Bump in the Night - Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Over the past week your fantasy world has begun to take shape, the undifferentiated ingredients weaving together to form something innovative and electrifying from the Chaos of an untapped idea. Today, the final insights will (hopefully) fall into place. As with any newly created world - literal or merely literary - your creation will still require hard-work and perseverance to reach its fullest potential. After you hold the pieces of a successful story in your hands, it will be up to you to put them together in a way that can entertain and inspire others.

Sculpting your Characters’ Past, Present, and Future

There are many schools of thought on the place and relative importance of characters in a novel, but it is indisputable that even the greatest plot will ring hollow without some development of the individuals enacting it. As the core tenants of your storyline began to cement, you probably found yourself picturing the rough outlines of the protagonist and antagonist in your mind. Now it is time to turn those images into flesh-and-blood people (or animals or aliens or robots or creatures of indescribable shape and form). Start with your main character, the one whose point of view you plan to assume most often over the course of your narration (or the “I,” if your story will be in the first-person-perspective). Make a basic profile of facts about him or her, composed of things that you might find on a driver’s license or police profile: their age, their height, weight, skin color, eye color, special abilities or features. Where do they live, what is their job, do they have any pets? You will have to fill in the blanks of their past (even those that do not appear directly in the story) in order to grasp the impulses behind their actions and invite your audience into the innermost chambers of their secret thoughts. What was their family like growing up? Did they like sports (or the equivalent on your world)? Did or do they have any treasured possessions? Repeat this for every major player in your novel. Ultimately, you need to know what your characters want, why, and how far they will go to get it. You have to be able to become your characters, to assume their identity and think their thoughts. The more questions you ask yourself, the better your representation of each character will be.

Establishing Law and Order

Even the most abstract, improbable fantasy worlds operate on an established set of rules. If there is magic in your world, you will have to decide how and when it works (and, perhaps even more importantly, when it doesn’t) and what the price is for each supernatural act. Nothing happens in a vacuum. What are the established laws, rituals, taboos, and social niceties of the societies in your novel? Do these societies interact, and do their rules conflict in any way? (Not that you should edit out or reduce such conflict - it can be a fecund source of interesting plot and character development). Would a dragon roost unhindered in a gothic city - or would its clan shun it, or the city government hunt it down and place it in a menagerie? Without establishing these guidelines before you start writing, you run the risk (all right, the certainty) of creating glaring inconsistencies in your novel without even realizing it.

Structuring the Plot

Finally, it’s time to turn back to the plot. I highly suggest using an outline to help you structure the major events in your story. Think of your novel as a movie, and make a bullet point for each “scene.” Where do your protagonist and antagonist meet, and when do they come together in a final showdown? Looking at a broad overview of your plot will allow you to manipulate the tempo of the story (making sure that there aren’t too many battle scenes at the beginning and none for the last two-hundred pages, for example) and prevent you from writing yourself into a corner where you can’t think of a resolution to a conflict. Some critics claim that using an outline reduces your ability to express yourself creatively while writing, but as long as you keep in mind that an outline is only a guideline meant to help you and not a rulebook by which you must structure every sentence of every paragraph, I don’t believe that you will find this to be much of an issue.

That’s all, folks - the rest is on you. I wish you good luck, and happy end of the school year for those of you, like myself, who are dreaming of the elysian fields of writing bliss just beyond the next Spanish final exam. If you are looking for a summer reading list that’s a little more…interesting than the one provided by the typical middle or high school, the sci-fi/fantasy blog will be giving you just that in the next post.

To many writers, the novel and the short story appear to be two entirely different beasts; the falcon and the sparrow, one easily tamed, and the other beyond the control of all but the most masterful. There is a grain of truth in this comparison. A writer’s obligation in terms of time, motivation, and commitment grows proportionally with an increase in word-count - but the supposed added difficulty can be reduced to little more than hyperbole if you take the right steps to prepare before you type that first “once upon a time.” Since this is such a substantial topic, I will be presenting the steps over two posts, beginning today with how to come up with a solid idea and create the setting.

