Rachael Eyre's Blog - Posts Tagged "fiction"
Fantasy Worlds
We read for a variety of reasons. A book's on the syllabus (never an incentive to like it). To "improve" our minds. To see how the original source compares to the recent film, which we really enjoyed. And- most compellingly of all, and why reading's one of the most popular pastimes- to escape.
If you spend your life working 9 to 5 in a call centre, would you want to read a story where the characters do the same thing? Of course not. You want to read about characters whose lives and concerns are as far removed from yours as possible. You might not be able to go on a quest to find the Golden Girdle of Galatea, but the hero of your favourite fantasy franchise can. While you and I might not make any decision more momentous than quiche for lunch, a heroine's choice can decide the fate of worlds. It's hardly an accident that when we're in troubled economic times, fantasy and sci fi books fly off the shelves.
Which triggers a question: how fantastical do you like your fantasy?
There are three main set ups:
Urban fantasy- where the world is effectively ours, but with an extra ingredient, e.g. Buffy may be a vampire slayer but she also encounters ghosts, anthropomorphised nightmares and praying mantises in contemporary times
Parallel world settings- where there's a second world cheek by jowl with ours, and they occasionally overlap (e.g. Harry Potter's wizarding world, which has its own customs, values and seems to be stuck somewhere in the 1800s).
Worlds on another plane of reality altogether, e.g. Star Wars takes place "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away"
Creating a fantasy world can be very exciting, giving the writer licence to populate it however they like. You may decide to use your favourite mythical creature but shake up your portrayal (you'll either be praised or derided- you have been warned!) You might invent something completely new, e.g. the daemons in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, an animal manifestation of a person's soul. This has the happy side effect that your main character doesn't seem ignorant when they've never heard of them before (not everything can be found on Google!) After all, aliens can look and behave any way you want- it's all in the name!
A word of caution. Some writers lavish attention upon their fictional worlds, devising histories, geographies, religions- everything that gives a real world society depth. While I would hate to curb anybody's creativity, and this kind of world building can really lift your saga above standard fantasy fare, don't let it be detrimental to your story. There's no point in coming up with a complex caste system if the main action consists of a bloke riding a horse. It may come in useful for future developments, but if Queen Brangomar's plot to bump off the court with poisoned apples ninety years ago doesn't have any bearing on the present plot, drop it. The last thing you want is for your reader to think, "I wish I could be reading that story instead."
A familiarity with the genre is always a bonus. It's a sad truth that many- if not most- of us have very generic imaginations, squirrelling imagery from all the books, films and nightmares we've seen. Bad guys in black! Mentors and pupils double crossing each other! Femme fatales with big collars! There are few things as demoralising as spending years lovingly crafting your epic, only to discover it's a scene for scene remake of a show you've never watched. (I'll never forget the verdict of the story I submitted to get on my creative writing course. Although I won a place, they were far from enthusiastic: "Derivative genre writing is discouraged." Ouch).
As an extension of this, a lot of fantasy can be painted with the broadest brushstrokes, especially where gender politics and homosexuality are concerned. Either you have the society where women wander around in sackcloth and ashes, unable to speak and kept under lock and key, or you have Ladyonia, where men are either non existent or hunted down like dogs. (Whether this is a utopia or dystopia depends on the writer). The same goes for being gay: either it's viewed as a disgusting abomination and stamped out by the government or everybody's gay, and straight people are the persecuted minority. Although this may be a case of pushing an argument to its logical extreme, it's in danger of turning into a polemic, with "Homophobia is Bad!" or (in less savoury renditions) "Women Should Know Their Place!" Readers don't like being preached to.
Above all, be consistent. There may be an exception to every rule, but there's a difference between the exception that's an established plot point (e.g. a girl finds herself with "male" magical powers) and one that wings in when it's most convenient to the author (e.g. in a world that has seemed utterly normal up until now, the cast is rescued from certain death by flying horses). Disbelief can only be stretched so far.
No less important: names. Yes, there may be people in real life who call their children Cushla Angel Rainbow, but you're not responsible for their bad taste. You are, however, responsible for the names you inflict upon your characters.
Please don't have characters called Allamarathea married to ones called Dave, or think that by peppering a name with apostrophes or random vowels, you'll somehow disguise the fact that your hero's name is Keith. Also- a pet hate of mine- don't give your character a name that spells out his fate in block capitals! I love JK Rowling to bits, she rivals Dickens for funny and inventive names, but it never ceases to annoy me that there's a werewolf called Remus Lupin and not one person guesses his secret. Or that somebody called Sirius Black can turn himself into- wait for it- a big black dog. She just about gets away with it because she's a children's author, but you can see this hamfisted convention at work in adult fiction too.
