This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, in part because of what I’m reading, not what I’m writing. (No, I’m not going to say what that is. The policy of this blog is not to name other writers or books unless I can do so in a positive way.)
When you write any type of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, or horror), even if it’s urban fantasy or near-future science fiction, the writer is responsible for creating at least some aspects of the world in which the story takes place. If you write an urban fantasy about werewolves and vampires, it’s up to you to set up and then adhere to the rules by which those creatures operate. In second-world fantasy, of course, there’s a lot more world building–maps, political systems, history, all the details of daily life.
The important things are:
- You have to create a system that holds together. It has to make sense. People living on a plain devoid of trees can’t build wood houses and probably don’t eat fish on Fridays–or any other days.
- And you have to stick to the rules you create. You can’t go around making exceptions. (Now, that doesn’t mean that things can’t seem to be exceptions if your characters have an imperfect understanding of the rules. But somehow or other you’re going to have to let readers know that.)
These things are important to keep the readers immersed in the story. You, as a writer, have asked them to suspend disbelief. It then becomes your job to make sure you never make them sit back in their chairs and say “What?! That doesn’t make any sense.”
I think you have a point. Even a UF world has particulars not found in the real world. Even though I never consciously set out to create a world in my recent works, I have one novel a few years old where I did make up a whole new world, that was still in the back ground of my mind. I hope I did a good job on all three of my WIPs. The one that is being critted seems to be doing okay in that regard even though it might be the only area of writing that is doing okay.
LikeLike
As for point one, I’d like to add that while things have to make sense in the context of the fictional world, they don’t necessarily have to do so in the context of the real world.
On a side-note, you could let them invade the local equivalent of Lebanon just for the pines. There probably wouldn’t be enough wood for more than the most important buildings, though.
I like the parts in brackets from point two, especially that last sentence – it’s something that often seems to get forgotten in the “rules and exceptions” discussion. (And things that look like exceptions but aren’t make for pretty good subplots and plot twists, too.)
LikeLike
Good points.
Yes, I like the idea of confusing the heck out my characters when things don’t work the way they believe they should.
LikeLike