Fantasy Friday – World Building

I’ve been thinking about world building a bit more as I’ve worked on the pre-writing for my next book, the one after The Lore of Efrathah. I don’t know a lot about it yet, but I’m already getting the idea that it will have different world building components than the largely rural journey-quest epic I’m finishing.

Thinking about world building has also made me wonder what a non-fantasy writer has to do regarding world building. A fantasy world is something a writer builds from the ground up.

True, some fantasies take place in this world but have fantasy components. That kind of jigsaw-puzzle world building might be harder than the ground-up kind. I don’t know.

I suppose the contemporary world building has to do with selecting places and visiting them to get facts right. Historical world building might be hardest of all because it is ground up but must be true. Lots of research required!

I’ve done some research for my world building, but for the most part, because I’ve been privileged to travel a lot, I relied on what I knew about different places.

The hard part was that I didn’t know what I was doing when I started. So I hadn’t thought through what I should do to create some language elements. I had no intention of actually making up a new language—just writing a few words here and there.

But that soon morphed to include a few lines of poetry and song, greetings, blessings, and on and on. Of course, there needs to be some rhyme or reason to it all, so there needed to be a little basic grammar. But some of the words didn’t fit the rules. Oh, well, that’s more like real language, I decided. Lots of exceptions to the rules in English, so why not in the language of the Hidden Races?

Organizational structure was another thing I hadn’t anticipated. Who was in charge? What power does the advisory council have? What are the military rankings?

And how many people are we talking about? Is this a well-populated land or sparsely so?

How about commerce? What kinds of businesses exist in the cities? Are the people literate and if so, how important are books? Theater? Entertainment?

Questions, questions, questions—all needing answers if the world is to feel real.

Not that the author needs to inform the reader of all the answers. But if the world is to work consistently, the author needs to make it run by a cohesive set of rules. In so doing, the reader may never think about “world building.”

Except for maps. I love maps. I make maps for everything in my world because I need to see the logistics in order to make sure my characters are where I’ve said they are.

My inclination is to include every map I’ve ever made in my book. Won’t readers want to see these maps too? Well, maybe not. I’ve read some notes in which readers say they are turned off by maps (and glossaries).

The only maps I’m turned off by are the ones that aren’t complete. Something happens in the story and I turn to the map to see where this place is in relation to the others, and it isn’t there! Horrors! That’s a map that detracts from the book if ever one does as far as I’m concerned.

How about you? Do maps help world building do you think, or hurt it?

If Readers Are Choosing …

Nominations are coming in for the Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction—a very exciting happenstance. Eventually all the nominations will be arranged alphabetically and listed in one place.

For now I’m collecting the nominations and posting them over at the award site (here and here). To be honest, I’m surprised at the growing number of books.

Surprised, but pleased. Fans should want to see a book they liked receive recognition.

However, as the list grows, I can’t help but worry that we’re going to end up with an exhaustive list rather than a Best of the Year list. Maybe that’s OK.

But I want to avoid something that I think will water down the Clive Staples Award—making it a popularity contest, not a genuine “readers liked this book best” award.

Popularity contests work like this: someone nominates a book he likes, then he or the author or both solicit votes from their friends, whether they’ve read the book or not. The contest, then, does not measure the popularity of the book but of the people asking others to vote.

In contrast, a true Readers’ Choice Award will involve only readers who have read the selections and who understand the standards for good fiction. They vote for the one book they thought qualified as the best of the year.

The rules for voting for the Clive Staples Readers’ Choice Award are simple. Participants must have read at least two of the nominated books.

Last year the requirement was to have read one, meaning that friends who weren’t really speculative fiction readers could still participate, though they hadn’t read any of the other books nominated for the award.

So this year, to encourage participation from the reading public and not just from authors’ fan bases, we’ve added a second book requirement.

Consequently, the logical thing, as I see it, is for authors to encourage they fans to read at least one of the competitors’ books in order to be eligible to vote. :-p

After all, if Readers are choosing, then they should be reading the books in order to make an informed decision, don’t you think?

What to Do About Apostasy?

