Romance in Fantasy: How Much is Too Much? (ConCarolinas 2014 Writing Panel Notes)

Hey everyone! So I'm back with more notes. Emerald City Comic-Con was amazing, and I can't wait to share the notes I brought back from that trip. But, owing to my less than spectacular summer and fall, I still have everything I learned at last year's ConCarolinas! So, with that in mind, let's have a gander at the first topic ...

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Romance in Fantasy – How Much is Too Much?

Chris A. Jackson, James R. Tuck, Tamsin L. Silver, C.L. Wilson, Susan H. Roddey, Marcia Colette, Alexandra Christian, Crymsyn Hart

Moderator: Janine Spendlove

So, How Much is Too Much (if you’re writing a straight up fantasy novel)?
JT: Love between two people is what makes this whole world happen. If you don’t have love, if your character doesn’t have a connection with another character, then the story doesn’t feel right. Even platonic love.
CJ: RPG fiction is steering away from it, and the fiction suffers.

Romance writers – do you set out to write a romance novel, or does it just happen?
AC: It just happens. She never set out to write a romance novel. Always about the story first. And the stories always seem to have a relationship in them. That’s the kind of story she wants to tell. She writes the story she sets out to read. The interaction between the characters is the part she likes best.
SR: It’s not about writing a romance novel, it’s about writing a story. If the romance happens, that’s how the story was going to naturally progress.
MC: One thing she likes most about the characters is the whole journey. When they set out, you don’t see something happening, then there’s always this sexual tension that builds. She goes with the tension, even if it doesn’t explode until page 200.
Audience comment: The hero becomes worthy of the relationship, worthy of the heroine falling in love with.
AC: It’s okay for her to save him on occasion.
JT: It’s happening in the Deacon Chalk series. Made a conscious decision to write a character that’s completely broken. A girl he meets is the one who saves him.
CL: Sets out to write romance in every single book. Both the fantasy and the romance elements are equally important to the storyline. The woman has to earn her happy ending as well. Both have personal emotional and external issues that together they overcome and they cement a solid lasting relationship. There’s always an external plot but the romance plot drives the action forward and ideally contributes to resolving the external problems as well.

Without Naming Specific Stories, What Are Pet Peeves of Yours?
JS: That rescuing the princess is presented as a reward. It promotes an undercurrent of misogyny.
SR: Finding a book that has so much promise and looks interesting but then the story can’t decide where it wants to go, and you lose sight of the world or the romance because it can’t make up its mind. Especially a romance novels with fantasy elements.
AC: Men with boobs. Loves to read urban fantasy with a good romance. But she’s sick of the urban fantasy stereotype that she has to either be a whiny waif, or a bitchy tomboy who would basically be a guy but has a female name.
JT: Women are strong. They’re vessels of life. If men had babies there would be no people in the world. So the trope of superstrong feminine characters in fantasy doesn’t need to happen. Women are strong enough already. They are stronger in different ways.
JS: Women in the army bring diverse things to the table.
CJ: The idea that the character is incomplete without a relationship. You are a human being without a relationship. A relationship is something else. The relationship doesn’t complete you.
JT: Hates the fated love, “we have to be together”. Likes it when they have to choose, they have to earn it. Not love at first sight. If love at first sight happens it should fuck up their lives completely.
MC: Using the love triangle as the main source of conflict. If you can’t come up with a better storyline than that, just don’t write the book.
JS: Man-Made-Boy made it work out, but that’s an exception.
Audience comment: When they’re in the midst of danger and they stop for a sex scene. Or there’s so much sex in the book that they don’t manage to accomplish anything.
AC: Erotica and erotic romance is not pornography. Pornography is about the sex. Erotica and erotic romance is about the story. More artistic. About the relationship.
CW: In romance, the relationship helps them grow. In erotica, the sex is the catalyst for change.

What about inter-species romance? (E.g. humans and dragons)
CJ: The idea that non-humans are people isn’t much explored, and he enjoyed bursting that bubble.
JS: Falling in love in interspecies isn’t hard, but how do you tackle intimacy?
CJ: Magic to help make it work.
SR: The problem is whether or not they can classify it as bestiality if you have a human having sex with an animal or similar creature, an act that is illegal in most states in the US. Is it illegal for a human to have a relationship with the animal when the animal is not in human form?
Audience: If Amazon finds out a shapeshifter has sex with a human in their non-human form they can pull it.