Finding the “Spark”

Stories are the stuff of dreams, the unconscious fears and hopes and abilities of a writer floating just beneath the surface of his or her more mundane considerations. There is magic in the process of storytelling, but, unfortunately, no easy formula for capturing the spark of an innovative, complex tale. The best advice that I can give you is contained in my earlier post, “Chasing Inspiration.” Once you’ve uncovered an idea that intrigues you (remember, the basic principles behind your story will have to keep you interested for at least 200 pages!), write it down. It’s best to compile a list of at least ten ideas before making your final selection. Share your list with other people (your friends, family, etc.) and ask them which ideas they find most interesting, or if they can think of any variations that you should include. Then whittle your list down, combining the most interesting facets of different ideas to form more intricate (and therefore interesting) stories. When you have three or fewer ideas left on your list, make your final selection (don’t worry too much about making the right choice - the other two usually make great short stories and can serve as backup in case you run of material or decide you don’t like the original, after all). Imagine that your idea has already become a published novel. Write the paragraph that might appear on the back cover, describing in broad strokes the main characters, setting, and source of conflict within the story.

Drawing the Map

Setting can influence your narrative in varied and often unpredictable ways. Sometimes major plot points are consequences of, rather than tangents to, a character’s surroundings. If the Dune series by Frank Herbert had taken place underwater, it would be a completely different story. Create a map (virtual, described in words, or actually drawn with pen and paper) of your entire world. Are there any unusual features that could influence your story, or should you add some? Think about the major landmarks (rivers, oceans, mountains, canyons, desert, grasslands, etc.), and where the major cities or countries (if you world is host to countries in the modern sense) are located in relation to them. Occasionally, people have the idea for a setting and evolve the story from there, but I tend to develop the plotline first - go with the method that seems more natural to you.

Check back next time for the last steps you need to take before diving into your own novel, including how to breathe life into your characters and shape the rules and regulations that govern your fantasy world, and how to use the most useful tool I have seen to date - an outline.

More young writers than ever before dream of writing a novel and becoming published authors. Christopher Paolini’s proved with the publication of Eragon, a coming-of-age story about a boy and his dragon that he began writing at the age of 15, that it need not only be a fantasy. But when faced with the enormity of the task, many teens don’t know where to begin.

“Just start writing,” said teen author Samantha Mandani. “You’re not going to go anywhere unless you start writing.”

Last summer, I had the opportunity to speak with Mandani and fellow published authors Kate Shefte and Tra “T-bone” Farrington, along with their mentor Stuart Albright, a novelist and creative writing teacher at Jordan High School in Durham, North Carolina, about the challenges they had faced and the advice they would offer to other young writers.

“If they can do it, you can do it,” Albright said. “And when you can put your name in Google and find it, and everyone can buy your book, it’s a really cool feeling.”

Albright and his students emphasized the importance of writing for pleasure rather than profit.

“I think that before you focus on publishing, you should write until your heart’s content,” said Mandani.

Fair enough. But what if you have an idea that you are struggling to express on paper?

Practice makes perfect, Albright and his students said. Writing every day is the key to writing well.

“And keep all of your writing,” Albright said. “I look back on my writing and it’s like an autobiography. You can really see your growth as a writer.”

No journey is entirely without bumps, and the students’ writing endeavors were no exceptions. Farrington talked about overcoming the most dreaded enemy of aspiring authors everywhere: writer’s block.

“When I get writer’s block I go out, go for a walk, just do something else and come back to it later,” Farrington said. “But if I still can’t write through it I’ll just start writing something. Even if it’s just ‘blah blah blah,’ eventually that will turn into sentences…and eventually I’ll fill up the whole page.”

Shefte talked about her struggle to balance writing with four AP courses: “Sometimes I did my best work at three in the morning,” she said with a laugh.

For many budding writers, the most daunting part of the process comes after they type last page of their novel. Publishing is a complex industry, and it can be difficult for new authors to navigate the ever-growing assortment of options.

One venue that has experienced a recent explosion of popularity is self-publishing. Today, there are several Internet based companies that allow authors to publish and distribute their books at a relatively low cost.

“You can make more money self-publishing,” Albright said. “Even if you sell five or ten thousand copies of your book with a mainstream publisher, you’re only going to earn about five to ten thousand dollars.”

Still, the allure of walking into a bookstore and being able to purchase your novel is appealing - and few self-published books circulate beyond the internet or local bookstores.

Once their book is published, Albright suggests that teenagers approach their local newspaper to create publicity.

“They’ll put you in the paper because if you’re a high school student who’s written a book, it’s a big deal.”

Challenges aside, all of the students agreed on one thing: “It’s a pretty cool feeling to see your name on the cover of a book,” Albright said. “It’s a really neat experience.”

Do you aspire to writing a novel of your own? My next blog post will provide you with some basic tips to begin the process.

