This week: There is No Place Like Home (Locations) Edited by: Dawn Embers  
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Fantasy Newsletter by Dawn
A little discussion on the concept of home. What makes a home in the physical and emotional sense. Looking at the real world and how to use some of the ideas in fantasy. |
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When it comes to specific locations in speculative fiction stories, one place to take some serious consideration is both a physical construct and one that can be metaphysical or emotional: Home. There is no place like home is a mantra from Wizard of Oz with Dorothy clicking her heels. The soundtrack for The Chronicles of Narnia includes a song called This is Home. It doesn't matter if it's a mystical world, on a planet far far away or even in the city of Detroit for urban stories.
Home has a variety of meanings, connotations and experiences. For some people, home is a place of comfort. It is some place seeped in familiarity, kinship and emotion-based memories along with deep roots. On the other hand, for some people they either don't know what it feels like to have a home. Or they have nothing but pain attached to the idea. Before putting things into the world of fantasy or science fiction, you can consider your own experiences with the world.
So what is home? Is it where you live now or where you grew up?
For me: I live in Southern California but I am not from there. I am from Wyoming. Yet, in many ways I have multiple homes. There is still the home in Wyoming, that I got to visit in June during a short vacation. Then there is my dad's place in Utah, which I have lived in after the college years for a short while. It still feels like a version of home when I visit him. And where I live now. Home is where my cats sleep. both sleep either on the little floor mattress with me or near me and that is one element that makes it a home for me. The studio apartment is loud and uncomfortable. Haven't even moved all of my stuff yet. But it has aspects that work.
Then what about our characters?
Home might be the house, country or world they first knew as a youth. It could be the current location, if working with an adult, where they have a bed, a place to cook and someone or something that joins them. Could be something experienced only in memories of a different time and place. Home could even be the cause of conflict in the story. That all depends on the world, the character and the story.
Then again, if you look up fantasy homes most fo the links talk about the physical type of home, also known as the house. For some, that is a little easier because they match closer to what we experience. Urban fantasy will have houses and apartments, depending on the type of city involved and location of characters in that place. Does it have a typical structure, one floor or two? Does it require a realtor or some type of agent to find a house. Is it in a tree? There are some different options for the type of building one calls a house or a home within speculative fiction. What is a home? Try some things out and as you work through things you can figure out the big question for the character...
Where is home?
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What is the main character's home like? Does a character have a particular connection or draw towards home?
Last month, due to June being most places Pride events (except where I live that for some reason has Pride at the beginning of August) I wrote a newsletter that discussed the concepts of sex, gender and identity. Here are some comments sent for that topic:
Comment by Nobody’s Home   :
For anyone who wants to create characters and/or become more comfortable with people who are different from those you have contact with in your daily life, research is a great way to begin building your knowledge base. In addition, I strongly suggest having conversations with and getting to know a few real people in whichever group(s) you want to represent in your writing. This will help you create more realistic characters with more depth, and you might just make some friends along the way.
Comment by NaNoNette  :
You make good points about gender representation in stories. At the same time, I keep reading "doing research" as if fantasy characters or fictional people in general come in pre-formatted ways that we'd better adhere to or else. You might remember that I have dabbled in writing gay and bi human men. One of my dwarf characters in an ensemble piece goes by Doug. Everybody refers to him as a man. Until he gets captured and one of the team goes to visit Doug in prison. It turns out that Doug is housed in the women's prison. Later, when Doug gets released, the team members ask why that was. He says, "The government says I'm a woman. But I like being a man better." The team simply keeps referring to him as they have before: as a man. And that is the last time it's spoken about. Drag Queens and Kings exist, but I prefer to write people the way they might choose to live without the constant need to explain themselves and educate others.
Comment by BIG BAD WOLF is Howling  :
In my Big Fat Pig City Guard, I have made a race of Lizardfolk, who, if they spend too much time in the company of their own gender, have a 50/50 chance of transitioning from one to the other. Likewise, I've also dealt with creatures that have both male and female genitalia, but may express a more masculine or feminine personality. Then there's the female vixen who, due to an intimate encounter with a male fox, who, when both got caught in the act, used a teleportation spell while they were holding on - let's just say that certain body parts got swapped.
Comment by Elle - on hiatus :
I read Static by L A Witt, a fiction book in which there are some humans who can transition physically from male to female and back again. A similar concept to animal shifters, but with human genders. It's an excellent read and I recommend it.
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Fantasy: July 12, 2023 Issue [#12064]
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