Feo Takahari
Auror
The latest thread about magic systems got me thinking. It seems like a lot of folks here want to do wonder, terror, mystery, grandeur . . . basically, one thing or another that feels foreign and unfamiliar in a forceful, powerful way. That's definitely something the fantasy genre is uniquely suited for. (A hundred years ago, you could write about the mysteries of foreign lands, but now those lands have Internet access and will bombard you with one-stars on Amazon for "othering" them.) Anyway, what I'm wondering is, how does the picture change if you're not doing that? What rules change, and what advice goes differently? Conversely, what stays the same?
Speaking personally, I use fantasy to pare down and emphasize a single aspect of reality. If I were to write about chronic illness, for instance, I'd have to get its personal implications and financial effects and how people think of you differently and yada yada yada. So I write someone slowly turning into a slug, and I try to get across that chronic illness is undignified. I'm trying to explain things and make them easier to understand, and I feel like that goes in the opposite direction from all this stuff that creates mysteries for the readers to wonder about.
(Maybe this kind of thing is site-specific. On my last site, my low-powered plucky survivor types felt horribly out of place amongst all the "badasses" other folks were writing. This site doesn't lack for characters who can fight, but most of the folks who write one-dimensional "badasses" get bored and leave before they hit fifty posts.)
Anyway, I guess I don't have a more specific question than that. I just thought it might be worth talking about. (And feel free to interject if your writing differs in another way. We've only got one horror writer, right?)
Speaking personally, I use fantasy to pare down and emphasize a single aspect of reality. If I were to write about chronic illness, for instance, I'd have to get its personal implications and financial effects and how people think of you differently and yada yada yada. So I write someone slowly turning into a slug, and I try to get across that chronic illness is undignified. I'm trying to explain things and make them easier to understand, and I feel like that goes in the opposite direction from all this stuff that creates mysteries for the readers to wonder about.
(Maybe this kind of thing is site-specific. On my last site, my low-powered plucky survivor types felt horribly out of place amongst all the "badasses" other folks were writing. This site doesn't lack for characters who can fight, but most of the folks who write one-dimensional "badasses" get bored and leave before they hit fifty posts.)
Anyway, I guess I don't have a more specific question than that. I just thought it might be worth talking about. (And feel free to interject if your writing differs in another way. We've only got one horror writer, right?)