Many years ago when I was painstakingly creating the world of my fiction I had been reading a lot of fantasy. History as always, but I was devouring fantasy like chocolate-covered cinnamon bears. In my slow, over-analytical way I started to notice that a lot of authors would use magic as a crutch for weak writing. Their characters would get in a bind and all of the sudden there would be a magical out for them. A lot of times it was completely spontaneous as if rather than work out a solution they just inserted magic so they could move on. I find this problem to be rampant. I can think of few fantasy writers who do not use magic in this way.
Another thing that influenced my decision was reading Jack Whyte's pre-Arthurian books. They were a fascinating historical-minded look at the origins of the Arthurian world, with rational, semi-scientific explanations for many of the fantastic elements. I found that very thought provoking and impressive. I can't recommend the books on account of their graphic and sometimes perverse nature, but they did influence my thinking on this matter.
So I started toying with the idea of creating a minimalist fantasy world that would be completely fictional but without any system of magic. It has been a challenge, but very fun to write. Hopefully my rant will inspire any of you using magic to go the extra mile when you are having a "I'll just use magic so I can move on" moment. Write on.
R.
4 comments:
I had never really thought deeply about this issue until I started listening to Brandon Sanderson's podcast Writing Excuses. He has formulated what he calls Sanderson's First Law of Magic:
An author's ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic.
He goes on to explain that this involves a continuum with "hard" magic on one end and "soft" magic on the other. Sanderson's magic lies on the far hard end of the continuum. It's very rule-based and has an almost scientific feel. I highly recommend reading his blog post about it, which you can find by typing Sanderson's First Law of Magic into Google.
In my own writing, I had decided not to include overt magic, or at least to make it so any magical things could just as easily be explained some other way. However, I keep coming back to "real", overt magic. It doesn't feel like I'm writing what I want to produce otherwise. However, my opinion is that magic should be there to CAUSE conflict as much as to solve it--if not more.
I love good, non-lazy writing almost as much as I love chocolate-covered cinnamon bears. But only almost.
Mmmm... Chocolate covered cinnamon bears... :) You and Gretschzilla crack me up.
I'll think a bit more about the magic thing, and then maybe make a useful reply. But until then, I just want to say you rule. Anybody who puts a Megadeth song into a post about magic is all right by me. :)
First, thank you for indulging my curiosity. I really appreciate it.
Second, this was very thought provoking. I've read a little fantasy, but never paid too much attention to what you pointed out. You're right though. Now that I think back, I can see numerous times where this sort of thing happened.
I'm impressed.
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