Sometime the abundance of false teaching discourages me. On one side are professing Christians claiming freedom in Christ (or dismissing the authority of Scripture) in order to live immoral lives. These individuals claim knowledge of God based on their own intuition—God who is good must be like A because I think A is good. Using this argument, they condone premarital sex, homosexuality, greed, selfishness, pride, and any number of other vices the Bible teaches against.

Of course there is another camp that preaches the importance of holding God to his word. If he said it and you claim it, God has to come through. It’s a formula. Put in your faith, push God’s promise button, and out will come what you want. (When Satan tried this tactic with Jesus, God’s Son answered him by a principle laid out in the Bible: “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST'” [Luke 4:12].)

Apostasy—falling away from the faith—doesn’t stop there. Some fall away because of ignorance—they haven’t learned what the Bible says. As a result they are crushed when trouble comes, perhaps because they expected Christianity to make life easier only to discover it doesn’t.

Jesus spelled this out when he explained the parable of the sower and seed:

The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.
– Matthew 13:20-21 (emphasis mine)

Apostasy exists today and seems to be growing. More TV “evangelists” and authors and emergent thinkers spring up every day it seems.

But this past Sunday I heard a sermon that reminded me God told us apostasy would grow.

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits
– I Timothy 4:1a

Which takes us to the question under consideration: what to do about apostasy? God through the Apostle Paul, to Timothy again, had the answer:

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
– 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Pretty clear: Preach the word. Reprove, rebuke, exhort. And when people turn away, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

In other words, people’s response should not dictate what a Christian does or does not do. Some ridicule missionary work. Some mock evangelism. Some denigrate the teaching of the Word of God from the pulpit Sunday after Sunday as passe or irrelevant. Some tear down “preachy Christian messages” in fiction (not because they are poorly executed—that’s another issue—but because they are Christian).

None of those criticisms should keep pastors from preaching, evangelists from evangelizing, missionaries from spreading the gospel, or writers from writing stories with themes consistent with God’s Word.

The believer’s mandate is to make disciples. Apostasy might make it tougher but shouldn’t change the goal.

Making Characters Likable

When I get a chance, I’ll jump into the discussion about climate change, but I’m sagging off the topic to write about what’s on my mind now. I just finished an editing project and am back at work on my own writing. This is what I love, but I feel like I’m still learning.

This weekend I was once again thinking about the magic that happens when a reader takes to a character in a novel. For one, readers are forgiving of lots of other things—wordy descriptions, predictable outcomes, sketchy settings, plodding prose.

Mind you, I’m not advocating the idea that writers should concentrate on writing great characters so they can slide by in other areas. I’m just saying, when readers fall in love with a character, they will overlook other problems.

Another bit of the magic that occurs—readers don’t forget books when they love the character. They may even line up to get the next one, if the same character is the star.

But most importantly, I think, when readers love a character, they think about the character’s dilemma and heart aches and decisions and dangers and changes. In other words, they are engaged with the character in a way that makes them think about the larger issues.

The question is, how does a writer create characters like this? Over the years I’ve written on this subject quite a bit, but I think I stumbled on something I hadn’t thought of before, at least when writing female characters. (OK, I just saw this same “discovery” in a post I wrote three and a half years ago, so I guess this isn’t new at all. I just forgot it! 😳 )

I think a likable character will not only have strengths and weaknesses, be larger than life, be properly motivated, and have all the other necessary elements, but also will have vulnerability. A character readers love is a character they feel compassion for. Not pity. And not disdain.

So the character can’t feel sorry for herself or do stupid things because of the plight she’s in. She needs to be strong enough to keep going forward, but not so strong she seems to need no one else.

As I think about it, I belief Knife in R. J. Anderson’s wonderful Faery Rebels is an example of this kind of character. She was tough and resourceful and eager to be out in the world, but when she got there, she came face to face with things she didn’t have and people she didn’t want to lose. The further into the story, the more her vulnerability showed.

Anyway, now I have to think about whether or not this trait is something male protagonists need too, and if so, in what ways it differs from their female counterparts. Your thoughts?

Embracing Climate Change

Announcements.
*Please don’t forget to vote for the CSFF Top Tour Blogger for April (Raven’s Ladder Tour).