Audience question/comment: Unhappy with the trope of “when a woman is raped but they fall in love with their rapist and that (somehow) makes it okay”.
JT: That story happens more than we’d like it to.
JS: We’re becoming more culturally aware of that. That’s what matters.
CJ: Know your market, know your readers.
SR: If the relationship is the product of the environment in which you set your story, that may justify it more. Technically, what we do today would be considered different or obscene in a different world, no matter how bad.

Audience question: What about falling out of love?
JS: Not fun to write, but it’s interesting and fascinating to understand why those two people are no longer together. Every relationship you ever have is a failed relationship until your last one.
CW: Tries to appeal to romance, so often it’s the villain causing the split, but eventually strives for a happy ending.
JT: When you step out of genre you can do a really good job of it. E.g. the movie Closer.

When writing so many intimate scenes, how do you keep it fresh?
CH: Has a tendency to go way outside the box, dives into space yetis and shapeshifting aliens and bigfoots.
CJ: Writing an intimate scene that isn’t physically possible is just as hard as writing a fight scene like that.
MC: When the toys are in the room. Puts people in different places, different situations, keep it fresh.
TS: Also, keeping it fun. When working on it, characters became friends and to keep it interesting but keep the lighthearted playfulness helps.
CW: It isn’t about the sex. It’s about the emotional state of the hero and heroine at that moment. There is more happening
JT: When you write a sex scene, you have to ask yourself what the point is. Why? The purpose and the feel has to have meaning of some sort to be relevant to the story.
CJ: Not so much about self gratification as it is about enjoying the other person’s gratification.
ST: If writing a book with explicit sex and lots of scenes, you don’t have to write out every single act. It’s okay to fade to black, move onto something different see what you want to see.

Note: after that last question, the authors all emphasized an important fact:

“THIS IS NOT THE SEX PANEL!” 

Check back Friday for that.

Roaring Gap Writer's Retreat

Today I can be found at Magical Words, where I and my partners-in-crime share our experiences with our very first writers' retreat. Come check it out!

Technology vs. Magic (ConCarolinas 2013 Writing Panel Notes)

Here we are, back with more notes from ConCarolinas 2013! Please enjoy this discussion on technology and magic, how they conflict, and even more interesting, how they can work together.

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Technology vs. Magic

Susan Roddey, Allen Wold, James R. Tuck, Edward McKeown

Moderator: Faith Hunter

FH: Technology vs. Magic? More like Technology and Magic. In today’s market, you can’t eliminate one or another; there needs to be an appreciation of both. Thoughts?

EM: Science fiction: Tries not to break a law of physics you and I might be familiar with, unless there’s a really good reason, except for Faster Than Light which is a given. The audience can bail if what you're trying to do is too much of a stretch. It interferes with the emotional connection with the character, which is why we’re reading the story anyway.


FH: Sometimes we want our magical systems to work in today’s world. How do you do that?

SR: Leans towards mythology, gods and monsters. Not a technical person, so deals with the magical/mythological, gives her more breathing room when being told she can or can’t do a thing – dealing with gods and goddesses makes it easier.

JT: Actual magic is based on ritual. You need do do the ritual to build the energy to make it work. Magical items are like batteries to power spells, but they can run out of energy. Magic is the 5th law of physics, doesn’t obsess over that.

FH: Her character Jane Yellowrock needs to mind the mass in the shifting, because mass matters – addresses that for believability.


FH: Do you have any rules of thumb, Allen?

AW: Internal consistency. Also, if something can be explained, then it’s not magic, it’s technology. Be internally consistent. If you have explanations, you need to found your explanations on something believable. Don’t violate your own consistency.


FH: In this changing world of physics: Where do you research? What do you do to make it internally consistent?

EM: He won’t enslave science to dramatic purpose; that’s cheating and undercuts the science fiction, which is sloppy and a disservice to the reader.

JT: Would have just manipulated the time-space continuum: Research is to jog his memory. He’s done research as pleasure reading; now it’s just looking up what he’d read before to confirm details.

SR: Same as JT; she uses mythology from around world, and fits which mythology works best without bending the rules too much. It's easier to work with the original story. She twists it with her imagination to make her present fit that past.

