Are You Writing Serious Fantasy?

[littlemanpoet]

Nar:

the best material in Pullman is the less didactic material where he just follows the story and characters and invents like wild.

Well said.

I see a lot of classic mistakes, that occur almost identically across very different religions-- there are similar traps that new believers fall into, similar traps that fervent believers fall into, they can all recognize the phenomenon in rival religions but it's a rare insight to recognize the same trap in your own faith.

Very, very well said. I agree!

Lila: I have nothing useful to add to Naaramare's and Nar's good advice.

Hmmm - name for a Paladin? I'd suggest something that evokes goodness or law or courtesy or honor or all four characteristics. Sir Justiciar? Sir Judical? Sir Goodlaw? Sir Formical? I'm sure you'll think of something better....


Saxony Tarn:

"My faith predisposes me to believe in magic" (says Kameron Schiller, leader of the band, in an interview somewhere in the book) "and my magic draws its strength from my beliefs. So when I see my best friend gleefully singing away to the eight-headed monster that he can't see perched over the drum kit but I clearly can, you'll understand why I get just a little bit nervous..."

|_|) <-- but as long as he's drunk, he can convince the beast that it's a figment of his imagination, and it leaves him alone. When he sobers up and it's still there, then he has to deal with it. "Ady, buddy, pal, comrade, about this new lyric of yours -- we need to talk..."

Ack! Wild! I love it.

Thanks for the link! I'll be into it first chance I get, being fair to all my other time commitments...

Naaramare: Hoping for the distinctions between magic and magick. I can guess, but you got me curious.

the magick of faith can be either a help or a hinderance, even to the character's own side. If, for example, you have an elven mage trying to do a shielding spell and you have the athiestic Secondary Female sitting there not believing in any kind of magic at all, her faith in the non-existance of magic or magick can become so intense that the power and effects of it can seriously mess up the mage's spell....This, at one point, leads the athiest to being turned spontaneously into a frog so the elven mage can concentrate,

Fulfilling Gandalf's promise to Sam, eh? By the way, I have imagined this kind of impingement of beliefs on each other, and used to wonder if it does not work something like that in the real world? These days I'm more of a skeptic in terms of what can really happen in our world. For example, "Okay, was that actually God speaking in my mind or was that just some authoritative part of me that purported to be God? And does it matter which one it was?
And by the way, which God?"

And thanks for the explication on HDM. Yes, the mixed black and white in a character is too difficult for some, is it not? My wife hates that kind but I think it's the most interesting, and very much what I write.

I spend a lot of time (probably too much!) thinking about [religion] in relation to fantasy stories and my own life.

I used to, too but I found that such a pondersome and cumbersome amount of internal navelgazing was putting me into a part of purgatory way to grim to spend sunny days in. All that emotional angst about theology - ugh.

Anna Lucimo: (and Naaramare on related post above): The power of belief. There's an interesting topic. I've pondered writing about it myself; in fact, I did. It was in revision 2 or 3 of my current magnum opus, but the whole thing got so rewritten that that part of it did not survive the cuts. I'm glad someone's writing about it.

on character- vs. plot-driven narrative: This has been handled more than adequately by ST and Nar, but I just have to add my three cents (inflation, you know): I think a balance of the two is best. As ST has said, all character and little plot makes for a yawner (I've written such and boy did my readers protest). On the other hand, all plot and little character makes for something hard to relate to. Make your character someone your reader can relate to as quick as possible so that the reader cares about what happens to herim (hey! how's that for a 3rd person gender inclusive pronoun in this doggone English language of ours! or 'herhim' or 'hrim'?)

Eol: Interregnum looks quite interesting. Your experience in the publishing in the market may be helpful to the rest of us. You say you were glad to have been rejected. Sounds like you had a sympathetic publishing rep. who gave good advice. No? Yes? What was the advice? Hope to see more posts from you.

phew. Think I've caught up on it all.

No takers on the poem thing? I can understand not wanting to post here what you intend to publish some day. But what kind do you do? Free verse? Formal? What works best in fantasy in general and/or yours?

Tolkien, for example, always, always stuck to some form with a consistent rhyme and rhythm scheme. In fact, the Earendil piece Bilbo wrote is apparently one of the most challenging and ambitious pieces ever attempted. And Tolkien wrote at least two versions of it! (check to Tolkien Reader for the earlier version)

[ July 13, 2002: Message edited by: littlemanpoet ]