*Nominations are open for the Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction. Now is the time to tell your friends about the Readers’ Choice Award so they can become participants, either by nominating their favorite book or by reading at least two of the nominations so they may vote. Spread the word. Nominations may be made here or at the award site.

The Topic. Climate change? What does that have to do with fiction or a Christian worldview? A lot, I think, at least when it comes to the latter.

Climate change, many in the media say, is a direct cause of man’s misuse of the environment, and if we but change our habits we can preserve the earth for future generations.

Christians often counter with skepticism. For one thing “climate change” used to be called “global warming,” but since the science isn’t there to support the theory that the earth is heating up, the term has changed.

Also, the cause of any perceived change can’t actually be traced to human practices (manufacturing, use of fossil fuels, etc.) since there are too many other factors and no way to run an experiment isolating one potential cause over the others. In other words, there is no real way to use the scientific method to determine the truth or error of the hypothesis.

So in view of this shaky science, why am I suggesting we should embrace global warming?

I believe liberals unintentionally are reporting what the Bible said nearly two thousand years ago, namely that Man is to blame for the decay of our environment. The difference is that liberal environmentalists claim this decay started with man’s use of fossil fuels whereas the Bible says the decay started when Man first sinned.

For one thing, God told Adam he would have to earn his food by the sweat of his brow. Perhaps this was only because of Adam’s change of address—from #1 Place, Garden, to Some Where, Out There.

But other changes occurred. The animals, once friendly with each other and with Man, no longer were. The land mass which was at one time together, divided. A catastrophic flood covered the earth. Devastating plagues decimated the Nile basin.

In fact, the Bible records numerous droughts and resulting famines. Major rivers the Bible mentions have all but dried up; some have vanished. According to Hillary Mayell of the National Geographic News, “8,000 to 10,000 years ago, what is now desert was probably lush savannah and grasslands. Today the Sahara is hot and arid, the land sandy, rainfall minimal, and vegetation sparse.”

A study in 2008 at Lake Yoa in Chad bears this out:

[The study] found evidence for a slow decline in tropical plants, followed by the gradual loss of savanna-type grasslands, and then the eventual spread of desert species.

Pollen samples revealed, for example, that the decrease in tropical trees accelerated after 4,800 years ago, while desert plants took root between 3,900 and 3,100 years ago.
– James Owens, “Once Lush Sahara Dried Up Over Millennia, Study Says,” National Geographic News.

Zoom forward to more recent times. Scientists have noted that for years the Sahara Desert, larger than the size of the US, has been encroaching on bordering savanna. In the decade between 1980 and 1990, the southern boundary moved south over 80 miles.

Of course, one scientist has now reported that in the last twenty years images reveal “extensive regreening” of the semiarid savanna in the south due to global warming.

The transition may be occurring because hotter air has more capacity to hold moisture, which in turn creates more rain, said Martin Claussen of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany
– James Owen, “Sahara Desert Greening Due to Climate Change?” National Geographic News.

I can’t help but wonder just how warm the air has to become for it to hold moisture. Weren’t the hundred-plus-degree days previous to “global warming” enough to hold moisture? But I’m getting sidetracked.

Why should we embrace climate change? Because the idea that the earth isn’t what it once was is completely consistent with what the Bible says:

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
– Rom 8:20-22 (emphasis mine)

In addition, taking care of our environment is completely consistent with God’s direction to Adam in the beginning.

Why, then, should we not embrace what the Bible says? The liberal media may have the facts wrong and certainly have the wrong idea that Man can fix a broken earth, but their conclusions and Scripture lead to the same place: Man is at fault for the mess we’re in, and Man should act responsibly to care for our world.

Why would we fight those conclusions?

Changes in the CSFF On-line Community

My apologies for the week of blog-lite. I’ve been under the weather, but expect to return to the regular schedule and “normal” content next week.

One of the major sources for on-line Christian science fiction and fantasy over the past half-dozen years has been The Sword Review which morphed into Mindflights when it merged with Dragons, Knights, and Angels (commonly referred to as DKA) in 2008. The virtual magazine was backed by a small press, Double-Edged Publishing (DEP), as was Haruah, Fear and Trembling, TeenAge, and Ray Gun Revival.

