One of the interesting conundrums a fantasy writer faces is trying to make an impossible reality seem as realistic as possible. Now, a science fiction writer deals more with making a reality that either hasn’t happened yet, on the technological scale, or is more an alternate to ours. Either way, what you are doing is taking something that only exists in your mind, and building it up so the reader is as convinced as possible that this world actually exists and the characters populating it could ring their doorbell someday to drop by borrow their lawnmower.
I’ve posted a few times on worldbuilding–creating from the ground up and branching out into details like cultural holidays, methods of warfare, and fashion trends. It’s even popular nowadays for systems of magic to have some sense to how they work…some reason that this person can leap tall buildings, while this person can fling fireballs with impunity. I’ve also talked a bit about how your characters shouldn’t do anything unreasonable or stupid for the sake of plot. You don’t want to insult the reader’s intelligence.
On that note then, here is today’s question. Magic aside, do the physics of your world make sense? Take a peek at this link to get a sense of what I mean. Yes, I know. The link is about physics in movies, but it’s pretty enlightening (if incredibly, mathematically detailed).
The Fight for Decency in Movie Physics!
As they say on the site, yes, the people who came up with this have lives, and yes, they do enjoy movies. They’re not out to destroy your love of all things cinematic. But we writers can learn from this. Are there in situations in your story that just don’t physically make sense? I know, part of the fun of fantasy and such is that you can tweak those scenes with magic to make it all right, to help the hero survive the fifty-foot fall, or run across a continent in a few seconds. Still, there needs to be something in the story that anchors it in a world the reader can relate to. It can be simple stuff, little details.
If you have fighting or gunfire in your story: Have you research the actual make of the gun, the ammo, etc? Have you ever actually fired a gun yourself and know how it affects the body? Have you ever been in a fight, or sparred, or any other physical confrontation that left you breathless?
Obviously, there are lots of things that our characters are going to go through that we never will. I’m afraid that I’m never quite going to know what it’s like to defeat a Dark Lord singlehandedly, nor do I think I’ll be riding a spaceship through a wormhole anytime soon. But maybe I could go horseback riding at some point to remember what it’s like to handle one of those beasts. Maybe I could even go to one of those Ren Fairs, or medieval reenactment societies so I get a feel for battle scenes, holding heavy weapons and wearing burdensome armor. Maybe I could visit a zoo, or volunteer at a hospital, or so on. These all give me opportunities to learn what happens in areas of life that I don’t have much experience in otherwise. And if my stories lead me there, perchance, then I’ll be able to portray a high-speed chase a little better, or show the proper way to defuse a nuclear bomb. Who knows?
I see that smile.