Lois’s answer to “My reading friends frequently have lively debates about the elements that create a literary world t…” > Likes and Comments
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The way someone else put it: "Make me care about someone in a book, and I'll follow them off the edge of the world."
Put the way you put it connection to the interior of the character is crucial. The “how to do it” is as varied as each writer’s style. New food for lively discussions with no resolutions. Thank you
A lot of writers and readers of SF care a lot about the SFnal details, sometimes to the point of forgetting about the characters. Lois is special in that her characters and their development are never ignored. Her worlds are fascinating too, of course.
For me, the authenticity comes from ordinary objects/details. I think this is especially true for SF/Fantasy because I want to ground the fantastical elements in something tangible. Like the reader posing the question below, the Sharing Knife series does a great job of combining ordinary with extraordinary. In another non-random example, in "Captain Vorpatril's Alliance", the Microborer is activated by ordinary household ammonia. If it had been activated by some other made-up substance, it would feel less real. Plus by invoking something like ammonia, my brain fills in the details of being in that place with those characters because I know what ammonia smells like.
One factor, I think, it is how much the world and especially the characters exist off the page Too many element solely in plot service leads to wooden story telling.
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Serdar
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Jun 07, 2019 01:22PM
The way someone else put it: "Make me care about someone in a book, and I'll follow them off the edge of the world."
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Put the way you put it connection to the interior of the character is crucial. The “how to do it” is as varied as each writer’s style. New food for lively discussions with no resolutions. Thank you
A lot of writers and readers of SF care a lot about the SFnal details, sometimes to the point of forgetting about the characters. Lois is special in that her characters and their development are never ignored. Her worlds are fascinating too, of course.
For me, the authenticity comes from ordinary objects/details. I think this is especially true for SF/Fantasy because I want to ground the fantastical elements in something tangible. Like the reader posing the question below, the Sharing Knife series does a great job of combining ordinary with extraordinary. In another non-random example, in "Captain Vorpatril's Alliance", the Microborer is activated by ordinary household ammonia. If it had been activated by some other made-up substance, it would feel less real. Plus by invoking something like ammonia, my brain fills in the details of being in that place with those characters because I know what ammonia smells like.
One factor, I think, it is how much the world and especially the characters exist off the page Too many element solely in plot service leads to wooden story telling.