Common sense makes it clear that movies should be superior to their written counterparts. Reading a novel is like translating a foreign text - filtering the words until they form a picture in your mind that gives them life and illuminates their meaning. When you watch a movie, someone else has already distilled the text for you, and breathed life into it in the form of high-tech graphics and blaring surround sound. In theory, you are receiving all of the pleasure contained in a book without having to put forth any of the effort in reading it. But somehow, the film versions of popular books always manage to fall short. By understanding the nature of the “spark” that’s lost in translation, we can better insure that the same captivating essence does not escape our own written stories.

The first misstep made by films is their tendency to streamline the tales they tell. Too many unrelated tangents can dilute the plot and confuse the reader, but too few create a paucity of character development outside of their immediate actions and reduce a fantasy world to two dimensions. When I saw the first Harry Potter movie, I was appalled at the number of inside jokes and Hogwarts secrets that were carelessly discarded or never properly explained. So how does this apply to crafting a successful narrative? The key message is to never abandon your setting or characters for the sake of your plot. A story is not just an outline or a sequence of events, and the players contained within are not just pawns. To keep a reader engaged, you have to make them care about the fate of your hero and experience the same emotions that he or she feels. To completely immerse a reader in your story, you must make the world around them real enough that they begin to believe that it could exist, and, more importantly, that it will continue to exist, traveling along an unpredictable path after the last page has been turned.

The second rule almost universally violated by movies is a paradoxal one. Writers are frequently told to “show, not tell” a sequence of events to their audience. Movies show everything, but through this overexposure “showing” becomes more like “telling” in that the viewer does not have to figure anything out for him or herself. No subtexts or secret thoughts can be shown on the screen - they must be told directly to the audience through picture. Be wary of this pitfall in your own writing. Most readers expect a story to give them clues that lead to a mental image that may or may not be exactly what the author envisioned, not to have the bare-bones of the story forcibly fed to them.

Yesterday, I went with my family to see Prince Caspian. The movie was not bad (I will leave it up to the Movie Blog to post a more complete review), but I couldn’t help thinking that I would rather be reading the novel.

Every month, I will be highlighting one popular and enduring creature from sci-fi/fantasy literature in a special feature article. We will trek through the depths of mythology and legend to uncover the intimate details of the world’s greatest beasts. Ever wondered whether a werewolf is more susceptible to silver bullets or wolfsbane? Want to learn the difference between the dragons of the East and the West? Then don’t touch that mouse -this creature feature is just for you. 

Our premier featured creature is one with which I am sure you are all familiar…master of the night, coinsure of all things salty and crimson…the vampire.

Stakes, Sun, and Serum
The most remarkable aspect of vampiric legends is their lack of conformity. The classic tales that serve as the basis for our image of the vampire today rose from the mists of Southwest Europe in the early part of the 18^th century. Vampires were usually portrayed as bloated, walking corpses that were deep red or even purple in coloration - a result of their nightly feedings on human blood. Rather than capes or cloaks, the first vampires were clothed in their burial shrouds. While hibernating in its coffin, the left eye of a vampire remained open - the left was viewed as the corrupt or evil side in the Christian church at this time. It wasn’t until the publication of Bram’s Stoker’s Dracula that the modern tall, pale stereotype of the creatures of the night reigned supreme.

Origins of the Myth
There has been a plethora of speculation over the centuries on the origins of the vampire legend, but, as with most mythical creatures, no definitive theory. Rabies has been suggested as one possible progenitor of the myth because it can cause bloody foaming at the mouth, and the rats, bats, and wolves that spread it were also commonly associated with vampires in folklore. Others believe that a rare blood disorder called porphyria may have been the source of inspiration. But the most likely originator was the natural decomposition process of corpses, which, due to the build up of gasses inside the body, could cause the traditional “ruddy” color of vampires. Skin pulls away from the body after death, creating the illusion of hair and nails that continue to grow past the grave.

Becoming Batty
So how was a vampire created in the first place? In China, animals were said to spread the plague - any recently deceased human whose body was jumped over by a dog or cat was in danger of joining the ranks of the undead. Later, a bite or visit from a vampire, especially if it had been a relative in life, was said to be enough to spark a transformation.

Unnatural Powers
While the first vampires did not have many supernatural powers (other than the ability to rise from the dead, that is), one characteristic that was commonly attributed to them was the ability to transform themselves into rats, bats, wolves, spiders - even moths. Modern vampires have expanded their repertoire, and are sometimes said to have enhanced strength, speed, sight, or hearing, the gift of flight, or the ability to enter closed rooms and hypnotize victims.

