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Printed from https://writing.com/main/newsletters/action/archives/id/6317-Evolving-Fantasy.html
Fantasy: May 14, 2014 Issue [#6317]

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Fantasy


 This week: Evolving Fantasy
  Edited by: Storm Machine Author IconMail Icon
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Table of Contents

1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions

About This Newsletter

All knowledge is worth having. ~Jacqueline Carey


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Letter from the editor

When you create a world from scratch, you can't neglect the history that went into the world before your story. While no one expects a history as rich as Earth's, there are many examples of places with rich history sewn in.

If an author doesn't specify otherwise, the reader will place information that is consistent with their knowledge and experience. It's a great tool for a writer to employ. But if you're looking to create something different- it needs to come through from the very beginning.

Eric Flint's 1632 and Naomi Novik's Temeraire series each begins with our world with one thing changed. In 1632 an alien race accidentally moved some modern day West Virginians into a part of Germany in 1632, then follows a progression of slightly changed history from this event. The Temeraire series uses dragons as an aerial corps for the armies, beginning with the Napoleonic wars.

A world from scratch needs the same kind of care with creation. Cities and nations exist with their own personalities and their own interests. A map shows where things are, but it won't give a reader the culture. Why is the boundary line there? Why did the alliance between those two cities break apart? Why is that nation always at war with their southern border but not the northern? When the supplies ran out from the western front, who filled in the necessary extras and what did they get from that?

Remember the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey? She had the creation story of Valdemar, and she put it in pieces where it might make sense. She had ideas of different points of history, and within that framework she has over 30 novels and 8 short story collections. The history of Valdemar's beginnings became very important when the empire finally caught up with them. It had been several hundred years, but I guess they know how to hold a grudge.

Political geography also populates Game of Thrones. That historical tapestry started very rich in Westeros. We know about the Targaryens before they set foot on the soil where the other characters. We see them revealed in the way they react and how they work together. Each character has a little (or a lot) different viewpoint and shares their thoughts with the reader. Through those snippets, we glimpse a much wider world.

Get out that physical map. Work on the political history that will tie the people together as well as keep them apart. Politics don't always make sense, but someone has to gain from the antics. The King wants to support his mistress's family, great. But it's going to make someone else mad who loses that lucrative treaty. The Duke wouldn't stick his neck out and suddenly he's out a bunch of money and his citizens might revolt.

It might also show the writer where other things might have gone wrong. Or other things that might yet go wrong - which will set up conflict to make that epic grab a reader and never, ever let go.


Editor's Picks

 Beneath the Catacombs Open in new Window. (13+)
Short non-standard urban Gothic horror in Renaissance Venice-esque setting.
#1991118 by Gregory Maus Author IconMail Icon

 Here Be Dragon Open in new Window. (13+)
So it turns out that dragons are pretty big.
#1967366 by Jonny Hyams Author IconMail Icon

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#1965824 by Not Available.

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Orange Sky Open in new Window. (13+)
A slave races to save his runaway wife before hunters capture her.
#1261943 by Eric the Fred Author IconMail Icon

 Invalid Item Open in new Window.
This item number is not valid.
#1991156 by Not Available.

 With Great Power... Open in new Window. (ASR)
Micro-fiction of a sci-fi style.
#1990764 by Mercutio Author IconMail Icon

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This item number is not valid.
#1991300 by Not Available.

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#1991180 by Not Available.

 
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Ask & Answer

Quick-Quill Author Icon
I agree. I don't swear. I wrote 'He swore and stomped out.' I was told to put the word in. Why? It was a young man I don't need to fill in a swear word. The reader can use what they would use.
What we do in life and what we do in writing are often different things. There is a reason for both. Some might call it author intrusion that you don't use a word that is said by a character. Others might call it shock value that you threw in the actual words. And if you can't please everyone, just write the best story you can in the way that suits you.

The Run-on King PDG Member Author Icon
What an interesting thought. I used cursing in my book more in the line of, "I said a few words my children shouldn't hear." I never came out and used bad words mostly to keep my E rating because my market was the gaming community. It is eight years old and up I have met some 79 year old gamers. I mostly meet the young ones as newbies and my guild used to work with newbies.

I mostly used it for comedy after all what could be more funny then dropping a cinderblock on your foot dancing around yelling obscenities. The good part is you don't have to do an info dump here. You just say exactly what I just wrote. Everyone will fill in the void with their favorite wording for you. My point is how we use this means we let the reader chose for us what means the most to them and we have complete understanding. And the reader knows that the character has flaws and can either like him or hate him depending on the language they envision.
That's another way to do it. Though the book where the characters said "smerdle" as a made-up word that sounded bad will always make me smile, and the above example might not hit me the same way.

Raine Author Icon
Actually Sacre Bleu is short for Sacre Bleu de Cristo or sacred blood of Christ. The English version was God's Blood.
Thank you for correcting that.

BIG BAD WOLF is Merry Author Icon
Alien/other worlds have their own insults. Some come from religious contexts, and others are due to a person's status as a Native or NonNative.
Alien worlds ought to have their own insults. Don't limit yourself to just native status or religions context.

Deafmute Author Icon
 Death Throes Open in new Window. (18+)
Apocolypse monsters, disease,and disasters all merge in what must be the end of days.
#1982544 by Deafmute Author IconMail Icon

This is a novel in progress. I don't know how to break it up so I have all the chapters written so far posted.
Good luck.

THANKFUL SONALI back on Jan 4 Author Icon
Interesting topic -- hadn't thought that the curse-words used reflect the values of the society! Got me thinking. Thank you.
Sweet! Can't wait to see what you come up with.

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