AW: You have to do research because you don’t want to put out incorrect details. Reads a lot of science, and does research when he realizes he doesn’t have the answer. But if it’s something nobody knows (eg string theory) no one can prove him wrong.

FH: Making sure our work satisfies the reader is the most important. We’re in a commercial business and we want to sell books, not have someone throw the book across the room. How far do you go with your science, and how often do you draw back off the science? E.g. doesn’t start discussing the minute details of Jane’s shapeshifting. What Don’t you put in the books in order to show your research?

AW: Don’t include the research, include the results of the research.

JT: If main character doesn’t know it, we don’t know it either.

SR: Best example: sword and sorcery, magic, - in 8500 words, created 40 pgs of research. None of her history or backstory is ever seen. The magic/tech is only used if needed, but she lets research keep her organized.

EM: First thing he wants to know is “what’s impossible?” Wants to know why things are occurring. Sets a limit on the magic. It has to be diffiuclt to use or everyone would use it for every single thing

AW: What the character doesn’t know, the reader doesn’t have to know, either. Real magic, there are no explanation. D&D magic, that’s just physics by another name.


FH: How do you look at your own writing? What research elements do you need? Talk about your own magical systems.  What laws of physics do you adhere to and what don’t you?

SR: Lucky’s Game: ancient mythology, aspects of a culture that is dead to us except what we have written down; works on the assumption that people had these abilities but have lost the knowledge of what to do. Male character is descended from magic; Main Character (female) is human and knows none of this.

JT: Deacon Chalk books – Deacon has only the very minor ability to sense supernatural. It doesn’t make sense. Magic is based on ritual, but if you don’t do the ritual, you don’t Crowley: Magic is inserting your will against the universe.

EM: Rations magic. One vampire in a city. To overdo the magic is to take away the perils and challenges the character has to overcome. Keep it believable.

 AW: Magic is going to cost you just as much energy as you would to do it another way. – Really good magic, the price has been paid elsewhere. Any real magic, someone’s figured out how to pay the price.

FH: Wolves in small space; shows it. Just enough info as the story needs. Don’t explain everything at once. Even when writing a standalone. Layer out the disseminatinon of information.

EM: As long as the reader’s persuaded what the writer knows. E.g. the metallic taste in the mouth when firing a gun; shows that writer knows. Enough persuasive detail.


FH: The things we add and the things we leave out. How do you deal with the problem when you find you’ve made a mistake? E.g. shooting in low-cut blouse (gives a girl range kisses). When you find you’ve made a mistake, how do you address it?

JT: Just ignore it and move on.

Comment from author in the audience: Told everyone she made a mistake.

EM: A book’s like a rocket launch; once it’s out, just apologize. If you self publish electronically, just fix it, because you can upload the changes yourself. As long as the change doesn’t undermine the character, you're fine.

JT: Move on and work on the next thing.

SR: Learn from the mistake, pay attention next time. Fix it in the next book.

EM: Know the details.


FH: About the penalties of magic. Nothing can be easy. Limit the magic in the system. Even if you don’t know how it works. If you start ignoring the laws, you have a crappy system. What price do you exact of your characters?

SR: Her main character has the ability to move between worlds, but not the physiology, and it takes a toll.

EM: A guardian angel could help all the time, but it would make for a terrible story.

 JT: Always having a physical cost is a mistake. Sometimes the magic’s got to have another cost, e.g. your soul (such as the cost of using black magic in his third Deacon Chalk novel).

FH: Has left lots of openings. Questions unanswered. Doesn’t close off everything because she hopes for more novels.


Audience Question: What do you do when it seems the characters want to take the story in a different direction?

EM: He's a prisoner of his characters; more concerned about running out of something to say.

JT: He's the merciless god of his universe; the characters do what he tells them to.

"A Constantly Evolving Animal": Faith Hunter, BLACK ARTS, and a Few Notes on Fantasy

Even for a vampire hunter, Jane Yellowrock is fairly unique. A Cherokee Skinwalker (shapeshifter) who, as a child, accidentally merged her soul with a puma's, Jane stalks her prey on both two legs and four. Half the story is told from the mountain cat Beast's perspective, adding a perspective that is at times equal parts humorous and harrowing. And in her very first tale, SKINWALKER, Jane was hired by vampires to rid New Orleans of a threat even they needed help with.

But as readers quickly learned, her story was far from over.