Van Helsing Speaks - Protecting Yourself Against the Thirsty Undead
Holy water or sacred objects are the most commonly cited means of protection against vampires. Garlic, hawthorn, and wild rose are also effective. In Europe, mustard seeds sprinkled over the roof of a house were said to keep the undead at bay. Mirrors were often used in folklore to distract or repel vampires, because it was said that a vampire had no reflection. An aversion to light was not part of the original mythology, however, and only entered the popular image after the movie Nosferatu was produced in 1922. And for getting rid of that pesky bloodsucker? Nothing beats a stake through the heart.

Vampires around the World
The sheer variety of vampire myths around the world is overwhelming. In Bulgaria, vampires only have one nostril; in Albania, they always wear high-heeled shoes. In Mexico, the chupacabra feeds on the milk of goats, sucking entire flocks dry over the course of a single night. In Africa, the adze vampire is said to be able to take the form of a firefly and hunt children.

Thirsty for more? I suggest you start with the father of all vampire novels - Dracula itself. Or, for a more current take on the legend, try Thirsty by M.T. Anderson, or the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer, which combines bloodlust with the, er, more conventional sort.

One of the most fundamental skills for any writer is the ability to see the world from an unfamiliar prospective: that of your characters. This is an even more important capability for writers of science fiction and fantasy, who may have to accurately portray the perspective of an alien from another galaxy or a member of the undead. Compelling, relatable characters can become the bridges that pull readers from this reality into another that has been turned upside down. Today I am going to introduce a simple template that you can use to practice creating unique viewpoints and shifting between the narratives of vastly different personas.

First, the setting. I am going to give you a location as an example, but any place you could think of would do just as well - just remember to keep it simple. While I will have blog posts in the future that go into the intricacies of “setting the stage” for your story, the setting you choose for this exercise does not have to be overly complex to suit our purposes.

Imagine an ancient room, painted in shades of purple and grey. Cobwebs dangle from the corners of the ceiling and across an ancient, sturdy desk against one wall. A giant tribal mask carved out of wood hangs over a dark-stained marble mantel. There is an old chess set sitting askew on the table in the middle of the room, between two chairs with their backs facing inwards.

Now I am going to give you a list of “characters,” from which you should pick two or more:

The mask
An ant crawling along the edge of the desk
The white knight from the chess set
A black pawn
A confederate-era ghost haunting the corner
A creaky wall
A spider on the floor
A man (or woman) sitting in one of the chairs
Anything else you can think of

Take your first pick and write a paragraph from that creature or object’s point of view. First consider the five senses. What do they see, what do they hear, how do they feel, what do they want? What things do they notice in the room, and what things would they be likely to overlook? Think about speech patterns. Would they be more likely to speak slowly or quickly, with an accent or with none? For example, I imagine the spider speaking (or thinking) in quick, one or two word staccato sentences, while the ancient mask growls in low, fluid paragraphs. Where did your character come from, and how did they come to be in this room? You could even extend this into a full story if you wanted.

Now, switch characters and repeat the exercise. What was different between the two paragraphs? What do you think were the most important factors that shaped each character, and why?

Here’s a test to see if you can keep your characters’ voices distinct: what would happen if they got into a conversation?

You can repeat this exercise as many times as you like, or even use it to “test drive” characters before you write them into a story or introduce them into novel situations. Try looking for interesting pictures in old magazines (National Geographic works well) that could provide a new setting and characters that you might not have imagined on your own.

If you end up with some interesting results, I would love to hear about it in the comments section (or you can make your own guest post on this blog). Stay tuned for more on character development in the coming posts!

Even though fantasy and science fiction often take place in worlds that are fundamentally different from our own, that doesn’t mean that they can’t be tools for creating social commentary and real change. From George Orwell’s critique of totalitarian government and privacy in Nineteen Eighty-Four to Fahrenheit 451, a novel by Ray Bradbury that decries censorship and a lack of reading and education, social commentary has long held a place in the realms of the fantastic. More subtle themes are often present in fantasy books, such as J.K. Rowling’s denunciation of the oppressive and violent “Death Eaters” in the Harry Potter series.

