been met, the wish realized, and the bell most definitely rung.

In 2017 I published my first novel, The Thief and The Demon. I am very proud of it. I’m overjoyed to introduce it to you, and the world. I hope you like it. If you do, please leave a review!

So this year, for the first time in my adult life, I don’t have to make a New Year’s resolution with shades of doubt in mind. I’m free to dream again.

The Thief and The Demon is but another step down The Long Road. I want to go further, do more, be better.

In 2018 I hope to complete a first draft, edit, and publish The Killer and The Dead. I don’t resolve to do that with ferocious desperation this time, but with calm. Make it or not, I’m doing something new, something fresh. Like the year, I’m reborn in optimism, and it feels fabulous.

What a difference a year makes.

So here is my New Year’s message for writers and artists of all stripes: keep dreaming, keep working, and keep taking just one more step down the long road toward to your goals. Let this be the year you get there, so that next year you too can discover the odd high of not making the same old tired resolution, but setting yourself a new goal, and feeling free as a result.

Happy New Year everyone!

[image error]

The Writing Life: Aiming High Part 4 – What if Nobody Notices?

In earlier episodes of this series I described what aiming high means for me, why missing isn’t failure, and why I think as any kind of artist it is beneficial to strive for more and push your own personal envelope, no matter what medium you work in. Go creatives!

These things are all well and good, but what if no-one notices your attempts to aim high? Wouldn’t that be terrible?

I love that idea! It makes me smile. It truly does. That’s the great thing about aiming high – if no one notices, you’ve still done it, you’ve still worked on your technique, your craft, your path to creating art. You have hopefully still learned and improved in your chosen field – which is the goal, surely? If your striving for more does not draw attention to itself then I’d say a) it isn’t a distracting mess, which is a good thing in a story, (looking at you, Last Jedi), and b) you maybe haven’t gotten it right. Yet. Or c) It worked well! Could that possibly be it? Should all experiments be noticed and discussed?

If no-one notices, and your story still works and people are enjoying it, you have a win. If no-one notices but your story falls flat, well the story needs work, and the challenges you set yourself didn’t elevate the language, the characters, the narrative, whatever you hoped to improve, so some investigation is required to work out what happened.

And maybe, in writing at least, (the visual arts are another kettle of fish!) unlike those early mathematical problems you had in school, it is better not to show your working. (My old maths teachers were infuriated by my tendency to skip parts of the problems, add 10 for no apparent reason, and come up with the right answer. “Show your work, boy! Where did that number come from? Why did you choose it?” I still don’t know how I did it. And no, I can’t do that anymore – it got drilled out of me!)

So maybe, if you’re like me, you don’t really want people to notice your attempts at new technique, you just want readers to enjoy the fruits of its (hopefully) artful employment: the artifice is supposed to be buried, to look natural: to become art. Only the result (the finished work) counts, and if you’ve got a good answer to the dramatic problems you set yourself, does how you got there matter? Do you need to show your work? In my case I’d say no, it is enough that it’s there, and did its job. On the other hand, as a reader I do like to spot nice rhetorical flourishes, or structural framing, as long as they are adding to my enjoyment of the book. It is a tough row to hoe, this writing business, as readers gain their pleasures in so many different ways!

I think that in writing specifically, unless you want to have your experiments with technique to be the story, unless you want the artifice to be the star of the show, then having your attempts to push your own artistic envelope slip by beneath the readers’ radar is no bad thing. If looked for by readers who enjoy such things, they can be dug up and investigated, but they don’t need to be front and centre. Joyce deliberately studded some of his writings with mysteries and technical wizardry to confound the critics, I would say Shakespeare did not: he used a lot of techniques in order to entertain and amaze. William gets deconstructed, I don’t think he deconstructed himself in advance.

So there you have it: I think if nobody notices your experimentation with style, form, or technique (or anything else you may focus on), you just smile and keep right on at it, pushing harder the next time!

Why I Write Fantasy: Christmas Edition

This is no time for analysis. I ate too much stuffing to be capable of it.

I write Fantasy because I love it. Why else?

If any of you out there have particular questions about Fantasy, or my approach to the subject, or want to see future columns dedicated to particular aspects of fantasy writing, ask in the comments or send me a message: I’d be delighted to hear from you!

Until then, be well!

[image error]