CavalierElrik
Acolyte
I recently received some excellent feedback on a manuscript I have been writing for almost 6 years on and off. Amongst some of the excellent suggestions was one from an editor who's opinion I truly respect and hope to be working with soon, but I am having trouble implementing one of their primary suggestions.
They suggested losing all mention of Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Paladins, etc. because they have "been done to death" and are just "fancy names for otherwise normally human races". I don't necessarily agree with this for my particular piece, but here is where I am struggling:
I'm aiming for a high-fantasy epic that is a blend between Tolkien-esque mythology and George R.R. Martin-like storylines (minus the excessive vulgarity, obscenity, and rape...) with some esoteric Christian myth thrown in.
To call another race something other than an 'Elf' for example, just so your not calling it an 'Elf' seems contrived to me. It seems like the reader is basically being told "this is an Elf, but in my world they are not called 'Elves', even though they are, and look and act just like the ones from every other fantasy story you've probably read where they are in fact, simply called....Elves."
If its an Elf, call it an Elf! If its short and stocky and bearded and lives in a mine, why is it wrong to call it what it is? If its a dwarf, why does it need another name when in reality, in the Fantasy genre, it is essentially the same thing?
Yes, we've all seen them a million times. But then, is it wrong to assume we wouldn't probably be reading (or writing) Fantasy if we didn't love those Fantasy 'staples' anyways?
Is this just a suggestion for manuscript marketing? Trying to do something that hasn't been done just so you can say you are? It seems that within the fantasy genre, it might, to some degree, be accepted that these races can all exist, thus saving the reader the trouble of having to figure out what this particular authors Orcs look like vs. another....Is this a Wraith, or a Fade? Is this an Elf, or a Fey? Is this an Orc, or a....whatever.
Or am I completely wrong here, and they should in fact, all be called something totally different?
Again, this is from an editor who's opinion I truly respect and hope to be working with soon, but Im struggling with this one point.
They suggested losing all mention of Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Paladins, etc. because they have "been done to death" and are just "fancy names for otherwise normally human races". I don't necessarily agree with this for my particular piece, but here is where I am struggling:
I'm aiming for a high-fantasy epic that is a blend between Tolkien-esque mythology and George R.R. Martin-like storylines (minus the excessive vulgarity, obscenity, and rape...) with some esoteric Christian myth thrown in.
To call another race something other than an 'Elf' for example, just so your not calling it an 'Elf' seems contrived to me. It seems like the reader is basically being told "this is an Elf, but in my world they are not called 'Elves', even though they are, and look and act just like the ones from every other fantasy story you've probably read where they are in fact, simply called....Elves."
If its an Elf, call it an Elf! If its short and stocky and bearded and lives in a mine, why is it wrong to call it what it is? If its a dwarf, why does it need another name when in reality, in the Fantasy genre, it is essentially the same thing?
Yes, we've all seen them a million times. But then, is it wrong to assume we wouldn't probably be reading (or writing) Fantasy if we didn't love those Fantasy 'staples' anyways?
Is this just a suggestion for manuscript marketing? Trying to do something that hasn't been done just so you can say you are? It seems that within the fantasy genre, it might, to some degree, be accepted that these races can all exist, thus saving the reader the trouble of having to figure out what this particular authors Orcs look like vs. another....Is this a Wraith, or a Fade? Is this an Elf, or a Fey? Is this an Orc, or a....whatever.
Or am I completely wrong here, and they should in fact, all be called something totally different?
Again, this is from an editor who's opinion I truly respect and hope to be working with soon, but Im struggling with this one point.