Now, seven books in, Jane's path takes a darkly personal twist when she learns that her best friend Molly has gone missing. Jane and Beast must face a greater menace than ever before.

And as usual, readers won't be disappointed!

I had the chance to chat with the brains behind this wild storyverse and its two driven heroines. You may have seen some of her contributions from my ConCarolinas notes. Faith Hunter not only writes the Jane Yellowrock series, but is one of the creators of MagicalWords.net, a group writing blog dedicated to the craft from a genre-based perspective. And today, she's here to share a few of her insights. Welcome, Faith!

Laura: What, to your mind, are the core elements of good urban fantasy?

Faith Hunter: Good UF is a constantly evolving animal. It incorporates a good mystery with danger to the main character or people the MC loves. Three are usually a few good fights. And some romance. (nods head) Sometimes some hot romance. But the main thing is that urban fantasy is not just one thing. It is a blend of all the other genres, whipped into intensity.

Laura: What is the most important element in writing fantasy—to you?

FH: I know I’ve said it before, but, voice. Character voice, narrative voice, authorial voice. Think about the sound of a Sam Spade crime / mystery novel versus a Sue Grafton crime / mystery novel. No one would mix up the two. The voices of these mysteries are different, and it’s the voices that set the mood and tone of a book. In the Jane Yellowrock world and series and books and shorts, every single Point Of View character has a unique voice. When I write in Molly Everhart Trueblood’s POV, she thinks and sounds differently from the way that Jane Yellowrock sounds. Rick LaFleur’s voice is more different still. And of course, Beast, well, Beast is a voice that takes unique to new levels.

Laura: You’re one of the founders of Magical Words. Tell us how that came about and what it is, please.

FH: I met David B. Coe / D.B.Jackson (who writes urban fantasy, historical urban fantasy and epic fantasy) and were best friends instantly, totally. It was so instantaneous that it was weird. We wanted to do something together PR-wise and came up with a fantasy writing site that would cover everything. Writing, plot, blocks, muses, characters, character development, good writing chairs, good tea, PR. Everything. I brought Misty Massey (my other best writing pal) in and we 3 fit nicely together. Besties! And www.magicalwords.net was born.

Laura: What do you see as the future of the fantasy genre?

FH: For the last three years, I have taken a shot at this question and this year (once again) I want to change my opinion totally. Urban fantasy is a constantly evolving genre. Now I am seeing more young adult books, more innocent romance in place of erotica, and more genre blending. Much darker stories, with much more innocent characters.

BLACK ARTS is available in stores and online January 7th.

U.S. residents: want to win a copy? Simply leave a comment here to be entered in a random draw for the prize!

Signal Boost: THE UNEXPECTED ENLIGHTENMENT OF RACHEL GRIFFIN

Question: What do you get when you cross Narnia with the Harry Potter series, set it in the Magical version of the United States, and make the main character an insatiably curious twelve-year-old girl?

Answer: Rachel Griffin, of course!

Last year, I was given the opportunity to help beta read this young adult novel by award-winning author of the Prospero's Daughter series L. Jagi Lamplighter, which recently came out in paperback and Kindle. I enjoyed this book immensely, and I can't wait to read the second one.

Today is Rachel Griffin Signal Boost Day, so I'm delighted to help spread the word. Here's the back cover blurb for you to enjoy:

Roanoke Academy for the Sorcerous Arts—a school of magic like no other!
Who knew so much could go awry in one week?

Rachel Griffin has one goal. She wants to know everything.
 
Arriving at Roanoke Academy in the Hudson Highlands, Rachel discovers that her perfect memory has an unexpected side effect. With it, she can see through the enchantment that sorcerers use to hide their secrets.
 
When someone tries to kill a fellow student, Rachel investigates. She soon discovers that, in the same way her World of the Wise hides from mundane folk, there is another more secret world hiding from the Wise. Rushing forward where others fear to tread, Rachel finds herself beset by wraiths, embarrassing magical pranks, a Raven that brings the doom of worlds, and at least one fire-breathing teacher.
 
Meanwhile, she’s busy learning magic, making friends and, most importantly, finding romance!
 
Curiosity might kill a cat, but nothing stops Rachel Griffin!

L. Jagi Lamplighter can be found at her blog, Welcome To Arhyalon, where she shares her writing insights, epiphanies and tips, including All About the Wonder, a heartwarming post on being a mother, and almost as important, on why she writes fantasy.