Metaphor and satire are common elements in science fiction and fantasy that target social change (one of the most obvious examples of this can be found in Orwell’s Animal Farm, which substitutes different kinds of farm animals for the people in a society with a corrupt, repressive government). This type of analysis can produce some of the most cutting denunciations of the negative aspects of a society because it creates a perceived distance between the target audience and the fictionalized world, allowing readers to gain a more objective view of the good and bad features of their own reality. It also allows an author to extrapolate a problem or injustice to its most extreme conclusion, giving others a glimpse of what the future might hold if they continue down their present path.

If you are bothered by a problem or injustice in your own community, why not try writing a story about it in the form with which you are most familiar? You can use any setting to illustrate the problem, from a slightly altered view of your school to a remote planet on the edge of the galaxy. Remember, critiques can range from overt good-vs-evil epic battles to a subtle undercurrent beneath the surface of your tale. Different techniques work better for different problems, and you might want to try a few to see which is most effective. Publishing your story in your school newspaper or literary journal could help to draw attention to the problem and generate discussion among other students – which is often the first step to discovering a solution.

So, the original Robin Hood is great, if a bit rustic. The BBC TV show’s not the greatest written show in the history of broadcasting, but OK. Some of the Stateside films are good.

But what I’m looking for is a good Robin Hood book spin off. If anybody knows of any, would you mind tipping me off?

Hello blog readers and fellow sci-fi/fantasy fanatics! Today I have decided to step out from behind the metaphorical curtain and introduce myself and the history of my interest in the genre of all things extraordinary.

My name is Megan, and I am a high school student and aspiring writer. It is difficult to specify when I became interested in science fiction and fantasy, because I cannot remember a time when I was not inventing imaginary worlds and creatures in my head. From Dune to the Dragonriders of Pern, Neil Gaiman to Garth Nix, I am an avid reader of classic and recent novels. (By the way, I highly recommend these series and authors to those of you who may not be familiar with them. Reading a wide range of writing styles is the best way to learn how to distinguish good writing from bad and to acquire literary tools for your own pieces. But I would offer one small caveat - although you never know what you might like until you try it, do not force yourself to read something you despise. Reading is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, not labored or unpleasant). I believe that the fantasies we create can sometimes reveal more about us as people and writers than realistic fiction, or even poetry. From dragons (perhaps originating from the mysterious fossilized remains of dinosaurs) to deadly viruses from the expanses of outer space, fantasy and science fiction are windows into the hopes and dreams of human cultures and consciences.

In this blog, I will share tools that I have found helpful in my own writing, explore the origins and significance of historic characters, plots, and settings, review the latest science fiction and fantasy novels, and feature interviews from the experts, among other topics. Most of all, I want to make this blog an interactive experience where you, the readers, can participate and offer feedback. I want your interests to inform the content of these posts as much as mine. Do you want to see contests, writing prompts and exercises, recommended reading lists, or something else altogether? Just leave a suggestion in the comments section and I will do my best to fulfill your expectations (within reason - needless to say, the content of this blog is, and will remain, rated PG). And, speaking of comments, I encourage you to use them to share your opinions on the topics that interest you. Whether you loved or hated a post, I want to hear about it. Needless to say, I am new at blogging and always eager to improve!

Until next time,

Megan M.

When writing a short story, it can be difficult to decide just how many and what kind of details to include. It’s important to anchor a narrative in space and time, after all, but it is equally important not to weigh it down with too much dialogue or back story. One idea that I have found helpful in my own writing is the “snapshot principle.” In essence, the snapshot principle says that you should view a short story as one image or event frozen in time, adding enough detail to hint at the past and future of the subject of your “photograph” without creating pandemonium by trying to squeeze everything into a too-small frame.To give an example, let’s say that you wanted to write a story about Jack, a farmer boy who lives in a kingdom that is under siege. Originally, you might be tempted to write about Jack’s every step, from finding a magic sword, to battling griffins and dragons, to rising through the ranks of warriors to lead his people against their enemies. But if you need to keep your story brief because you are planning to enter it in a contest or submit it to your school’s literary magazine, this might not be the best course to take. What begins as a unique and engaging story can quickly be diluted into a monotonous list of half-glimpsed events when paper space is limited. Instead, it might be far more effective to choose just one of the major events in your imagined story – say, Jack’s discovery of his magical sword – and go into detail about the thorns of the tangled bracken he must stumble through, the feeling of dirt under his fingernails as he digs the ancient weapon out from the surrounding earth, and his emotions when he first glimpses its silver sheen. The circumstances that brought Jack to the glade can be alluded to in a couple of carefully placed sentences, leaving the reader eager to learn more of the story without bowling her over with information.