A recent report indicates that DEP administration will be changing hands as founders Cameron Walker and Bill Snodgrass step aside to pursue other interests. The new administrators reportedly plan to focus on the book side of the small press while cutting ties with the on-line magazines.

Fear and Trembling has announced that the May issue will be their last. Ray Gun Revival will produce two more issues under the DEP umbrella, then reconstitute itself (rising like the Phoenix from ashes) and continue in the fall as a non-paying on-line publication. No word yet about the future of Mindflights, TeenAge, or Haruah, but one thing seems certain—they will not continue as they have been.

I have to admit, with the anticipated increase in readers obtaining fiction digitally rather than through hard copies, I’m surprised at this change. Maybe the change is no different than breaking up Ma Bell—all these satellite entities will continue on in a smaller form with the better and more popular ones rising to full strength in the future. At any rate, you may wish to take a farewell look at the magazines in these closing months of operation under DEP. Because one thing appears certain—change is afoot.

Clive Staples Award – 2010: Accepting Nominations

It’s that time of year again – book awards are beginning. The Christy Award nominations came out recently. The ACFW Book of the Year judging is underway. I’m sure there are a host of other fiction awards soon to be made as well.

In 2007 a group of Christian speculative fiction writers conceived of an award to draw attention to our genre and especially to call attention to the best books being published in that category.

Because of organizational issues, the Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction took nominations for two years without choosing a winner. However, in 2009 the award turned to a Readers’ Choice format, and Donita Paul became the first winner.

Once again it’s time to accept nominations.

The books that are eligible are those considered Christian because of overt Christian content or a Christian worldview, published in English by a royalty paying publisher from January 2009 through December 2009 in the science fiction/fantasy/allegory/futuristic/supernatural/supernatural suspense category.

Of course, we’re not looking for an exhaustive list but the books readers believe to be the best in the category. Below are standards to consider.

If you would like to nominate a book, please leave a comment including the title, author, and publisher.

Nominations for the Clive Staples Award should be evaluated in these categories:

Writing Style/Mechanics

Does the quality of the author’s prose (syntax, tone, voice, pacing etc.) enhance the story?

Do concrete and particular details appeal to various senses and strengthen each scene?

Is there a balance between exposition and dramatization (telling and showing)?

Are there errors in word use, spelling, grammar, paragraphing, and punctuation?

Setting

Is the setting well established and realistic?

Are the speculative elements believable and necessary to the story?

Characterization

Does the main character have clear internal and external goals?

Are the characters complex, with both strengths and weaknesses?

Are the characters believably and realistically motivated?

Is dialogue natural and does it contribute to characterization so that each person possess a unique voice?

Is there discernible and appropriate character development?

Plot

Is the story structured with a clearly recognizable arc of conflict, crisis, and resolution?

Does the narrative flow, or does it tend toward the disjointed?

Are the obstacles to be overcome sufficiently challenging to the protagonists?

Are the complications and the protagonist’s efforts to overcome them unpredictable?

Is the resolution innovative? Credible? Authentic?

Theme

Does the story contain a central or dominating idea?

Does the theme arise from the characters and events of the story?

Is the theme consistent with a Christian worldview?

Does the theme overwhelm the story, or is it well integrated into the story?

CSFF April Tour Wrap – Raven’s Ladder

Another excellent CSFF tour last week. Thirty-five sites featured Jeffrey Overstreet’s Raven’s Ladder in fifty-four posts. We had one of the best interviews I’ve read posted by Rachel Starr Thomson (click on this link for part one), a review of previous books in the series by Phyllis Wheeler and Jason Joyner; reviews by Robert Treskillard and Chawna Schroeder, and of course the always popular Tuesday Tunes by Steve Trower.

And now, those bloggers eligible for the CSFF April (Raven’s Ladder) Top Tour Blogger Award. To be eligible, these participants posted at least three times.

√ √ √ Shane Deal
√ √ √ Emmalyn Edwards
√ √ √ Jason Joyner
√ √ √ John W. Otte
√ √ √ √ Rachel Starr Thomson
√ √ √ Fred Warren

You’re invited to take a look at the posts and then vote for the blogger you believe deserves the latest installment of the CSFF Top tour Blogger! You’ll have one week to register your opinion. Thanks for your participation.