 Fantasy: December 18, 2013 Issue [#6050] |
  Fantasy
This week: Point of View Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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Nothing's beautiful from every point of view.
-Horace
In a portrait, you have room to have a point of view. The image may not be literally what's going on, but it's representative.
-Annie Leibovitz
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.
-Harper Lee |
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I've been doing the past few newsletters on different aspects of world-building, but I'm going to take a break here and discuss point of view.
There have been a few things I've looked at recently that made me think that some of us need work on the subject. Not that the writing itself was bad, but when it hops from one character's head to another's without any break or warning, it becomes jarring to the reader.
In most writing, this isn't a mortal sin; just something to watch out for. But in fantasy and science fiction, which often have nonhuman characters, there are some special considerations.
I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who lately, so I'm going to use that as an example. In Doctor Who, we have an alien who appears human (to him, we look Time Lord), but is not. He has an alien set of outlook and experience. To help the viewers relate to that, then, all incarnations of Doctor Who have had companions. While the companions are usually, but not always, Earth humans, they serve a purpose in the story beyond being people to rescue, or to rescue the Doctor: they're what I'll call interlocutors.
So the Doctor will be running around doing stuff, and the companion will say something like "What are you doing now?" To which he'll respond something like "I'm reversing the polarity of the neutron flow." Okay, so that particular example doesn't help a lot, because it's nonsensical, but the point is that while we're watching a show about the Doctor that stars the Doctor, the companion is someone to whom he has to explain things - someone who stands in for the rest of us in terms of narrative. She or he is therefore indispensable to visual storytelling.
In writing, then, we have a similar situation: we're trying to explain stuff to the reader without boring them. We do have one advantage as story writers as opposed to screenwriters, though, in that we can peek inside an alien's head. The problem with that, though, is that the head is alien - its thoughts may not be relatable to a human reader; and if they are, then why make the alien, well, alien?
So in addition to my usual advice about point of view (which is to pick one and stick with it until there's a section or chapter break, after which you can change POV), I also suggest having an interlocutor. While it would be an interesting exercise (I've done it myself) to have an all-alien cast, it can be tricky for a reader to navigate, and difficult for a reader to relate to the characters.
That's why Douglas Adams (who was, for a time, a script editor and writer for Doctor Who) tells most of the Hitchhiker's "trilogy" from the point of view of the Earth human, Arthur Dent.
Now, it doesn't have to be done that way, but it's a popular construction. It can also be enlightening to sometimes see the point of view of the Other (be it alien or elf or whatever), to demonstrate, among other things, alien thought processes; just don't mix the two in the same scene by having something like: "Charlie thought that the group should push on, but Ix'teco'narf was tired."
[As an aside, that scene could be rewritten from Charlie's, Ix'teco'narf's, or some other point of view. For example:
"No," said Charlie. "We should keep moving. It's not even dark yet."
Ix'teco'narf felt her anterior cilia beginning to stiffen, and suppressed her irritation at the annoying human. "We're on Rigon," she pointed out, her mandibles struggling to produce the human language. "It never gets dark."
That's the alien's point of view. If you were following Charlie at the moment, you might describe his difficulty in understanding the alien's words.]
It can also be interesting, amusing and/or enlightening to describe humans from an alien point of view, especially when contrasted with a human's view of the same alien. But the alien point of view should be alien. Maybe it's something we'd like to aspire to, but often don't have, like a strong sense of empathy; or maybe it's something inimical, like an overwhelming xenophobia. And xenophobia from aliens, of course, will translate to hatred of humans. Or maybe it's a quality that we humans just don't have - and if you can come up with one, great!
In summary, keep point of view in mind when writing anything, but take special care with it when writing fantasy and/or science fiction. |
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Last time, in "Magic (and Science)" , I discussed some of the physical constraints on magic or science.
ENB  : Very good point about the total strain it would take for a person to emit a shock wave or something with magic. I kind of use this point as an explanation as to why my sorcerers don't just destroy a whole evil army with their magic. It just physically exhausts them.
Yep - though even if the wizard is merely the conduit for energy from a different source, there's still a limit to the energy available.
Joshiahis : I chuckled at this newsletter. We have too much in common. Which can be a dangerous thing in large portions... You can replace Einstein's equation with your own... but deletion shouldn't be an option. Whether magic or science, its use should make sense. (I still get into arguments with LoTR fans when I ask why didn't they use the bloody eagles at the START of the journey and save us all the trouble...)
I just want to know why, at the end of the first Hobbit movie (and don't get me started on "first Hobbit movie"), the giant eagles couldn't have dropped them off closer to the mountain. Or at least on the freaking ground instead of on top of a sheer-sided spire.
BIG BAD WOLF Feeling Thankful  : Some times the source of magic depends on the story. In the Runescape game, magic comes from special stones called Runes, or from enchanted Magical Staffs. In the Inheritance series, magic comes from energy- from the person or another living thing. In the Dragon Knight series, it comes from a "banking account-like" service. [Submitted Item: "Anthros Versus Zombies" [18+]]
Yep, we have lots of choices - though in the Runescape example, there's still the question of where the energy came from in the first place, if they can be considered to be similar to batteries or capacitors.
Bob DeFrank  : I think it was Ursula K Leguin that said the only rule for a fantasy world was that the rules had to be consistent. For that matter, I notice there's a lot of overlap in sci fi and fantasy these days. On the sci-fi side, Hannu Rajaniemi's Fractal Prince series has incredibly advanced science that often manifests in fantasy scenarios as humans express themselves via myths, legends and memes made manifest by science.
True, so the lines between genres aren't always that clear-cut, which is why I tend to address both in this newsletter.
Mike Makara : Hey! Great newsletter. I read it every week. Good point with the law of conservation of matter. Sometimes I feel that magic in a story is just far too unrealistic, albeit a silly thing to say. If you're interested, take a look at this submission. It's a nice bit of fantasy that I'm (somewhat) working on. [Submitted Item: "Briarthorn, Chapter One, Part One" [13+]]
Thanks! Looks like a good start to a story. I'm a big fan of the Elder Scrolls games (and sometimes I'm a beta-tester for Elder Scrolls Online, the advent of which will mark my disappearance from this world), so I hope you'll continue with the story! Speaking of Elder Scrolls, some of the in-game "books" provide good examples of flash fiction.
And that's it for me for this year! See you in January. Until then,
DREAM ON!!!
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