More on Fantasy vs. Literary Fiction

"Rock me mama like a wagon wheel, rock me mama any way you feel..."-Old Crow Medicine Show, Wagon Wheel

Alright, it's Friday, I'm exhausted, and I'm thus cheating on my blog post today. The folks over at Tor.com posted a great one about fantasy versus magical realism, and it wanders all over the sticky question of what exactly constitutes a genre and whether they matter or not.

In the honor of the character whose costume I'll be wearing tonight (and bonus points for guessing his name), lemme sum up: genres matter more to critics than to readers, because critics need a set of criteria by which to judge whether something is good. Different novels in different genres have different goals, and since whether they are good or not depends upon whether they achieve those goals, the critic must lump every work into a genre in order to figure out what its goals are.

The reader doesn't have to do the same, and is oftentimes most attracted to things which defy the genre constrictions laid out by critics. Writers can write whatever the hell they want, as they're the ones who actually decide what they want to accomplish with their work.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a nap to take and a six-fingered man to find.

Happy Halloween!

The Golden Compass and the Childlike Voice

"G-l-a-m-o-r-ous, yeah..."-Fergie, Glamorous

I've finally had some extra time this week to read more of The Golden Compass (by Philip Pullman, for those who don't know) and as I continue through the book I'm struck more and more by Lyra's narrative voice. The thing I find coolest about the book is how it deals with a very adult situation completely through the point of view of a child, but I've also noticed how it can pull off some pretty iffy narration simply because it comes through Lyra's voice.

That voice is a very cute, folksy British accent. She speaks with the simplicity of a child, and Pullman pulls out (ha!) the very cutest of British turns of phrase when she's at her most simple. The combination of those two things allows me, at least, to forgive him even when the prose isn't exactly written stellarly (if that's not a word, it should be. Let it be so!), because on one level the form echoes the content (childlike narrator begets childlike prose), and on another I get so distracted by the British that I'm willing to gloss over my occasional disbelief of the actions of some characters.

I don't want to imply that writing in a childlike voice is easy, but it might be something to try if your readers are having trouble forgiving you your mistakes. A cheap cop-out on one level, perhaps, but I prefer to think of it as another tool for the beginning writer to play with.

Pilfered Marketing Post

"I'm not a coward I've just never been tested---I'd like to think that if I was I'd pass."
-The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Impression That I Get

So agent/super-blogger Nathan Bradsford had a bunch of great guest posts on his blog last week, and I'm going to link to one of them because it was just that good. It's a post about marketing/pr written by an author who also runs a book marketing firm. Given that, you have to take her words with a grain of salt, but the statistics she has are very interesting, and her opinion reinforces mine (that advance money is better spent when invested in the success of your book than on a new washer/dryer unit) so I felt obligated to link her.

...in other news, I got my novel approved as my creative writing thesis yesterday. Should be in for a very productive semester this spring. Hazah!

The Rules I've Just Made Up

"Show me what it's like to dream in black and white..."-Breaking Benjamin, Unknown Soldier

So as I sat in my chemistry lecture today learning about bits and pieces of atomic theory and whatnot and basically learning all the strange idiosyncrasies of the way our world works it got me thinking about magical systems and the way fantasy worlds work.

The conclusion I eventually came to is that the decisions you make can be as arbitrary as you like, as long as their consequences are thought out and followed to their conclusions. The example I drew from chemistry is the way in which the random motion of electrons eventually leads to the polarization of molecules and the alignment of certain substances in electric and magnetic fields. In short, order forms out of chaos. Cool stuff, and certainly the fodder of magic and science fiction. Yet scientists buy into it because the mechanisms that explain it (which I won't try to go into here) are very logical and step-by-step.

Fantasy readers, at least the ones who care about the worlds behind the stories (which is a lot of them, I think), function the same way, so take heed: if you can get a scientist to buy it, you can get a reader to buy it.

And now, for the fun portion of the program, we consider how the above revelation reminded me of this lego re-enactment of a sketch by the inimitable Eddie Izzard:



You can thank me for finding a way to post an Eddie Izzard video later. In the meantime, I intend to gather together all the characters living in my world, explain how magic works to them, and say, "Those are the rules that I've just made up--and I'm backing them up with this delete key..."

Delta Philosophy

"Warm yourself by the fire son, and the morning will come soon..."
-Rise Against, Prayer of the Refugee

Apologies for the blog title, but I'm a.) studying for a chemistry exam and b.) feeling a bit whimsical today.

Anyways, I feel a bit obligated to square with you guys on a recent change in my philosophy re: writing. When I began this blog it was with the intent of using it to further my career as a writer, to help build a platform that would be make me more attractive to potential agents. This was at a time in my life when my writing was literally dominating who I was. Every choice I made was made with the goal of getting published in mind.

Over time, I found I was unable to maintain that pace. It slowly but surely drove all the fun and sense of accomplishment out of writing for me. There was no time to ponder how much better I was getting, and given the amount of work I was putting it it felt like an inevitability that I was going to succeed sooner or later--not because what I was writing was any good, but simply because I was going about it in a very calculated and determined manner.