Check out Rachel Griffin today!

I Believe in Magic (ConCarolinas 2012 Writing Panel Notes)

So about those ConCarolinas notes.

Ever experience a dramatic event that throws you off your game? Well, this is what happened to me. Look at the picture above. See that shiny glob of gold splotched onto the RAM? I knew my laptop had an overheating problem. I just hadn't realied how bad it was until it imploded. I joked with friends that my computer had a meltdown, and I thought it was hyperbole. Then my friend Drekian was over at my place for a write-in and killed time waiting for the others to arrive. So he took apart the dead laptop for fun. Turns out, it actually melted down.

Anyway, everything's good again. The universe was nice to me; the night it stopped working, I found an amazing deal at Best Buy to replace the poor pile of sludge. All is well again. I've let it interrupt my blogging rhythm. But now, I'm ready to get back to work!

So without further adieu, here's more notes; and what could be more fitting after all that technology stuff than for us to talk about magic?

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I Believe in Magic

Betty Cross, Faith Hunter, Kalayna Price, Rachel A. Aaron 

Moderator: Stuart Jaffe

There’s a wide-spectrum of what you can do with magic. From Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn saga (magic is created by ingesting certain bits of metal for certain effects) to [missed example] (“Magic is anything we say”).

Tell us about your magical systems.
-     BC: Falls closer to Brandon Sanderson. Finds amature writers make magical powers unlimited, with lots of Deus ex machina. Superman has to have Kryptonite.
-    FH: Has written two magical systems. Rogue Mage – learning how to use raw energy with the abilities each mage is born with. It’s a gift they have to learn themselves, like a  child teaching themselves to walk. The limits: if you don’t learn it and you overuse it, you explode. Jane Yellowrock – she’s a Skinwalker, which is learned. Jane has the skill but was only taught a bit before losing her teacher. Her new work involves a pre-set system ahead of time. Some people come up with their magical systems first. She does a lot of figuring out how her magic works as she goes.
-    KP: Two different magic systems – Does worldubilding and character-creating at the same time, because the society will determine how the magic is used. Haven: Magic is underground. Grave Witch: everyone knows about magic.
-    RA: Creates magical systems for fun. Her spirit world – everything has a spirit, have to work with those spirits
-    SJ: Difference between external and internal magic. In his world, most of the knowledge is lost. Characters are discovering their powers with the reader.

How much do you find you have to reveal about the magic system?
-    RA: Plots an info map of who knows what. Plotting how much to reveal, misunderstandings about magic, stopping to think about how you reveal the information, means you can do amazing things with tension, who knows what.
-    KP: Establishing what the magic is very quickly is very important, but establishing the full parameters goes through the book. But make rules and *stick* with them. Unless you have a very sound plot reason that changes things, that is plausible.
-    FH: No rules for Rogue Mage, until she made the roleplaying game. Has had to make rules for that. Has learned to create systems and write stories based on that. Likes the revelatory process of discovering the magic as she goes. Plots out a lot of her books, big outlines, so discovering the magic is fun, but then she sticks by the rules.
-    BC: Big on having limits on her magic. Characters explain magic by reference to other magic.

Do you create a bible, a document to make sure you stick to your rules?
-   RA: Stays true to the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law. Based on a fundamental understanding of the system.
-    FH & KP: create bibles.
-    SJ: Only one rule: if it works, it works.
-    KP: Readers will only suspend disbelief so far
-    RA: If you break a rule, you have to have a good reason.

Creating magic based on myths and folklore:
-    KP: Has twisted bits of folklore based on what her books need
-    SJ: Example: Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Mists of Avalon – blends myth and magic
-    FH: Skinwalker – lots of research into pre-Christian, NA tribal version of skinwalkers.
-    RA: Important to remember, you’re not chained to the folklore. It’s your book.

What about weird stuff for the sake of weird stuff?
-    There is an audience (e.g. China Meiville)
-    SJ: We’re coming out of the 80s and 90s with big thick trilogies, medieval fantasy was really selling, that seemed to be canon. That’s no longer the case.

And what about stepping on the toes, borrowing/stealing other magical systems?
-    BC: It’s okay. Writers do it all the time.
-    FH: With enough twists that a creative mind can put into their own work, don’t worry. Make changes. You can give a plot line or magical system to ten different writers and they’ll go ten different ways.
-    SJ: Everyone’s coming up with new takes. Look at how many different takes there are on vampires.

