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Tips to keep your Fantasy World realistic

February 8, 2009 in Best Of, Fantasy, On Writing

I don’t want to go into a whole spiel about keeping fantasy worlds realistic because I’m no expert myself.

I used to wonder why fantasy worlds need to be realistic in the first place.  After all, it is fantasy.  Why can’t writers do whatever they want?  Well, perhaps realistic is not the right word – it’s more about allowing readers to suspend belief and not keep questioning why things don’t make sense to them.  So it’s really about keeping the fantasy world inherently logical – at least within its own confines.

Apart from paying attention to detail and reading over everything carefully to ensure the story makes sense from a logical perspective, writers often also have to research things in the real world that are common with their fantasy world.

For instance, if your fantasy world has horses, you should ensure that they resemble horses in the real world.  Even though it’s fantasy, readers will scoff at horses that can run a hundred miles an hour for days without break or food (of course, you can always explain that it is a ‘magical horse’, but that may test the credulity and patience of some readers who have trouble suspending belief).  Similarly, if your world has electric lights, the people should at least know about electricity.  It’s a matter of keeping the world in line with the reader’s sense of reality and logic whenever possible.

Here are two general articles which provide a good star: Creating a Realistic Fantasy World by Penny Ehrenkranz and Suspending Disbelief by Dr Vicki Hinze.

Anyway, while doing some research on my own fantasy world, I came across a few articles that contain useful tips on how to keep the fantasy world realistic.

Horses

Most fantasy novels involve horses in one way or another, so it’s important to treat them right.

Here are a few articles about horses in fantasy that I found particularl useful: The Care and Feeding of Fictional Horses by Mary K Wilson and Using Horses in Fiction by Tina Morgan.

Medieval worlds

Here is an interesting website: Medieval Demographics Made Easy – Numbers for Fantasy Worlds.  If your fantasy world resembles a medieval world in any way, you should at least take a look at this site.  It provides factual information things such as population density, town populations, population spread, merchants and services, agriculture, castles etc.  You don’t have to take these statistics into account but they are a good point of reference.

Armies

Battles are another common thing in fantasy novels.  Here is an article on keeping the armies realistic, especially if they involve exclusively humans - The Numberless Hordes: Keeping Your Fantasy Armies a Little Less Fantastic by John Savage.

Plumbing

Here’s something that might come in handy.  If you want to make your fantasy world really realistic, you might want to consider the history of plumbing at theplumber.com.  It’s something that’s avoided in most novels but it doesn’t hurt knowing about it just in case.

Magic

There’s not much use of magic in my fantasy world but I thought I’d throw this in as this is about creating a fantasy world after all.

Three good articles: What is Magic Realism, Really? by Bruce Holland Rogers; What’s the Magic Word: Defining the Sources, Effects and Costs of Magic by Lital Talmor and Creating Believable Magic by Tina Morgan.

PS: Lastly, I just wanted to mention a couple of other resources – World Builder Resources, which has a ridiculous amount of links on building your world – definitely worth a visit; and Limyaael’s Fantasy Rants – a fabulous journal where Limyaael rants about things that annoy him in fantasy novels.  You may not agree with everything he says, but his posts provide an incredible wealth of information about how to make your fantasy novel better and how to avoid making it worse.

Slumdog Millionaire wins again, this time at WGAs

February 8, 2009 in Entertainment

writers-guild-awards

The Writers Guild Awards

Oscar favourite Slumdog Millionaire has taken another award, this time at the Writers Guild Awards handed out last night.  These awards are exclusively for the writers, and the film won for the best adapted screenplay by Simon Beaufoy.  For those didn’t know, Slumdog Millionaire is based on the novel “Q and A” by Vikas Swarup  (but there are some significant differences between the book and film).

 The other film winners were Dustin Lance Black for his best original screenplay for Milk and Ari Folman for best documentary screenplay for Waltz with Bashir.

For the full list of winners (including TV and radio), see here.

PS: I didn’t know they handed out writing awards for video games too – the winner this year was for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

‘Sorry’ Psycho: Chistian Bale speaks out about going nuts

February 8, 2009 in Entertainment

Batman's not acting so tough anymore

Batman's not acting so tough anymore

It was only a matter of time. 

Dark Knight Christian Bale finally spoke out on US radio about his ‘inexcusable’ rant, in which he was caught on tape going berserk on cinematographer Shane Hurlbut on the set of Terminator Salvation.

Batman admits he was a ‘punk’

Bale went on KROQ, an LA-based radio station, saying that he acted “like a punk” and “was out of order beyond belief.”  The embarrassed actor admitted he had a “potty mouth” and that he was hurt by the criticisms since the tape became public.  “The thing that disturbs me so much is that I’ve heard a lot of people saying that I seem to think that I’m better than anybody else,” Bale says.   “Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a very lucky and that is why I put so much into what I do, and why I care so much about it and why sometimes my enthusiasm just goes awry.”

Bale conceded: It’s been a miserable week for me…I regret that and there is nobody that has heard that tape that has been hit harder by it.”

No excuses

Despite saying that he made no excuses for his actions, Bale explained that the scene in which he flipped out was the key to the story, in which he was trying to convey the madness his character John Connor inherited from his mother, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton from the first two Terminator movies).

“Please, I want to make it clear,” Bale pleaded.  ”I am embarrassed by it. I regret it. I ask everybody to sit down and ask themselves if they have ever had a bad day and lost their temper and really regretted it immensely.”

