science fiction fantasy

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Magic Systems: Urban Fantasy vs. Epic Fantasy – Panel at Phoenix Comicon

Posted by Aeon Igni on June 17, 2014
Posted in: Science Fiction Writing, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Panel members: Jaye Wells, Jim Butcher, Myke Cole, Patrick Rothfuss, Sam Sykes, and Stephen Blackmore. I’m sorry that I didn’t write down their names as they were speaking – I was too busy taking notes. This was an excellent panel, and I think more came out of the panel than any of us thought there would be going in. The room was packed, and doors closed fifteen minutes early because there were no more seats.

Scientific Magic versus Fantasy Magic

One of the first questions inspired the authors to try to define ‘scientific magic’ such as Harry Potter versus more ‘fantasy magic’ such as LOTR. They came upon the definition of ‘scientific magic’ as a magic system where there are definite rules, and they are apparent to the reader. The authors said that the more the rules are quantifiable, the more you can ratchet up the tension in your novel, because the reader knows the rules. Then, the reader feels smarter when they can see how the hero or heroine breaks the rules or twists the rules to his or her advantage.

On the other hand, fantasy magic is one that might have rules, but they aren’t apparent to the reader. For example, Gandalf appears and saves the day because…he’s Gandalf. His magic seems to come at certain times and not others, and there are not particularly any hard and fast rules that we know about it. However, fantasy magic can be done well, too, as long as the author knows the rules well.

One great point about magic inconsistency that was brought up was Star Wars – I believe it was Sam Sykes who said it. At first, Star Wars had a beautiful, fantasy-type magic – the Force. In the original movies, it was ephemeral and numinous. But then in Star Wars I, they tried to invent midi-chlorians and everyone rebelled, although they might not even have known why. It’s because there’s something wrong with taking a fantasy magic system and trying to turn it into scientific magic system – especially in the middle of a series.

Magic and Character Growth

Everyone agreed that there has to be power escalation throughout the stories, so that the characters grow. The stakes have to get continually higher and they have to face moral choices: What happens when they use magic? What happens when they can’t? What do they do when they face a tough decision (for example, they lose if they use magic, but they lose something else if they don’t)? You have to find new ways for your magic system to cause problems for your characters.

They also agreed that any time you put something new into your magic system, you have to think about all of the potential ramifications on the past, present, and future of the plot. They said the worst was the time turner. What happens when you can travel back in time and change the past? That is the most difficult and least thought out of any magic system.

Side note: Writing this just made me think of Star Trek. If you can slingshot around in the sun in Star Trek IV to save the whales, why can’t you do it in Star Trek (2009) to save six billion Vulcans? Even worse, Spock was alive for the prior trip. If you had just seen your whole planet killed – and you had previously been able to go back in time, wouldn’t you try to do it again?

Other Items of Interest

Interestingly, in the first half hour, one of the authors spent a lot of time talking about how you have to build your magic system before writing the plot of your stories because the heart of the story should be the amazing, complicated, flawed characters. Then in the second half hour, another author spent a lot of time stating that you have to build your plot before you build your magic system because the characters and the magic they do are a product of their environments and experiences.

The authors were asked what their favorite magic systems were that they didn’t write themselves. Titles mentioned were : The Last Airbender, The Master of the Five Magics, Last Call, and The Chronicles of Amber.

When asked how to build a magic system, they gave some tongue-in-cheek answers:

  1. Live somewhere cheap – because you need tons of time off to develop it.
  2. Do stuff you think is fun, because you’ll be playing around with it and tweaking it for years.
  3. Find ways to break it.
  4. Have plenty of Beta Readers try to break your magic system. One author, I believe it was Patrick Rothfuss, said a number around ten (!).

My Summary

So, what I gathered is that each of these authors had a different, unique magic system, and each of them formed it in a different way over time. I think the overall point they were making is that it doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you have a plan, stay consistent, and don’t change the system halfway through. In addition, the overall purpose of including magic in your books is NOT the magic itself. While the magic might be cool and awesome, the only purpose of magic in the story is to help the characters grow, it just gives them another avenue to do so.

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Phoenix Comicon – The most underrated resource for authors I’ve ever seen

Posted by Aeon Igni on June 11, 2014
Posted in: Science Fiction Writing, Writing. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I wanted to comment on the whole Phoenix Comicon experience, and why it is an absolutely amazing resource for authors. I was astounded by the quantity and quality of classes offered. There were five rooms for Books/Authors, and most were full in every time space. Classes were an hour long with 30-minute breaks in between – which means every 90 minutes from 10:30 am to 8:30 pm there were four or five classes for authors to choose from.

