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Fantasy question for the weekend – how has racism been addressed in fantasy? This one really fascinates me because fantasy would seem like the perfect place to explore it, yet in most fantasies the races/species (elves/dwarves/humans) appear to get along, unless they’re at war. Even then, however, I haven’t gotten the sense of racial animus, but more that they’re evil and we’re good.  Sure, we’ve all seen the initial distrust between elf and dwarf, but it’s often more culturally motivated than out and out racism.

Has fantasy stayed too insular in creating worlds where elves, dwarves, and humans form questing groups and happily go adventuring? Not that fantasy hasn’t gotten darker, but it appears that in getting darker elves and dwarves were removed in order to explore the more troubling issues. I’m betting it can be done with all the fantasy elements firmly in place.

Sorry you can’t leave a comment here at the moment, but we’re talking about it over on FaceBook Racism in Fantasy

I can’t write with music on in the background. I’ve tried, but I find it too distracting.  But music still plays an important role in my writing. In my case, I can jot down notes and most importantly, craft scenes in my mind as the music plays. Then I write down the scene after the music has stopped (although echoes of it remain deep in my skull.)

My next novel, The Tree Line, is, to borrow a marketing tagline that’s currently in the works, Apocalypse Now meets Lord of the Rings, a fantasy that wails like Hendrix. You will therefore not be overly surprised by my music playlist. Here are a few of the songs currently in rotation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4WJlLNIsyY

This is the End

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMyH4XTlVgs

Voodoo Chile (slight return)

Paint it Black

Heavy Metal

What Are We Fighting For?

White Rabbit

Mickey Mouse Club (Full Metal Jacket)

Ballad of the Green Berets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0w6Bqma4qM

Is there (or should there be) a natural evolution in fantasy? By that I mean most fantasies have been set in something like the Middle Ages. Everything from castles to swords, archers and knights on horseback, taverns with roasting meat on a spit, and on and on. I’m not knocking that, but at the same time I find myself exploring an evolutionary path in my fantasy. That’s why I placed the Iron Elves in something like the Napoleonic era. I enjoyed mixing gunpowder and cannons with swords and magic.

So I guess what I am asking is, where would all these Medieval-like fantasies be 500 years on? Would gunpowder be invented? What about the sciences? Physics and astronomy? Medicine? I believe these worlds would evolve, but that’s not the same as saying they should, at least from a literary entertainment perspective. For the most part readers seem to be OK with evolution/progression in fantasy. But clearly, traditional fantasy still abounds. What’s changed or evolved appears to be the elimination of elves and dwarves and a downplaying of magic, at least judging by the success of series like Game of Thrones.

We’re chatting about this now over on FaceBook.

I’m still in the throes of a productive writing binge. The more I allow myself the freedom to write without editing every sentence a dozen times the faster and smoother the process goes. For those looking to break a logjam or generally get things moving I’ve found the following have been helpful:

1. No music, no tv, just a fan for white noise
2. No internet connection while writing
3. Throwing in ??? placeholders whenever I get to a place that I’m not sure about or need to do more research on this. This allows me to keep writing and not stop while I look up the various kinds of materials used to make crossbow strings in the Middle Ages.
4. Setting a goal of a scene at a time. I envision the arc of the scene, think about what I want it to convey, then write it out, knowing I’ll refine it later.
5. Minimal re-reading of previous scenes. I skim what I wrote to make sure I’m continuing in the same tone, but I resist editing the earlier scenes at this point because the intention is to move the story forward.
6. Checking in with the senses. As I write the dialogue I consider what the characters might be hearing, smelling, seeing etc. It alleviates the white room syndrome and through the details plot ideas expand.
7. Most important of all (for me) is I refuse to flay myself when a scene doesn’t initially work. Instead of spiraling down, I shrug it off and take a new swing at it. I couldn’t really do this before because the process was soooooo slow, so I would instead edit and re-edit until my eyes bled. Now that I am writing faster I find I am far more willing to junk big chunks of text because I can create more quite readily.

I’ll say it up front, I don’t watch reality tv (unless you count shows like Deadliest Catch) so I won’t be checking out the reality shows, but some of the scripted shows sound really interesting. Rewind sounds cool and reminds me of a short story a writer presented when I was at Clarion way back in 2000. High Moon and Defender so like they could be good, too. One Mile Straight Down sounds a lot like SeaQuest, which I did enjoy for a while. You can check out the shows and a rundown of what they’re about here – http://www.deadline.com/2012/04/syfy-thinks-big-with-biggest-ever-development-slate-upfronts/#comment-2586025