Fantasy should be as well regulated as any other genre. Yes, you've greater freedom to play around with species and ideas, but that doesn't mean plot and logic can go hang. Never lose sight of your audience or insult their intelligence.
Happy scribbling!
If you spend your life working 9 to 5 in a call centre, would you want to read a story where the characters do the same thing? Of course not. You want to read about characters whose lives and concerns are as far removed from yours as possible. You might not be able to go on a quest to find the Golden Girdle of Galatea, but the hero of your favourite fantasy franchise can. While you and I might not make any decision more momentous than quiche for lunch, a heroine's choice can decide the fate of worlds. It's hardly an accident that when we're in troubled economic times, fantasy and sci fi books fly off the shelves.
Which triggers a question: how fantastical do you like your fantasy?
There are three main set ups:
Urban fantasy- where the world is effectively ours, but with an extra ingredient, e.g. Buffy may be a vampire slayer but she also encounters ghosts, anthropomorphised nightmares and praying mantises in contemporary times
Parallel world settings- where there's a second world cheek by jowl with ours, and they occasionally overlap (e.g. Harry Potter's wizarding world, which has its own customs, values and seems to be stuck somewhere in the 1800s).
Worlds on another plane of reality altogether, e.g. Star Wars takes place "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away"
Creating a fantasy world can be very exciting, giving the writer licence to populate it however they like. You may decide to use your favourite mythical creature but shake up your portrayal (you'll either be praised or derided- you have been warned!) You might invent something completely new, e.g. the daemons in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, an animal manifestation of a person's soul. This has the happy side effect that your main character doesn't seem ignorant when they've never heard of them before (not everything can be found on Google!) After all, aliens can look and behave any way you want- it's all in the name!
A word of caution. Some writers lavish attention upon their fictional worlds, devising histories, geographies, religions- everything that gives a real world society depth. While I would hate to curb anybody's creativity, and this kind of world building can really lift your saga above standard fantasy fare, don't let it be detrimental to your story. There's no point in coming up with a complex caste system if the main action consists of a bloke riding a horse. It may come in useful for future developments, but if Queen Brangomar's plot to bump off the court with poisoned apples ninety years ago doesn't have any bearing on the present plot, drop it. The last thing you want is for your reader to think, "I wish I could be reading that story instead."
A familiarity with the genre is always a bonus. It's a sad truth that many- if not most- of us have very generic imaginations, squirrelling imagery from all the books, films and nightmares we've seen. Bad guys in black! Mentors and pupils double crossing each other! Femme fatales with big collars! There are few things as demoralising as spending years lovingly crafting your epic, only to discover it's a scene for scene remake of a show you've never watched. (I'll never forget the verdict of the story I submitted to get on my creative writing course. Although I won a place, they were far from enthusiastic: "Derivative genre writing is discouraged." Ouch).
As an extension of this, a lot of fantasy can be painted with the broadest brushstrokes, especially where gender politics and homosexuality are concerned. Either you have the society where women wander around in sackcloth and ashes, unable to speak and kept under lock and key, or you have Ladyonia, where men are either non existent or hunted down like dogs. (Whether this is a utopia or dystopia depends on the writer). The same goes for being gay: either it's viewed as a disgusting abomination and stamped out by the government or everybody's gay, and straight people are the persecuted minority. Although this may be a case of pushing an argument to its logical extreme, it's in danger of turning into a polemic, with "Homophobia is Bad!" or (in less savoury renditions) "Women Should Know Their Place!" Readers don't like being preached to.
Above all, be consistent. There may be an exception to every rule, but there's a difference between the exception that's an established plot point (e.g. a girl finds herself with "male" magical powers) and one that wings in when it's most convenient to the author (e.g. in a world that has seemed utterly normal up until now, the cast is rescued from certain death by flying horses). Disbelief can only be stretched so far.
No less important: names. Yes, there may be people in real life who call their children Cushla Angel Rainbow, but you're not responsible for their bad taste. You are, however, responsible for the names you inflict upon your characters.
Please don't have characters called Allamarathea married to ones called Dave, or think that by peppering a name with apostrophes or random vowels, you'll somehow disguise the fact that your hero's name is Keith. Also- a pet hate of mine- don't give your character a name that spells out his fate in block capitals! I love JK Rowling to bits, she rivals Dickens for funny and inventive names, but it never ceases to annoy me that there's a werewolf called Remus Lupin and not one person guesses his secret. Or that somebody called Sirius Black can turn himself into- wait for it- a big black dog. She just about gets away with it because she's a children's author, but you can see this hamfisted convention at work in adult fiction too.
Fantasy should be as well regulated as any other genre. Yes, you've greater freedom to play around with species and ideas, but that doesn't mean plot and logic can go hang. Never lose sight of your audience or insult their intelligence.
Happy scribbling!