Many of these classes are valuable to you no matter what genre you write in. Of course, there are the typical science fiction/fantasy classes:

  • Fantasy Worldbuilding
  • Urban fantasy and epic fantasy
  • Worldbuilding Economics
  • Fantasy that defies description (or doesn’t fit neatly into a niche)

But there were also other classes that were offered on a wide variety of topics and genres:

  • Young Adult Writers
  • Dialogue
  • Utopian versus Dystopian societies
  • The Military in Speculative Fiction – with a military guy
  • Writing Rogues
  • Writing across genres
  • Writing Humor
  • Constructing a Mystery plot
  • Crime writing for non-crime writers
  • Description in fiction
  • Evening Erotica
  • How heraldic symbols are used in pop culture
  • Fairytales
  • Poetry

Even the universities got in the action: ASU presented their hieroglyph project for authors and scientists to come together to create a better future and UofA presented a panel on Real Science versus Pseudo Science

There was a good mix of NYT bestselling authors and well-known local authors, and I felt that each class gave me a good bit of unexpected information. And of course, you get the other added benefits of being at *Comicon* – costumes, actors, authors, artists, demonstrations, and parties.

Overall, it was an incredible experience for $80. I paid $150 total including parking for the three days and took sandwiches and cliff bars to keep my energy up and avoid the long lines for food between classes. One thing to note is that many of the classes with more famous authors were full at least ten minutes before the class time began – so that made it difficult to wait in line for food or coffee because you had to be physically present or you wouldn’t get in. I went straight from one class to the next to scope out the popularity before deciding whether to take a coffee break or not.

But crowds and price notwithstanding, I would definitely recommend the experience to any author who is looking to broaden their writing horizons. I came back invigorated, with new purpose and perspective, and most importantly, ready to write!

 

Project Hieroglyph

Posted by Aeon Igni on June 9, 2014
Posted in: Science Fiction Writing. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

hieroglyph

I went to the Phoenix Comicon over the weekend, and learned about the Hieroglyph Project started by Arizona State University. The professors, postgraduate students, and science fiction authors who sat on the panel brought up a few good points that I think all of us who write science fiction in any capacity should be interested in.

The point of the hieroglyph project is to get science fiction authors to imagine a future world that is good – utopian rather than dystopian. They argued that the dreams that we dreamed only a few years ago are becoming real now. Scientists can implant light-sensitive neurons and actually control how animals behave using lights – and that is not future technology, it is at this very moment.

They brought up the point that in our science of today, in one sense we have all the control over what we are doing in the laboratory. But in another sense, we have no control over it. We don’t know that the long-term outcomes are going to be of many of the experiments we do today – working with smaller and smaller molecules, working with DNA, or hacking the brain.

We need science fiction writers to write the narratives of what will happen with these innovations. Are we going to use light-sensitive brain technology to rehabilitate prisoners? Or are we going to use it to control the population so that no one resists the government?

Right now, everyone is writing dystopian fiction because it’s easy. Cynicism looks smart – and if you have a conspiratorial mindset it’s easy to think of 20 ways in which light-sensitive brains could be used in a negative way. But what we really need in society is those people who will think about these things in a positive way – thinking about how these things can benefit society. A difficult task.

A second theme of the panel was that the technological future is not ‘in the future’ so much as it is here now. For example, our planet is already terraformed. If you live in a city, use roads, or live in a house, you are living in a terraformed world. We always like to think of terraforming as happening somewhere far away, but not enough people are looking at how terraforming it is being done here; how it has affected this planet, or how it could be done better in the future.

In addition, many underclass people already live in a science fiction dystopia. They are negatively influenced by technology because they haven’t been able to keep up with the rate of change. They may never own a computer, may not understand how to use one, and may even be left out of the middle and upper class conversations of the future because they can’t understand the vocabulary. *Case in point – one of the speakers asked us to please ‘defrag the room’. Everyone in the room understood that the phrase meant to scoot toward the middle because there were too many empty chairs between people, and automatically started moving toward the center. That is a very high-level example, but how many people would not have understood that phrase? Technological terminology is going to be even more of a barrier in the future than it is now, and high society is going to seem even more unreachable to those at the bottom if they are not able to become fluent in computers or technology…what happens when books disappear?

One last point, which is fast becoming an important factor in the lives of young people today. Due to information streaming, it is totally possible for you to live in your own little bubble – choosing your own online friends, your own news, and creating your own space where you are never challenged. This is a terrible thing for us, because the real world is all about conflict – it’s all about being able to articulate your thoughts, stand up for what you believe in, and argue persuasively against those who don’t. Teenagers who aren’t challenged will grow up into adults who aren’t able to respond to challenges without resorting to insults or running away – and in my opinion a society which looks like a bad comedy news show is not a society which is going to get anything done to improve the lives of the people within it.

As science fiction writers, I think it is good for us to have these types of conversations at these types of events. Every word we write will hopefully touch hundreds if not thousands of readers, influencing their minds, and through them, the future.

If you would like to join Project Hieroglyph, it is available to the public and especially to science fiction authors: http://hieroglyph.asu.edu/