 Fantasy: November 20, 2013 Issue [#6006] |
  Fantasy
This week: Magic (and Science) Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.
-Roald Dahl
I don't believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.
-J.K. Rowling
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
-Arthur C. Clarke |
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Magic
Okay, I'm about to get kind of technical here. So skip this editorial if you're just into fantasy for the rainbows and unicorns.
One common element of most fantasy stories is magic, just as the common element of science fiction stories is science. As noted in the Clarke quote above, they might well be one and the same.
But one thing that bugs me, from a technical perspective, about many fantasy (and science fiction) stories is a lack of understanding of certain basic laws of physics; specifically, the conservation of mass/energy.
Now, don't get me wrong - this doesn't usually get in the way of a good story, for me. A good story is a good story. But if you're going to have a magical system (or certain scientific advances), there should be at least a nod to the idea that creating something out of nothing takes a great deal of energy.
I can get past the transporter and warp drive thing in Star Trek, for example, both of which would take unbelievable amounts of energy, because the engines on the Enterprise are stated to be matter/antimatter annihilation engines. There aren't very many ways to get *all* of the energy out of an atom of matter, but slamming it into antimatter is one of them - in theory, anyway; and I'll accept that in the future the theory has turned into reality.
Because matter and energy are really the same thing, as described by Einstein's famous equation that no one ever seems to understand. In order to create a lot of energy, you only need a little bit of matter - if you can achieve a high level of efficiency in its conversion. Conversely, it takes an *awful* lot of energy to create matter.
But imagine a typical magician in a typical fantasy-type world, and imagine she's casting a fireball spell. So, seemingly from nothing, energy appears, equivalent to a few ounces of C-4, only spread out over a certain area.
It's hard for me to suspend disbelief unless I think there's some power source this magician can draw upon.
Oh, sure, I know that's just me. As someone trained in science and engineering, I think about these things. And yeah, I realize you don't need them to tell a good story. Also, as I've noted before, too much explanation gets in the way of a good story.
You get that in science fiction, too, of course. Planet-destroying lasers are incredibly unlikely. Even hand-held lasers, or the phasers in Star Trek, are also unlikely, but if you postulate a power pack with a high energy density, well, okay. Just be consistent with it.
Star Wars' light sabers, sad to say, are also incredibly unlikely. A good blaster at your side, yeah, okay, I can believe that bit.
So just keep that in mind when you're writing. It shouldn't limit you, of course, but do consider where power might come from for all the flashy magic or laser blasts. Some of your readers, at least, will thank you. |
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Last time, in "Son of Backstory" , I continued to discuss worldbuilding from the perspective of how to think about how your created world works.
ENB  : I like your advice about the map making. Once I get a new computer I'm going to purchase Campaign Cartographer 3 which is a software that lets you make maps of towns, worlds, dungeons etc. and you can use your maps for commercial purposes. I mean that's pretty cool!
I've purchased that software. It's very useful for fantasy role-playing; I haven't used it for writing as such, but I expect it's good for that as well. The same company also sells Fractal Terrains, which is useful for generating a random world given certain parameters. And you can even import the world into Google Earth! Supposedly you can take the FT world and use it in CC3, but I haven't been able to get that to work the way I want.
Joshiahis : I guess that makes me a top-down world builder. Doing it the other way sounds like MORE work. Maybe that's because I'm an engineer in real life. Pieces have to fit a certain way, in a certain order, or I start asking questions... I like to produce characters that would fit in a particular community, that was shaped by historical events in the word already made. They have their values drive them toward some goal- which normally turns out to NOT be what I wanted when I started the project.
I'm an engineer as well, which is probably why I focus on the technical aspects of writing - but I acknowledge the need for creativity as well. As I said, all approaches are valid if they work for the writer; I wrote about them mainly to help writers focus on what does work for them.
Mummsy  : I'm awake, I'm awake!!! Remind me to show you my dad's graduate thesis in physics when you're here in December. 
Good; I'm sure I'll need a nap after a six-hour flight.
Acme : Hullo, Mr Waltz. Thank you for this insightful 'worldbuilding' newsletter. It's most timely as Writing Cafe members prepare for NaNo. You make an excellent point about story-worlds revealing themselves gradually, like our world becomes revealed to us over time.
Hope it helped a little! By now, the worldbuilding for NaNo should be well and truly over - except for the editing, of course. 
And that's it for me for November. What's in store for next month? I don't know yet, so we can both be surprised! Until then,
DREAM ON!!! |
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