So I've given up on working like a madman and have decided to work at a more sustainable pace--one which I enjoy. What this will mean for my career I'll find out later. I think it will simply postpone its start, as I'll have to frontload a lot of the work that needs to be done before beginning the publishing process (I'm considering, for instance, finishing my entire fantasy trilogy before submitting the first for publishing in order to avoid having to rush through writing the second and the third to get them out on time), but we'll see.

In the meantime, stories of fantasy remain one of my greatest interests and every day brings me closer to a career in the book industry, so I can promise that the blog should stay relevant and interesting, but I felt the need to square with you the reader about where I stand now as a writer.

More Fruits of Research

"Just live your life (hey)"--T.I. Feat. Rhianna, Live Your Life

Alright, first off, apologies for my epic fail on promising to post the most interesting lines I've written each Monday. I finished up writing some more background for my world last week, but I realized that it wouldn't have meant anything to anyone who didn't have some familiarity with Guedin already. I still like the idea of posting some of my writing each week to give you guys an idea of what I'm working on, but I'm not entirely sure how to implement it yet. I'll keep working on it though.

That said, I present on my summer research on Friday! Yay! Or gulp. Whichever you prefer. Either way, it means I'm going through my data more thoroughly than I have yet, and I've discovered a lovely little trick:

Don't name your main character until we know something about him/her.

In all three texts I looked at, the main character was described first (one way or another, even in the anime and videogame), and named later. Upon realizing this, I looked back at my own writing, and realized it was pretty applicable there. Observe the first sentence of my novel (slated to be rewritten anyway, but you'll still get the point of it):

"In the ancient human metropolis of Eldan City, Litnig Jinn was dreaming."

Now, rewritten:

"In the ancient human metropolis of Eldan City, a young man was dreaming."

Which would you rather read?

Booyakasha!

Stories

"Throw your diamonds in the sky if you feel my vibe..."
Kanye West, Diamonds from Sierra Leone

I just finished watching Blood Diamond, so you'll have to forgive me while I get on my soapbox for a moment. Not about what you might expect, about Africa and all the horrors that take place there while the western world sits idle, this blog isn't the place for that, but about stories...where we find them, and what we do with them.

Watching that movie made me realize two things. The first was just how many worlds there are within the world we live in, how many stories there are that take place every day in places we have never imagined, under rules we don't understand, and just how moving those stories can be. It made me realize, as a writer, that despite my best efforts I am still very confined in the stories I tell and the source materials I draw from. Whoever said that every story has already been written is a liar--there are permutations of permutations we have never imagined, but it's on us to remember to look for them in places we too often forget about.

The other thing that movie did a great job of for me was putting me as the viewer in a situation that was utterly alien to me and making me realize that it was far from far-fetched.

I think that lends a great deal of validity to what we do in "imaginative literature" (as I've heard sci-fi/fantasy called before). There's a theory of writing that says you should write what you know, describe your own world as clearly as possible so that others can get a glimpse of it. I think there's a great deal to be said for that, but as much or more to be said for writing stories that make readers realize their world is not the only one possible, and invite them to ask what they would do if the rules of their world suddenly changed--how they might act in a new one where the rules were completely different.

Not a great deal that's earth-shattering in either of these realizations, I suppose, but they're things I hadn't considered in awhile, at least, and I thought they were worth sharing.

Last Week's Best Lines

"You're hot then you're cold, you're yes then you're no..."
-Katy Perry, Hot N Cold

Ok, so I know I promised to do this on Friday, but a.) I was incredibly busy Friday, and b.) I like the idea of doing it on Mondays better anyway, because it gives me the weekend to write something if I haven't already.

So without further ado, the most interesting lines I wrote last week. They're a haiku--which you'll probably see a lot of, especially until I finish the background work on my novel and start revising the thing itself:

Your hairtie sits still,
white on the white of my fridge
while the trees turn gold.

Hope it's enjoyable, 'cuz, y'know, it's fall, and the trees are turning.

Book Trailers

"Is it too much to ask for the things to work out this time?"
--Blink 182, Lemmings

I've been seeing some book trailers making the rounds on various blogs lately, and I have to say I'm a bit underwhelmed. They're good, but not nearly what they could be. They tend to essentially be slideshows--pretty, evocative pictures in the background with music for atmosphere and rhetorical questions posed by text that "explodes" towards the screen (I'm not sure what exactly the effect is called, but it's everywhere).

They're not that bad, and a couple of them have even made me interested, but they're lacking one very important thing: voices. I understand the difficulties involved in getting good voiceover talent, let alone recording it, but I think that voices are key to building excitement. When you hear someone else talking about the end of the world, it's just a bit more real than if you see a picture of it with some text explaining it.

Something I'll be playing around with whenever I become involved with book trailers, either as a publishing professional or an author, and something I think that authors (whom I believe are the ones commissioning these trailers, to their credit) should keep in mind.

