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As you may know from reading my post in Snowy Owl chat I'm about to begin laying the foundation of a novel. I've had a wild idea in my head for the last two years, or as Donaldson says, "A story gathering dust on the shelf." While my part of the discussion will, probably, concern itself with Fantasy and Sci-Fi feel free to talk about any genre you like. This should prove be a freewheeling discussion and perhaps more of an associative one-flying from one thought to another. Remember you don't have to be a writer or even an aspiring writer to join in. I need all the help I can get from anyone and everyone, so please join in.
Other discussion ideas, at this point, include Minimalist vs Maximal language usage and scope: timeframe, history and lenght of story.
World Crafting:
Let's take the simpliest distinction between Sci-Fi and Fantasy and explore the differences within. If I make, what's a better word for cut and dried, cliched (yes there will eventually be a "wordsmith/grammar" discussion, as well), oh well: cut and dried statements remember they're there to be knocked down. Be careful of spoilers.
Fantasies tend to lend themselves to one world
Ok let's look around the author forums here at the Hangar to explore this: Tad Williams' Osten Ard is primarily self contained. Donaldsons Covenant series takes place on one planet (which there is no name for), Zindell's Ea, Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice, Lewis' Narnia, LeGuin's Earthsea and Tolkien's Middle Earth follow suit.
For arguement's sake let's call Donaldson and Martin's worlds what everyone else calls them; The Land and Westeros. Note that I said primarily-in Williams' world the Sithi may (or may not) have arrived there from space or some dimension. The protagonists in the Land and Narnia travel between Earth and those worlds through some strange portal, be it by "summonsing" or a dimensional backdoor in a wardrobe.
There are subtle exceptions and assumptions that readers can make, such as (knowing Zindell's Neverness (Sci Fi) books and the similarity of characters and naming) Ea actually being one of Hanuman li Tosh's "forced growth" worlds in The Broken God, and Middle Earth being an implied unknown pre-history of our own world. Other fantasy writers have used pre-history devices to a much more obvious degree like Howard's Conan, King Kull and Bran Mack Morn. Earth/fantasy world hopping is not exclusive to those above-look at how the characters travel back and forth (or get stuck in a fantasy world) in lands such as Eddison's Zimiamvia, Burrough's Mars and Zelazny's Amber.
I mention Zelazny last because his world crafting/hopping is a much more complex example-Earth/Amber, gradual and abrupt transitions, shadow worlds, other dimensions, tarot card jumping and etheral/disintigrating landscapes. But you see the point the primary arena in these stories is one newly created world.
Science Fiction has at least five primary arenas
It seems that Sci Fi can go pretty much where it wants to go. If we limit it at all it would be; Earth, virtual reality, space, our solar system and galactic travel. If we take another trip around the Hangar author forums we see that the major series mentioned involve mostly galactic contructs such as; Brin's Uplift universe, Zindell's Neverness-Manifold, Donaldson's Gap, Simmons' Hyperion-Web, Williams' Otherland (VR), and Herbert's Dune. With of course stinking Gene Wolfe being the hybrid and obscuring the lines of fantasy and sci fi. . In most cases these stories do have a nexus point where that world is intrically crafted: Urth, Icefall, Hyperion, Arrakis.
You can break it down all you want; Donaldson's Gap had a focal point in space: UMCPHQ, perhaps, Brin's The Postman on this (post apocalyptic) world, The Kiln People on it's own world, etc...
Ok since fantasy is what I want to write first
What's the world? How do you get there? Are you born there? Could you do something really weird like jump form there to Earth and back? Yes I realize this brings up all sorts of off-topic questions-ethics, magic, etc...Ok back on topic. If you're writting a fantasy (with the door open for a series) what are the basics? A cool name from your land/planet? A map (I'll have to have a map-I love maps)? And if you have a map how complete should it be? Reserve unknown mysterious places for later? I guess you may not know that until after you're finished with the series. What sort of world should it be? Pretty complex if you ask me. Most are. Simple may be too boring. A waterworld (such as Simmons' Mare Infinitus) would make me want to pee all the time! Would a low-G "floaty" world be too strange? Perhaps the origin or cause of a limited "floaty" phenomenon would be more interesting...
In anycase, after speaking to a lot of people about what they want in a fantasy novel/series it's a fast pace, believable characters and interesting twists. Of course it's more complex than that, but how could your world be designed (or how should it be designed) to accomodate the fast pace and help provide weird twists itself. Yes it seems I'm going Donaldsonian, maybe that's my nature, and alot of books haven't really been written that way (or succeeded that way). As opposed to the more "homo-centric" worlds of medievilish swordplay, humanlike demigods, altered human and human-like constructs like elves/sithi, etc...But that's whole 'nother dicussion.
I'd have to have magic but aside from an "Earthpowered" magic land I guess my first real question would be: How do you form the natural features of the land/world to have a magic all their own as far as the layout is concerned? Aside from strange nexus points, places of power etc...something that hasn't really been done before within the landscape? A limited world within a much larger world the characters don't initially know about? Mist covered lowlands the characters, apparently, believe are inaccessible? A future explanation of a strange part of the land that myteriously appears out of nowhere? If you see what I'm driving at I'm trying to get ideas that will pose something completely new to the readers and break the cliches of the basic fantasy world, and, yes, even the Land. We haven't even begun to discuss "underworlds" yet and that appears to me to be very tricky because the reader can tend to get bored and disoriented easily if those worlds, caves, passages, weirs, labyrinths, etc...aren't done exactly right. Some examples: right, left, up, down under Mt. Thunder, endless catacombs of Osten Ard, wiers of Malazan-as opposed to some to the straight forward (and possibly cliched) caves in LOTRs and Dragonlance type stories--but abysses are great, gotto love abysses!
Your thoughts? *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 9/26/06 6:15 pm
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