Can you draw from real magical systems?
 -    Sure, those are great sources for inspirations. E.g. Voodoo, paganism, high magic,
-    KP: If you’re going to use beliefs currently in practice, be respectful.
-    BC: Can be very subtle about it. E.g has system based on Kabbalah

Can you combine sex and magic?
-    FH: No limits for the genre. Fantasy as a genre can become erotica very easily. Depends on what you want to write. Kushiel is very mainstream. But other books can be powerful, terrifying, and off-putting. LKH does it well, even though she’s changed. Do it well, you can stay mainstream; don’t do it well and you can fall into a different group. Sex must forward the plot, not just be titillation.  Otherwise it’s erotica.

Other things to keep in mind: 
-    KP: You can explain less if you can assume the reader is well-versed in a similar magic system.
-    Good to have the good guys screw up. Magic can be a source of humour, be funny.
-    Remember to think of the consequences. You MUST build consequences into your magical system. The magic shapes the story. So the consequences are an integral part. That’s an integral part of the conflict.
-    Any magical system can be used for good. Even necromancy. Any magic can be used any way you want, it just depends on how you build your system.

Creating Universes, Building Worlds (SiWC 2011 Notes)

Sorry, folks. I said I'd post my notes from Surrey, but I've been taking my sweet time. I've been a bit busy with NaNo ... among other things. I received a personalized rejection last week, and I'm grateful that the agent took the time to point out what didn't work for her, because it highlighted a few minor issues for me. So I've been doing NaNo *and* editing.

What, me? Overcommitted? I have no idea what you're talking about.

But here's another set of notes! And hopefully I can get some more up this week. But I can't promise anything and I *will* be selfish this month. I'd like to start sending SOTS elsewhere. Besides, I also have 20K left to go on my NaNo.

That being said, here's my notes from the Worldbuilding workshop given by Tor fantasy author A.M. Dellamonica, author of Indigo Springs and Blue Magic. This class is based on a 10-week distance ed course she teaches through the UCLA. Much of the class was spent on exercises, some of which I mention here, but they were fantastic for brainstorming new things and realizing how one little idea can lead to so many more.

Creating Universes, Building Worlds

Alyx Dellamonica

The basic principles of worldbuilding genrerally apply to all the genres.

Exercise: Dances with Vampires

4 basic vampire rules common to a lot of vampire stories:

-          Sunlight kills them

-          They dink blood (hemovores)

-          They have fangs

-          A stake through the heart will immobilize or kill them

-          Pick one more world law: e.g. they all pine for lost humanity – what would happen?

o   Spray tan / fashion industry so they look more human

o   Take night jobs to be around humans

-          Therefore, the laws of the universe shape the story. It creates the world.

-          My rule: they all seek redemption? Or instead of eternal life, they have limited lifespans? And they have to redeem their souls while drinking blood before the time is up, or be eternally damned? How can they do that? Charity work? Get it out up front.

-          Another idea: Vampirism as a common cold, temporary

 

Now imagine that you’d created vampires from the start. Imagine how differently the opening would be like, if you had to spell all that out? It’s worldbuilding.

With worldbuilding, we’re either changing an existing structure, or introducing something completely new.

Science Fiction

-          Complicated worlds can be hard to communicate

-          Not all of us have an engineering degree

-          We don’t know for sure if the reader knows

-          Dialogue can give backstory and worldbuilding

-          It’s hard to write dialogue without getting closer to character.

-          Even something that seems restrictive can go a variety of different ways.

How do you slip in info without overwhelming the reader?

-          There will always be way more info than you can possibly share.

-          Dialogue is great to slip in the world, especially from what problems people are having

-          Infodumps are tricky, and an exercise in “what can you get away with”.

-          Make the problem relevant to the world.

-          Have something change, so character recognizes something is different.

-          Show it in day-to-day life: how the characters react, what they encounter that is different from our world, as they experience things

-         Tourism: they could go somewhere unusual for them. Because they’re experiencing things for the first time, so does the reader.

-          Mystery: e.g. the character knows/feels something is wrong in the world

How do you deal with similar books coming out that seem they’re too like your book?

-          Finish the damn book anyway.