Switch-Hitting

"Oh hot damn, this is my jam..."--Flo-Rida, This Is My Jam

Gave a presentation this week on a poet named Chris Abani who also writes prose. And when I say "also writes" I mean "started out writing" and "writes concurrently with poetry" as well. He was a great find for me, because I got to talk about character development and plot arcs in a poetry class (yay!), and also because it opened my eyes to a dichotomy you often find in creative writing circles that isn't necessarily true.

Said dichotomy is the "fiction/poetry" dichotomy. For instance, creative writing classes at my school are divided into "Fiction" or "Poetry", and one must take so many of both types before one can graduate with one's slightly useful degree and hope to parlay it into a job doing more than flipping burgers.

But since when was poetry inherently not fictive? Was the person writing these definitions unaware of the countless lying poets throughout literary history? Sure, there's plenty of personal poetry, but I think Shakespeare and Homer count as well, just to name a few.

So, interesting thought for this Tuesday afternoon--why not switch-hit? Why not write poetry with plot arcs and developed characters? You might just learn something, and at the very least you ought to get some very different sounding poetry. It's something I intend to give a shot--just as soon as I've written the history for my damned Duennin...and the Tinkers...and the Necromantic Isle...

Oh well, maybe you should try it first and let me know how it goes, but I'll get to it someday, I swear!

And in other news, I've decided to start posting the most interesting three lines I've written in any given week on Fridays---be they poetry, prose, or even essay (though don't worry, that's an unlikely event). Stay tuned!

Quote of the Week!

"When I arrive, I'll bring the fire..."-Kevin Rudolf, Let It Rock

Quote of the week this week comes from the Tor.com blog: "One of the things that reliably distinguishes it from other genres is that in SF the world is a character. In fiction generally, characters have to change during the story...SF is the literature of changing the world."

Booyah! I think this is pretty spot on, and an easy aspect of Sci-Fi/Fantasy to ignore, especially when writing. SF/F worlds are characters, at least ideally. They have internal struggles, they generally have something to say about what is taking place upon them, and they shape the narrative moreso than perhaps anything else. That's worth remembering, and it's important to develop the world in tandem with the characters in it and the story you want to tell. None can really exist independently of the others, and to try to get there is asking for trouble.

But I really took to this quote because of its last sentence, which is what I think lends SF/F its value in the world. Changing the world really is one of the few unifying themes that runs through almost all the SF/F I've read. Even when characters fail to change the world, or don't think to try to change the world, there's usually an implicit criticism of the world in which the characters are living that leads the reader to question why that world is the way it is. And in my eyes, that sort of behavior should always be encouraged. If an SF/F story does nothing other than give someone practice in questioning the way a world works, it has performed a valuable social service.

Omg Zombies!

"I'm in love with a girl who loves me better, fell for the woman just when I met her..."--Gavin DeGraw, In Love with a Girl

First of all, apologies for not posting more often this week. It's been a bit hectic for me, and what time I've had I spent writing (yay! Take that, elvish history!) rather than writing about writing. I hope you can forgive me.

But I also spent a good deal of time this week participating in a campus-wide game called Humans versus Zombies. It's more or less what it sounds like--people sign up to play, one of them is chosen to be a zombie, and when that or any future zombie tags a human the human becomes a zombie. Humans get to defend themselves with nerf guns and balled up socks (which stun the zombies for 15 minutes at a time) and zombies starve if they go 48 hours without "feeding" on a human. The game ends when there are either no humans or zombies left.

My time as a human was embarrassingly short-lived thanks to being friends with the wrong sort of people (darn zombies), so I didn't get the "running, hiding, and fighting for my life" experience I was hoping for, but I did have a great experience as a zombie that I think will work its way into my writing.

I was leaving a classroom building the day after being tagged and spotted a small freshman girl wearing the telltale armband of a human. I saw her, she saw me, and we both froze. She brandished her nerf gun, and I shifted my weight uneasily from foot to foot, judging the distance between us and wondering if I could get her before she got me. I could dodge one shot, maybe...but could my feet make up the gap before she got off a second? I wasn't sure.

Then I looked behind me and noticed two other zombies. No words were necessary. Our eyes met, and when I looked back hers were as big as dinner plates. A split-second later, she turned and ran.

At that point, it was all over, and all National Geographic. Three fairly big, fast, athletic guys chasing after one small, terrified girl. It was like wolves on the trail of a rabbit, and it was a bizarre experience. The funny thing was, if she had stood her ground she still probably could have fought the three of us off--especially if she'd had some socks to throw in addition to her nerf gun (which I learned today that she did).

It was an interesting lesson in that I saw for myself that people under stress don't always make the decisions that will give them the best chance for survival and the consequences of that fact--and I saw it from the perspective of the predator. I knew, the second she turned, that it was over. My villains in the future will have a much better idea of when it's all over themselves.

Moral of the story? Play silly games. You never know what you'll learn...

Muahahaha!