Hello readers! Welcome to my website and my first post!
Finally my site is up and running! I've been in full edit and rewrite mode on my book these days, so these posts will be a nice distraction for me. My plan for the site is to post each week about various fantasy novels, following a particular analytic theme. That way I can expose myself to all kinds of fantasy stories, and examine particular writing techniques that the authors use. Hopefully, you all can learn along with me and enjoy revisiting some of these stories!
Since the website and I are brand new, I'm going to kick it off with the theme Beginnings! I have a couple novels I'm reading and noting on now, so next week will be the official start of the blog series with Eragon. For this post though, I'm tackling a question I see a lot on forums and threads for writing. It's also a question I get asked a lot when I tell people I'm a writer. "Why write fantasy?"
It's about as important a question as they come. Important for me I mean. Obviously, I’m writing a fantasy book, so I should be able to explain why I picked that genre over others. To answer I’ll steal a quote from Joss Whedon. I don’t remember the exact wording, but the sentiment stuck with me. Back before they cancelled it, I watched him give a really great interview about his TV show, Firefly. The quote goes along the lines of “I wanted to make a Western, but if there weren’t spaceships I would have been bored out of my mind.” What I love about this quote is that it’s so on the nose it hurts. I have stories I want to tell, and magic is what I love.
Fantasy to me is about two things, empathy and entertainment.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but at their core, fantasy stories are about realism. Events and locations are supernatural, yes, but at the end of the day magic is not what the story is about. The story is about your characters and their struggles, which should be grounded in realism. Your characters should have flaws, they should go through the same kinds of internal struggles a normal person would, they should make mistakes, and they should have to fight to better themselves by the end of the story. That’s what makes a fantasy story believable - allowing the audience to empathize, to put themselves in the character’s shoes. Without this element, why would we invest ourselves?
“He’s a robot, Ricky, why do you care so much?” This is something a friend of mine asked me once after watching the end of Terminator 2, when the T-800 sacrifices himself for John Connor. She just couldn’t understand why I was upset when the robot “doesn’t even have feelings.” This is something that I hear non-fans ask fantasy fans all the time (especially when we get worked up about comic book movies). To counter, I asked her why she cried during Fox and the Hound. The answer is simple. It’s because in both films, we are able to relate to the fact that the friendships end. It’s something that happens in real life, and it’s something everyone has experienced at one time or another.
What makes each of those stories great and memorable and able to move their audiences are the real elements. Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Documentaries; they're all telling a human story, whether they have humans or not. To me, that's what makes it exciting. I’m like Joss. I want to tell a great, relatable story, but magic is what makes it fun.