 Fantasy: December 23, 2009 Issue [#3455] |
  Fantasy
This week: Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.
-Carl Reiner
Getting an inch of snow is like winning 10 cents in the lottery.
-Bill Watterson
The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?
-J.B. Priestley
So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending.
-J.R.R. Tolkien |
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I'll be honest: I hate snow.
That is to say, being an adult who actually has to go somewhere besides home to make a living, snow no longer holds the enchantment for me that it used to, or that it does for kids who get to stay home from school. I suppose I should be grateful that I don't have kids that have to stay home from school and track wet slush through the house, or throw snowballs at me, or do what Calvin did to his parents with the snowmen . And I am. That mitigates my animosity toward snow a bit.
As a writer, though, I try to follow the adage that nothing happens that I can't turn into writing. With snow, this usually involves whining about it in my blog, or writing cynical poems that highlight all of snow's negative aspects.
But this is the Fantasy newsletter, not the Comedy newsletter or, gods forbid, my blog. So let's see how we can turn the horrid frozen stuff into something to write about.
Obviously, snow features heavily in winter holiday writing - which is, after all, often a form of fantasy. Consider those well-loved Christmas stories, such as Rudolph and Frosty and the rest: Most of them feature many of the same elements as fantasy stories, including magic, miracles and even elves. And all of them feature snow.
Unless you live in Siberia (not that there's anything wrong with that), snow isn't an everyday occurrence. It's rare - in some places, rarer than others. And what's rare is often perceived as magical: comets, eclipses, the government doing something that makes sense, and snow. Magic is, of course, at the heart of fantasy. (And sometimes magic is evil).
Not in a holiday mood? Of course, snow can add a wintry feel to any fantasy - or science fiction, for that matter. It can be joyous or, as my cynical nature prefers, a hazard to be overcome for your characters (I can still see Legolas walking on top of the snow in the Lord of the Rings movie. I wanted to shout, "Your tauntaun will freeze!") And then there's Narnia, a world in perpetual snow until it's rescued.
Then again, going even farther - what if snow is different, somehow? Green, perhaps? Or hey, maybe it's not made of frozen water, but some exotic substance, in your world or dimension?
What if it snows blood?
Anyway, something to think about while you're writing this winter.
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Let it snow... 
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Last month, I discussed adding music to one's fantasy stories.
Brandiwyn🎶  : Brust is a musician?!?! 
Did I ever show this to you? To truly appreciate it, you have to listen to Debussy while you read ("Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" is the name of the piece.)
"The Patron Staff" [ASR]
Hope you don't mind that I shared this with thousands of readers  And technically, Brust is a drummer. What do you call a guy who hangs out with musicians? A drummer. *rimshot*
billwilcox: Very cool newsletter Robert, I am a musician and almost always forget to use music in my tales. This was a good wakeup call.
It's not always easy to do; one listens to music, not reads about it. But when done right, it can add harmony to a story.
LJPC - the tortoise  : Hi Robert!
I'm a musician from a family of musicians who married a musician and yet, there's not a note or an arpeggio to be found in my writing.
This is a good point and I'll try to write more musically inspired prose in the future.
Laura
I'm sure it will bring your career to a crescendo.
Brian : Hey there...
I just thought I'd say that I liked the piece about adding music into your writing. Not only do writers miss music, but all manner of sounds. Sound can add a certain dynamic to your writing and put another of your senses to work.
I have a tip. This is something very difficult to achieve, but it is possible. You can add elements of Neuro Linguistic Programming to your writing, with a possibility of making all the senses work together to weave your story and make it more real. Not everyone is visually inclined, so it may be beneficial to the writer to add a different element to their writing in order to catch readers who are, for instance, more perceptive to smells, or sounds.
-Brian
Sharp observation! I don't know much about NLP, but I do know that including other sensory information besides sight to a story can often make a measure of difference between good writing and great writing. If it's included in a natural way, that is - it's also possible to make it sound forced, and possibly fall flat. You have to go with the rhythm.
On that note, that's it for me for this decade... but I'll be back in the next one! Until then, Happy New Year and, as always...
DREAM ON!!! |
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