Hmm. I think my attraction to fantasy is similar...in fantasy, you can place people (or non-people) in situations that would never, ever happen on Earth, and see what they would do. You can get into the psyche of a race that does not exist. Fantasy is all about "what if?" even more than sci-fi, I think. I think that's the main thing I like about it.
Basically, I do not like to be forced to work with given facts. (And on a related note to that, I also don’t really like to worldbuild.)
You know, this reminds me... I write fanfic rather than original stuff specifically because I don't like to worldbuild, but I do like working with given facts. It's basically problem-solving, which tends to be the inspiration behind nearly everything I write.
It's a heck of a lot more fun trying to make the illogical fall together in a logical manner, though, which is why I prefer writing fantasy/sci-fi fanfic over purely realistic settings. I just can't escape from trying to make everything make sense, though.
Actually, I have about ten people nagging me to read it. In fact, I bought that book years ago before anyone told me to read it, but I haven't been able to yet because... many reasons, involving "something always came up."
Oddly enough, I've had similar thoughts. While working on Artifex I had the thought that there's nothing *inherently* fantasy in the plot -- I could probably transplant it to modern-day earth, and it might work. So I worried for a while that I was only writing fantasy out of force of habit
( ... )
it gives you the chance to arrange the world in service of the story.
Yeah, that's really what I'm aiming for, too.
...I guess it all came about in the first place as a result of my trying to explain my story to people who didn't read fantasy, and trying to explain what fantasy WAS, and what made it fantasy, and well. I started to question whether it really was, to begin with. And most of the fantasies I could think of had magic even if it was at a low-key level and the story wasn't driven by it.
I've been attempting to read A Game of Thrones for like three years now, I swear. It's just that every time I start reading it, something comes up and I have to stop reading.
It can be hard to explain what fantasy is, since the genre is so wide. Most people start out thinking Lord of the Rings, so explaining how the same genre includes, say, Sandman can be a stretch.
Yeah, very true. Well, technically the definition is "anything that gets published as fantasy," since it was invented as a publishing category. But that leaves you really hanging out there when someone says "What's your story about?" and you say, "Well, there's this medieval governor's daughter who's just become the new heir when her sister died, and she goes to live with her grandfather because he's a crystal trader and he can teach her about commerce, but meanwhile there's a rumor going around that the emperor's pulling troops away from the border and no one thinks that makes any sense, and she gets caught up in the movement that believes the emperor's gone nuts," and then the person who asked ME the question is staring at me like I'M nuts... XP
Basically, I do not like to be forced to work with given facts. (And on a related note to that, I also don’t really like to worldbuild.)
I started writing fantasy for that very reason- Earth seemed too constraining and a very boring setting. However, I really do like to worldbuild. It's much easier for me to remember everything about my own worlds than it is for me to remember the details of a setting for an Earth-based story.
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You know, this reminds me... I write fanfic rather than original stuff specifically because I don't like to worldbuild, but I do like working with given facts. It's basically problem-solving, which tends to be the inspiration behind nearly everything I write.
It's a heck of a lot more fun trying to make the illogical fall together in a logical manner, though, which is why I prefer writing fantasy/sci-fi fanfic over purely realistic settings. I just can't escape from trying to make everything make sense, though.
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(No, she hasn't, and I *promised* I'd stop nagging her to read it.)
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Yeah, that's really what I'm aiming for, too.
...I guess it all came about in the first place as a result of my trying to explain my story to people who didn't read fantasy, and trying to explain what fantasy WAS, and what made it fantasy, and well. I started to question whether it really was, to begin with. And most of the fantasies I could think of had magic even if it was at a low-key level and the story wasn't driven by it.
I've been attempting to read A Game of Thrones for like three years now, I swear. It's just that every time I start reading it, something comes up and I have to stop reading.
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I started writing fantasy for that very reason- Earth seemed too constraining and a very boring setting. However, I really do like to worldbuild. It's much easier for me to remember everything about my own worlds than it is for me to remember the details of a setting for an Earth-based story.
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