Re: Effects of Magic

Nicky wrote:
On Aug 25, 5:52 pm, "Suzanne Blom" <sueb...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Mary K. Kuhner" <mkkuh...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in messagenews:g8tflv$m8j$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



In article
<502e5327-a347-4db3-987e-fcd244b58...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Kushiel <invisibleking...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Catja Pafort wrote:
I think you need more knowledge of magic to write a good story that
doesn't read as if things 'just happen by magic'. You need to know
whether there's a price for using (or misusing) magic, who can use magic
and how powerful they are.
Only if that matters to the story. If it doesn't, why would I or the
reader worry about it?
My experience is that I won't know if it comes up in the story, unless
I have a certain minimum level of knowledge in advance. This tends to
make the stories thin and flat, because there aren't enough
consequences and interconnections.
That's my experience as well. I think that is one of the main reasons _Inca_
sold & the rest of my stuff hasn't. I spent years & years getting the
background right--but it was still easier to do because it was real. When I
don't have that much background I'm not going to be able to work how, for
instance, an Andean healer might have tried to treat a horse because I
wouldn't have known what her reasons for what she did would have been.- Hide quoted text -

For me writing the real and the made up are not that different. I want
to know what it is like to expereince the world. For real world stuff
I have to have done enough research to know that before I can start
writing - so I have to know what people wore and what weapons and
armour looked like, what it was made of etc what kind of terrain and
buildings existed and what were the social structures etc etc. For
made up stuff I just invent all that and then join the dots.

I borrow a lot from things I've seen, which I then modify to suit my
purposes, but once I know what things look like I am half way there. I
am always thinking of the implications of what I've already written so
I start with a completely clean slate and every decision I make about
what happens closes down some of my options and gives rise to certain
necessary consequences in terms of plot, character and background.
Working out what the society as a whole believes makes a difference
too as that informs everything.

The way I do world building - it isn't very difficult. I start with a
picture and then try to work out what would have had to happen to make
that picture real. I see a woman wearing a painted mask, or a glowing
boy with silver hair wearing a sanctuary band and wonder why and then
uncover both plot and background in the process of coming up with the
answer. I start with the particular and deduce the general. I can't do
it the other way round.


That's a lot like how I try to do it at the outset, but I find that some of the most interesting worlds are really difficult to bring to reality. Daea, for instance, mixes and matches numbers of things that were never really contemporary in our world, There are reasons for that, and I think they stand, up to a point -- but really, a world where swords-and-sorcery on the one side and machine-guns-and-railroads on the other really do form a credible balance of power, almost certainly wouldn't look like that at all. OTOH, the world with those pictures in it is the one I want to write about. 'To make that picture real', as you say.

Diana Wynne Jones and Garth Nix immediately come to mind as people who've made closely related juxtapositions work (Dalemark, the Wall), so it can definitely be done. It may be that I'm trying to convey just too fine a grain, with counter-productive results. When the WIP and the Three Katherines are done, I'll probably go back there again and see.


--
Cheers,

Gray

---
To unmung address, lop off the 'be invalid' command.
.

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