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Characters & Setting in Epic Fantasy
Jul. 18th, 2011 08:30 pmThe July issue of Clarkesworld Magazine has a huge long roundtable on Epic Fantasy in which 26 writers (13 male and 13 female, I note with approval), an agent, and an editor are asked questions about "epic fantasy."
I flagged it before, but it's still up and if you haven't read it, you still can!
Here's my answer to one of the questions:
What is the relationship between characters and setting in epic fantasy?
People exist in a cultural context. Characters live within their landscape both in the ecological and the societal sense. The society/societies the characters come from will inform how they see the world, approach the conflicts they struggle with, and interact with others.
As a writer, I do not see character and setting as separate; I see them as intertwined in exactly the way my own character and person is intertwined with the world I live in. I write from that place, so even though it's also true that my approach, and thus the plot and character decisions I make, are necessarily informed by my own experience of the world, I must always attempt to see their world from their immersion in it.
I note that a second part will be published in the August 2011 issue, with answers to questions such as:
What role does humor play in your fiction in general and epic fantasies in particular?
Do you have any advice on dealing with violence when writing Epic fantasy?
I flagged it before, but it's still up and if you haven't read it, you still can!
Here's my answer to one of the questions:
What is the relationship between characters and setting in epic fantasy?
People exist in a cultural context. Characters live within their landscape both in the ecological and the societal sense. The society/societies the characters come from will inform how they see the world, approach the conflicts they struggle with, and interact with others.
As a writer, I do not see character and setting as separate; I see them as intertwined in exactly the way my own character and person is intertwined with the world I live in. I write from that place, so even though it's also true that my approach, and thus the plot and character decisions I make, are necessarily informed by my own experience of the world, I must always attempt to see their world from their immersion in it.
I note that a second part will be published in the August 2011 issue, with answers to questions such as:
What role does humor play in your fiction in general and epic fantasies in particular?
Do you have any advice on dealing with violence when writing Epic fantasy?