-          If you sell your book tomorrow, it won’t be published until at least 2 years from now – 2 years will have passed.

-          The likelihood of something being nigh-identical is very low

-          Sometimes, similar work sells

-          Just because you think it’s similar, it might not be. Read the competition.

If writing hard sf, talk to an engineer/scientist to confirm details, or it might not work.

 

Exercise: Build a magic system!

-          You have to eat something to have the power: edible magic!

-          Cumulative poisonous effect (limit on how much you can do to yourselves or others; hard choices)

-          Wizards short-lived, have proxies

-          The holy grail: magic in a non-toxic fashion, cure

-          Subculture of scam antidotes

-          Could be importing magic foods from another society

-          More ingredients = more complexity, more power

-          Vehicle for oppression

-          Stolen partial antidote, loved one w/ addiction, compelling personal reasons, was a guinea pig? Does the bad guy have motivation for stealing it such as trying to get people to stop using it?

Other stuff to keep in mind:

- Magic should always have a cost.

- Any sufficient advanced technology can come off as magic (as per Arthur C. Clarke, I think)

- Fiction is about doing the impossible.

- Next time you think about creating a world, you can create immensely powerful beings, but think about what the costs are.

- Know your target audience.

- You decide the boundaries.

- If blending fantasy and science fiction, think about how the technology interacts with the magic.

- Keep the number of invented words to a minimum. As much as you need, as little as you can get away with.

For further information, check out her Resource Page.

More notes soon, I promise!

The Intersection of Puppetry and Speculative Fiction (SiWC 2011 Notes)

Hey everyone! It's notes time again!

A few weeks ago I attended this year's Surrey International Writer's Conference. This one happens a little closer to home, as in I could take transit to get to it if I wanted, but frankly, this was my sixth year and I've come to realize how intense of a weekend it is. Staying at the hotel helps keep me sane.

Once again I had an amazing weekend. I took two master classes in addition to the regular conference package, and overall? The word I came away with to best describe my conference experience was useful. And not in the off-the-cuff, dismissive way. I mean that I was in exactly the right place to learn exactly what I needed.

This year, I had the opportunity to meet a few authors new to the conference, and one of them was Mary Robinette Kowal, whose Jane Austen-style fantasy novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, came out just last year. In addition to being an author, Mary is a puppeteer, and in this class she spoke about how the art of puppetry is very much like the art of writing science fiction and fantasy.


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The Intersection of Puppetry and Speculative Fiction
Mary Robinette Kowal

Puppetry
- Puppets and Marionettes
- Many genres: hand, shadow, rod, body, and string
- Just with genre fiction, the red-headed step-child
- Deal with negative stereotypes (aren't puppet shows just for kids?)

The Intersection
- With SF/F, people think juvenile SF/F is the entire genre, just like with puppetry.
- We wait for the moment when we have to defend our choices
- Present it professionally, matter-of-factly
- As writers and readers of SF/F, we are the ambassadors of our genre.
- Don’t be embarrassed.
- We can be gateways as ambassadors: ask them what they read, compare genre (e.g. recommend Harry Dresden if they like murder mysteries, not if they read Danielle Steele they should read Ender’s Game) – find out what they’re intersted in and introduce them to an adult literary example.
- Point to mainstream examples of SF/F (e.g. The Time Traveler’s Wife)
- A Christmas Carol was one of the first Urban Fantasies.
- Find a popular novel to compare it to.

Puppetry breaks things down into separate techniques.
- As writers, people try to learn things all at the same time: worldbuilding, plot, pacing, dialogue
- Take these techniques and practice them individually rather than trying to learn them all at once
- Do it to the point where you don’t have to stop and think about what you’re doing so that when you’re in the throes of writing, of storytelling, you don’t have to think about technique
- People can lose track of things, know the story isn’t working, but not know why
- Description exercise: Find a place, describe the room you’re in, space you’re in, and write for half an hour. As you keep going, you notice the tiny little details that make the description *pop*.
- Practice character in much the same way: apply a character to the space and see how they react.
- Every puppet itself, every style of puppet, is different.
- The principles to make the puppet alive are much the same, no matter which genre.
- Likewise, principles of literature are the same

