Gav
Scribe
Hey everyone.
I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to go about measuring distance in fantasy writing.
My story is set in kind of a high fantasy setting, I guess a 'swords and sorcery' pigeon hole if I was to describe it vaguely, and I was wondering how to go about describing how far away things are. Long distance isn't so much of an issue, as describing things in very broad terms like "several days riding" or "a 3 day trek" can kind of gloss over it, but my queries are about short or middle distances.
As someone from the UK, my default thoughts are either metric or imperial (meters/centimetres or feet and inches) however i just don't think they fit well, as it seems to take me out of the story by using real-world measurements.
As an example, I have my main character huddled up in a shadowy doorway in some back ally at night as a demon is pulling its way into his world from the wall opposite. In my head the distance is about 20-30 feet away (far enough for him to hide, close enough for him to be terrified) but when I am writing 'feet' I just feel its not quite right.
So, I would leave any input or ideas that you might have on this subject.
I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to go about measuring distance in fantasy writing.
My story is set in kind of a high fantasy setting, I guess a 'swords and sorcery' pigeon hole if I was to describe it vaguely, and I was wondering how to go about describing how far away things are. Long distance isn't so much of an issue, as describing things in very broad terms like "several days riding" or "a 3 day trek" can kind of gloss over it, but my queries are about short or middle distances.
As someone from the UK, my default thoughts are either metric or imperial (meters/centimetres or feet and inches) however i just don't think they fit well, as it seems to take me out of the story by using real-world measurements.
As an example, I have my main character huddled up in a shadowy doorway in some back ally at night as a demon is pulling its way into his world from the wall opposite. In my head the distance is about 20-30 feet away (far enough for him to hide, close enough for him to be terrified) but when I am writing 'feet' I just feel its not quite right.
So, I would leave any input or ideas that you might have on this subject.