Please see the movie!

Bale was particularly concerned that his outburst would have a negative impact on the film at the Box Office.  “I’m asking people, please do not allow my one-time lapse in judgment, my incredibly embarrassing meltdown, to overshadow this movie and to have all of those people’s hard work  go to waste.”

(NB: are you kidding?  I want to see this film more than ever now!)

They’ve made up

Bale also says that he and his victim Shane Hurlbut have since reconciled and that they have “resolved this completely”.

According to Bale, they continued to work for a number of hours after the rant and for “at least a month after that,” adding “there is no problem whatsoever.”

He even had some kind words for the cinematographer:  “I’ve seen a rough cut of the movie and he has done a wonderful job. It looks fantastic.”

Batman’s sister says he needs help

You may recall last year that Bale was arrested for allegedly assaulting his sister Sharon and mother Jenny, but was released by police after a few hours of questioning.  Well, Sharon thought her brother’s embarrassing outburst was the perfect opportunity to rub salt into the wound.

According to the Telegraph, Sharon is “concerned” for her brother.  “It’s terribly sad,” she said.  “I feel for him. He seems to be incredibly stressed and angry at the moment. This sort of behaviour is totally out of character and I think he might need help.” 

Of course, she couldn’t help but remind everyone of last year’s incident. “People might now realise that is his temper: they might understand a bit more. I wish he hadn’t carried this on so long or so fiercely. It was upsetting to hear him.”

*    *    *

I’ve been a huge fan of Bale since American Psycho, and I believe he’s sincere and we should give the guy a break and support the new movie (we can judge for ourselves just how intense the scene really was!).  He obviously has some anger control issues, but so did Bruce Wayne and Patrick Bateman, and we still love them both.

PS: For those who have not been fortunate enough to hear the legendary rant yet, you can check it out here.  Also, do yourself a favour if you haven’t heard of RevoLucian’s awesome remix of the rant.  It’s one of the best songs I’ve heard lately.  Really.

Pacers stun Magic, continue frustrating trend

February 7, 2009 in Basketball, Indiana Pacers, NBA

 

Granger scores 33 as Pacers top Magic 107-102

Granger scores 33 as Pacers top Magic 107-102

 

Pacers beat Magic 107-102, avoid sweep

After 3 conseuctive losses against totally beatable opponents (the Knicks and Timberwolves at home and the 76ers on the road without Elton Brand), I had a funny feeling that the Indiana Pacers might outdo themselves again and surprise the Orlando Magic to avoid a season sweep by a team that has thoroughly dominated in their previous 3 games.

Sure enough, the Pacers stunned the Magic 107-102 at Conseco Fieldhouse last night, adding to their list of surprising victories over league powerhouses such as the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and the Detoit Pistons.  Danny Granger scored 33 points to lead the way despite a sore knee.  Dwight Howard led Orlando with 21 points and 20 rebounds but struggled in the 4th quarter.

I have pretty much already given up on the Pacers making the playoffs this season, so wins like this just make things more frustrating.  How can a team that is capable of beating the elite teams (or at least playing them closely) still have a pathetic record of 20-31 (12th in the East)?  It just shows how wildly inconsistent they are.  Until they can learn to play on a more consistent basis (and I can’t see that happening this season), expect this bizarre trend of beating good teams but losing to bad ones continuing.

Recap of ‘dream run’ thus far

On 24 January 2009, after the Pacers’ home victory over the Houston Rockets which gave them a record of 16-27, I put up a post outlining a supposed ‘soft patch’ in the Pacers’ season schedule.  Out of the next 17 games from that date, 13 of them were against sub-0.500 teams (at least at that time) and 10 were at home.  As I put it, it was make or break time for the Pacers’ playoff hopes this season.

So how have they done so far?

Well, I suppose things are going okay, but could be a lot better.  In the first 8 games of this ‘dream run’, the Pacers have gone an ordinary 4-4.  The list goes: Charlotte (Win), @Orlando (Loss), Milwaukee (Win), Miami (Win), New York (Loss), Minnesota (Loss), @Philadelphia (Loss), Orlando (Win).  Perhaps they won one or two they should have lost (Orlando and possibly Miami at home) but they lost two or three they should have won (New York and Minnesota at home and possibly Philadelphia on the road).  They have since moved up 2 spots in the standings, from 14th to 12th, but that is more due to Toronto and Charlotte’s collapses than their stellar play.  They are still 3.5 games out from the 8th playoff spot (behind Milwaukee, 24-28).

Up next

Up next, @Washington, Cleveland, @Milwaukee, Philadelphia, @Charlotte, @Minnesota, Chicago, @New York, Memphis.  With the exception of the Cleveland game, all of these opponents should be regarded as beatable.  But don’t expect Indiana to go 8-1 (as much as I would love to), because when it comes to the Pacers, anything is possible.

Update on Fantasy World Building

February 6, 2009 in Fantasy, On Writing

Just a quick update on my earlier posts about building/creating a fantasy world and how to create a map of that world.

Today I came across the One of Us creative writing website, which has a fabulous article called ‘How to Create Fantasy Worlds’.  It’s an introductory article but it has links to other resources, including mapping, information on mythical creatures, names and languages.  There’s even a forum on it.

The website also has separate pages on writing tips and a more general discussion forum with various writing sub-categories as well as specific articles.

I think it’s a pretty cool website and aspiring writers should check it out.

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