Penumbra’s Comments (group member since Nov 21, 2011)

Penumbra’s comments from the SciYourFi group.

Buster wrote: "Penumbra wrote: "Buster wrote: "Adding to what Jonathon said...

You get to create your own world, including its history, people, places, deities, etc. I hate when people talk about realism in f..."

It is not a matter of focusing on the wrong part, it is just adding to the overall discussion. There is no disagreement that you can make up your own rules - every fiction writer does that to a certain extent. This was intended as a plea to writers, asking that they do their best to make up rules that make sense within the context of their stories. No insult or argument intended.

You'll have to put a registered trademark symbol behind the word Twinkie(R)!

Buster wrote: "Adding to what Jonathon said...

You get to create your own world, including its history, people, places, deities, etc. I hate when people talk about realism in fantasy. Some complain when some..."

YES, but ... whatever 'rules' you set up for your world and the characters that populate it MUST make sense within that world. For instance, you can't have an immortal suddenly be vulnerable to every jackdaw that comes along - unless you give a pseudo-believable reason for that to happen. NOT just 'because I say so.'

There are few things in life more irritating than reading a book that makes no sense within its own world-building. Especially in fantasy, where almost anything goes. Every author must build a world with rules of a sort and stick to those rules, or the game is off.

There has to be a logic to the story and what happens within that story. Otherwise you could write a book with a computerized plot generator that suggests your world be ruled by crocodile overlords who survey their lands in flying chariots pulled by winged cats. But every Thursday night when the moon is full, the cats' wings deform, and so the overlords can't survey their domain. And that is when the Twinkie-colored rabbit rebels come out to play havoc in the croc-overlords' realm. Now, the only real problem of logic to explain in that scenario would be the astronomical facts that allow the moon to be full every Thursday. You cannot deny the laws of physics understood by your readers unless you first understand them yourself and then create conditions where those laws REASONABLY do not apply. Once you have that established, then everything else is, as you say 'because I say so.'