Random Writing Musings
One of the hard things I've noticed about writing characters is trying not to put my particular moral views into theirs. The biggest problem I have is when it comes to eating. Jews have Views on what sort of foods it's okay to eat. Keeping Kosher and that fun stuff. My characters are not Jewish. My characters either come from a world where there's no such thing as Judaism or some of them just aren't Jewish. This means that they don't have to follow the rules of Kashrut. They can eat pork. They can have meat and milk products. They can enjoy a lobster. Now, I could come up with reasons for why the fellows who aren't from a world that has Judaism to keep similar rules to keeping Kosher but I don't think it fits into their particular society. Also I feel like it would be putting my beliefs into their mouths.
It'd be like making the elves in the Inheritance Cycle vegetarians. I would make the rules close enough to make me feel "comfortable". Which, I think, would be dangerous. After all the wizards believe that they're superior to every other humanoid on their world so they would believe their view of eating is correct. Thus they would be pushing my views (since the main POV characters I tend to use are wizards) onto the rest of the world. By doing that it would look like I was pushing my views -for I am Jewish and keep Kosher- as a I suppose the term is straw man argument. Which is not something I want to do.
Because of this I've had to make a conscious effort in food choices. It makes me feel squeamish, but I have to remember, my view of the world isn't the only view of the world. The things I value aren't things that other people would value. Especially when it comes to religion.
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In regards to NaNo.
It's strange how stories can wander off on you. I thought I was going to be writing a straight fantasy this time around, as I usually do. But I was sort of stuck on where to go after a certain point, so I decided to switch to the other side of the Rift. See, the goal of the characters was to go through a rift and retrieve an item. The world where the item is was a science fiction type world. They have technology and were able to build a gate to open portals to other worlds.
The world turned out to be very interesting and out of six thousand words-ish, four thousand have been on this world. I've learned all sorts of things. It's an Earth colony on a world with rings. The sky tends to be green and red. There are psychics but not magic users. The psychics tend to end up in the government. This particular group of psychics are part of an MiB type group. Well a cross between the MiB and Torchwood. Also that some of them have counterparts on the first world. Different names, but still, counterparts.
I just wish I knew where things were going. Mostly. It is sort of fun to be exploring uncharted territory in my universe.
It'd be like making the elves in the Inheritance Cycle vegetarians. I would make the rules close enough to make me feel "comfortable". Which, I think, would be dangerous. After all the wizards believe that they're superior to every other humanoid on their world so they would believe their view of eating is correct. Thus they would be pushing my views (since the main POV characters I tend to use are wizards) onto the rest of the world. By doing that it would look like I was pushing my views -for I am Jewish and keep Kosher- as a I suppose the term is straw man argument. Which is not something I want to do.
Because of this I've had to make a conscious effort in food choices. It makes me feel squeamish, but I have to remember, my view of the world isn't the only view of the world. The things I value aren't things that other people would value. Especially when it comes to religion.
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In regards to NaNo.
It's strange how stories can wander off on you. I thought I was going to be writing a straight fantasy this time around, as I usually do. But I was sort of stuck on where to go after a certain point, so I decided to switch to the other side of the Rift. See, the goal of the characters was to go through a rift and retrieve an item. The world where the item is was a science fiction type world. They have technology and were able to build a gate to open portals to other worlds.
The world turned out to be very interesting and out of six thousand words-ish, four thousand have been on this world. I've learned all sorts of things. It's an Earth colony on a world with rings. The sky tends to be green and red. There are psychics but not magic users. The psychics tend to end up in the government. This particular group of psychics are part of an MiB type group. Well a cross between the MiB and Torchwood. Also that some of them have counterparts on the first world. Different names, but still, counterparts.
I just wish I knew where things were going. Mostly. It is sort of fun to be exploring uncharted territory in my universe.