 Fantasy: October 05, 2005 Issue [#648] |
  Fantasy
This week: Edited by: W.D.Wilcox  
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And there was the Amulet of Samarkand. It was small, dull, and made of beaten gold. It hung from a short gold chain. In its center was an oval piece of jade. The gold had been pressed with simple notched designs depicting running steeds. Horses were the prize possessions of the people from central Asia who had made the Amulet three thousand years ago.
--The Amulet of Samarkand, by Johnathan Stroud
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Fantasy Is Not for Sissies
Fantasy writers take a significant amount of crap from Sci-Fi writers for what the Sci-Fi writers perceive as their "fluffy bunny" worldbuilding and their use of magic as an easy out for solving their characters' problems. In fact, however, magic is no more of an easy way out for well-written fantasy than physics is an easy way out for well-written SF. The following are ten rules that will make your use of magic in your fantasy novel rigorous, and will save you from the "fluffy-bunny" label--and will, at the same time, make your story better, more entertaining, and more exciting.
1. Nothing comes from nothing.
Also known as There Ain't No Free Lunch. Your magic must come from something, must be caused by something. You must have a reason why your world has magic. You don't have to state your reason, but you have to know it.
2a. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
When your characters start using magic, they must be made to pay for it in some way. If it is effortless, it isn't real, and no one will believe your story. If your hero does good magic, the use of this magic will have a detrimental effect somewhere. Conversely, your villain's magic will have good fallout somewhere.
2b. Actions have consequences.
This rule is the storyteller's best friend--in Fantasy, in Sci-Fi, in mainstream ... anywhere. Follow the effects of your characters' actions (from rule 2a) to their logical conclusion. When you make your characters pay the price for their actions, when you make them responsible, you have made them real. Give much thought to how the good and the bad of what they do affect them, and write this. The most obdurate magical stone wall created by the mightiest evil wizard had better have a crack in it that a determined, intelligent hero can find with effort.
4. It ain't that easy.
The glorious hero had better not be able to find it by picking up a convenient book and, without having any prior magical training, reading the spell that will bring the wall tumbling down.
If he does find a convenient book, reading it should backfire on him, leaving him in a worse situation than he was in before. I know it sounds cruel, but by God, that’s the stuff heros are made of.
5. You only get one 'gimme' so don't waste it.
In a world with magic, magic is your 'gimme' - the one thing about which your reader will unquestioningly suspend disbelief ... so if you really want to tell a story that uses faster-than-light spaceships, you need to drop the magic.
6. In a world with magic, magic will touch everything.
Do not lock your magicians in ivory towers and leave them alone up there with their dusty tomes and arcane paraphernalia. In a world where magic works, and works well, you'll see folks employing it in controlling traffic, running their septic tanks, baking bread, hunting and fishing, and anything else you can imagine.
7. Sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from science.
If your magicians have been working successfully for more than a few years, they will have surely developed things similar to the steam engine, the telephone, the television, the radio, the electric iron and the toaster, the automobile, computers, the electric guitar, and the flush commode. They should not still be messing around with turning straw into gold. They probably won't wear goofy pointed hats, either, though of course they can if you insist.
8. Magic is NOT your story. People are your story.
There really isn't much else to say about this. Just remember that, no matter how cool your technology, it will be boring to read about unless it is background for a character your readers can care about who has a problem that engages their interest.
9. If your hero creates a 'golly-gee save-the-day gimmick' to solve his final problem at the end of your story, IT HAD BETTER NOT WORK!
Never, ever, give your hero an easy way out. He needs to solve his problem with his courage and integrity and compassion and native intelligence, not with a magical fix-it that arrives out of nowhere for no reason other than that you got him into a jam you can't figure out how to get him out of.
10. Every rule has its exception, but before you decide to be the exception, you need to spend some time using the rule.
Break 'em all if you want - but don't break 'em all in the same story, know which rule you're breaking when, and only break a rule because you have a damned good reason to.
11. All other rules for writing every other type of fiction also apply.
ALL of them. And this is the exception to rule ten. There's no exception. And I said ten rules and gave you eleven. Darn, I broke the rules!
Even in a book about magic, you still have to have an environment that could really work. Pay attention to the demands of plot, characterization, grammar, and spelling. Remember to tell a good story. Make sure that when you're telling it, it is about something. Know what your theme is. And finally, have fun while you're doing it.
Until next time,
billwilcox
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FANTASTIC PICKS
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#1010810 by Not Available. |
 [Excerpt] Inside a corked bottle, the tiny fairy cowered, every part of her five inch frame quaking. The light of the single candle shimmered across her iridescent wings. Her dragonfly wings, normally extended out to catch a breeze, were pulled tight along her back. She huddled against the far side of the glass, arms clutching herself.
[Excerpt] It seemed each day of his reign was marked by at least one public execution, and these were not simple hangings or beheadings. Victims were bled to death, burned and disemboweled, sometimes a combination of two or three tortures.
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#1011725 by Not Available. |
[Excerpt] The warrior dismounted, and turned to face the growing specter. He held the magnificent sword before him, and strode purposefully forward, as if to do battle. An explosion heralded the specter’s transition to solidity, releasing a ring of black dread.
[Excerpt] "What are these creatures?"
"They are not creatures. Not natural ones anyway."
"What are you!" Sir Lyman shouted, waving a challenge at the empty woods with his sword. "Come out and face me!"
[Excerpt] “Did you know you had a bear in your woods?” she demanded. From around the corner of the house came an enormous bearded man in mail and a horned helmet. He was carrying a slim form in black leather, its head lolling against the giant’s chest. Through its fine blonde hair an ear-point peeked out: an elf. Behind the warrior came a short, squat individual with a braided beard, a bloody battle-axe slung across his shoulder.
[Excerpt] Theodore watched the boy from behind the leg of a very large stuffed bear. He heard him crying. Cautiously, he crept toward the bed to get a closer look. Theodore knew what it was like to be lonely. He knew how terrible it could be and how the feeling could sometimes make you cry. He felt sorry for the child. He quickly jumped onto the bed next to Billy and studied him intently for a moment.
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