The four principles of puppetry: Focus, breath, muscle, and meaningful movement
- Focus: Indicates thought. What is the puppet looking at? That’s what they’re thinking. What they notice tells a lot about the character. As writers, we have complete control over what they’re thinking, and the order they notice things in (what’s important to them).
- As writers, we can only show the audience one thing at a time, so the order becomes more important. We control what they’re thinking about, looking at. By what we show them on the page, we control what the audience is looking at.
- Breath is a motion. Indicates how someone feels. Each different breath is a different emotional feel. With writing, it’s the same: the speed with which we do things controls how the audience feels. E.g. action scenes have short, choppy sentences because it’s a reflection of breath. Punctuation indicates whre people think, pause, breathe. Short, choppy sentences indicate someone is out of breath. Also, combined with Focus, changes the speed with which a person notices things.
- Muscle: Your characters are internally motivated. Know what your goal is when doing things. When a character does something on the page, if it’s not internally motivated, you can see the author’s hand. Give them sufficient internal motivation, emotional weight. That’s muscle. Changing the internal motivation changes the meaning of the actions, and gives the reader something to grasp.
- Not every single action should be a muscle action, but they need sufficient internal motivation.
- Meaningful movement: Because we can only show the reader one movement at a time, every movement should have some meaning. We rely on the character’s body motion to convey emotion. Is it aggressive, passive, or regressive? Aggressive: motion towards. Anger, happiness. Passive: don’t move back or forward. Regressive: Movement away. Open and closed silhouettes: open: anything we want to engage with more fully / closed: do not want to engage with.
- Helps us to define the surroundings, too.
- Be more specific about body language whenever you can. Does the body language you’re using do as much for your story as you can? Is it meaningful?
- Puppetry: head bobbing: amateur. Meaningless movement. Doesn’t add any meaning to the character or story. This includes nodding. Let them have a good reason for nodding. Don’t be redundant: “Yes,” she agreed, nodding.
- Do not assume that a nod means yes. E.g. in India: bobbing from side to side is yes, but a nod is meaningful.
- Can use two pieces of body language to play in contrast, to show a character is conflicted
- Don’t just insert body language to have body language.
- Some motions can be character traits, but don’t have them do ti so often it becomes meaningless.

Parameters of the story
- Puppetry looks at deciding what style of puppetry to be used based on audience: size, age; venue, budget, story you’re trying to tell: helps decide design.
- Look at the size of your story. Every character you put on the page, every set change, will take word count to establish and do justice to. Does the story you’re writing need that set change? How long is your target length? That’s the size of your theatre. Even with novels, you need to figure out how much plot you want, how many characters, etc.

The style of puppetry changes the style of the story.
- e.g. Marionettes: good at graceful movement, not fight scenes.
- Different voice (POV) is good at different things. E.g. First person: good for grounding in a single character and that character’s perception of the world
- The action of telling the story changes the narrator. They’re not the same person at the end as they are when they begin telling the story.
- Third person: good for grounding details
- Don’t choose a voice just because it is fashionable. Write to the expectation you’re trying to set. The voice you choose will shape the story.
- Your materials dictate what you can do.

Pay attention to how much detail your mind fills in.
- The same thing happens in the page: give the audience the right details, and the reader will fill it in. (Puppet e.g.: Miss Piggy doesn’t actually blink!)
- Facial expression can be less specific than body movement. Body language is a more specific tool. What are they doing?
- We betray ourselves much more with the body.
- Character description: point of view to describe it.
- POV no stopping in front of the mirror – just describe in terms of the people around them.
- If you have built sufficient credibility with your audience, sometimes your audience will believe it even if you didn’t intend, and they’ll forgive you for much.

Dialogue:
- The movement associated with the dialogue can completely change the audience’s perception.
- Although dialogue is important, a lot of how dialogue is perceived is affected by the setting.
- Why is your character saying something? Sometimes the character changes their mind midstream.
- Monologues do not typically work in fiction today because they’re out of fashion. Try to find ways to break it up: Insert questions, participation of another character (even nonverbal).
- Just remember that dialogue includes a nonverbal element.
- Exercise: Take a transcript of something. Write the setting around it. Look at how context affects the perception of dialogue and the perception of meaning.


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That was one of the coolest classes I've ever attended at Surrey. It got me thinking about character presence and movement in a whole new way. (And seriously. Miss Piggy doesn't blink? I hadn't realized it, because the puppeteers controlling her portray her movements that well. It's amazing how the mind fills in the blanks.)

More notes coming soon!