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Suite Scarlett
Martin family birthday breakfasts followed a strict tradition. First, there were Belgian waffles, made by Belinda, the beloved Hopewell Hotel cook. These were served up with an array of toppings: chocolate syrup, fresh lemon whipped cream, stewed strawberries, and powdered vanilla sugar. The air should have been thick with wafflely perfume. Instead, there was an acrid, confusing smell, undercut by a light touch of smoke.
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Writer in Residence
Writing That Drives us Crazy
Justine: Over on my blog, Jenny Davidson requested that we rant for you. She’s a fan of strong opinions. So, this is for you, Jenny D!
I’m enraged by lazy authors. I hate books with no sense of place. The only way you can figure out where the book is set is if they mention the name of the country, or the city, or whatever. But they don’t describe any of it. You have no idea what the place smells like, looks like, feels like. That’s so lazy! It’s like the writer can’t be arsed doing anything other than jotting down a few place names and some dialogue. If that’s what I was looking for I’d read a script!
I am also made ropeable by writers who are so lazy they can only come up with lazy words to describe stuff. Like “nondescript” or “fragrant” or “colorful”. For example, “The nondescript door opened on to a fragrant market filled with colorful stalls”. What do those words tell you? Nothing! In what way was the door not memorable? Why “nondescript”? Because the author couldn’t figure out how to describe it? And what smells exactly made the market “fragrant”? Jasmine? Vanilla? Troll’s bottom? I think you can figure out for yourself what’s wrong with “colorful”.
Of course, the worst writers are so lazy they resort to writing about unicorns, but I believe I have discussed that elsewhere.
Scott: I’m personally bored stiff by fantasies that seem to take place on a faraway, fantastical world, with physical and magical laws totally unlike this one, and yet which are all . . . wait for it . . . basically Europe (with occasional glimpses of mainland Asia).
Horses to ride? Check.
Swords to swing? Check.
Chain mail to wear? Check.
Big stone castles to live in? Of course!
But here’s the thing: Most of the world’s cultures never had this stuff. No steel, no horses, no castles. The Inuit, the Aztecs, the Aboriginal Australians never saw these things until the age of colonialism. And more importantly, the artifacts they did have were totally cool. Totally magical.
So why does every fantasy hero have to be on horseback? Write me some characters urging sled dogs across the ice, or making their way through a dense rainforest, or sailing longboats between the volcanic islands of a vast archipelago. Now that would be like going back in time, and not just into a Disney movie.
And swords? Please. What about bolas, boomerangs, or blowguns? Ekus and atlatls? Weapons like that would make the way a fight looks and feels—um—fantastic.
Believe me, ye olde fantasy writers, the historical background of a story isn’t something interchangeable. Artifacts from other cultures will create new problems, new solutions, and new adventures for your characters. New spells and, most of all, new subtleties. And because these other cultures haven’t been done to death, their artifacts still feel genuinely ancient and magical. Not lazy and overdone.
Sure, you might have to do some actual research. But wouldn’t that be more interesting than looking up stuff in your old Dungeons & Dragons guide?
After all, one of the cool things about fantasy is that it is a truly a universal genre. Every culture in the world possessed its own monsters, gods, and magic. Why not put all that human invention to use?
Justine and Scott: So can any of you think of some books that have a really strong sense of place? That so strongly evokes the place they’re set in that you feel like you’re there? And how about some fantasies that aren’t set in Europe or China or Japan?
22 Responses to “Writing That Drives us Crazy”
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Atlatls are made of awesome.
Wells, one of the reasons I love Justine’s books so well is the descriptions of Sydney. They made me want to go there even more, b/c I felt like I almost was there. And the descriptions weren’t crazy long, it was just bits and pieces of things, and then I put together the rest on my own to make a picture of it all. I don’t know if Sydney (or New York, for that matter) is anything like how I imagine it (although it’s easier to picture New York, I think, b/c a lot of books/movies are set there), but it made me eager to see the place for myself.
Some other good ones are His Dark Materials, The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Ender’s Game, Sabriel, The Uglies Trilogy, and one I’m reading right now called Glass Houses (by Rachel Caine).
his dark materials trilogy
it realy shows the detail of the place that their in enen though theres so many you always feel that your there
i’ll be sad when i see the movie and they murder all the settings that are in detail that the person reading has made
no that the movie will be bad just not as good
I think my favoite is the desert kingdom Robin McKinley creates in The Blue Sword .
hear hear.
Have you guys read the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver. It is set in pre-history. like pre-iron-age, i think. There are itinerant tribes, totem animals, and cool superstition.
The first one is called wolf brother.
i’m not a whinger, but… i have to dump on this: I reckon Deltora Quest books are exactly what you are talking about. So Very derivative of all those other sword n sorcery clones.
Garth Nix’s The Seventh Tower books, I think–there’s a certain amount of geographical ambiguity there, but the cultures are incredibly well-defined. The Chosen society is so strictly classed that it reminds me of Hindu castes, and the Icecarls…well, that’s obvious. But what makes those cultures so cool is that when they come crashing together, the resulting explosion throws all the flaws and cracks into sharp relief, and you can see exactly why something needs to change, rather than being told or shown by a few contrived instances of domestic brutality.
As for fantasies not set in Europe or Fangirl Asia…well, I have to admit, I’m a sucker for Europesque worlds. But the best ones are definably European, rather than Well let’s see, there’s castles, and therefore royalty, and I guess the climate’s pretty mild, but the grass is always green, and these kinds of trees go, except wait, let’s throw in some different trees for the heck of it, and ooh, how ’bout a mountain? It goes back to research, and the standard lack of willingness to do it.
One of my faovirte trilogies of all time (sorry, Scott) is set in alternate England, but it’s very, very distinct; the descriptions of London under magicians’ rule are vivid and interesting to read. Another fantastic series (manga, but the point remains) is set in Amestris, an alternate Germany, in an uncommon time period for fantasy–the early 1900’s.
Europe can still work, and work well.
Well, there is a fantasy series by Garth Nix, called “The Seventh Tower” that is not strictly…anywhere, really, but it has elements of vikings, eskimos, europe (sorry) and all sorts of other things- and very few swords and there is also Deltora Quest, which has swords but is very hard to give a place and time to…its like a parallel universe, but it makes sense and you can see it in your mind…
But, on another hand asking people not to write a fantasy book based in medieval Europe is kind of like asking someone to write a (full on) Science fiction book without outer-space(it takes a bit to get your head around it lol)…(and I’m kind of a sucker for both ’stereotypical genres) but I agree, it is really cool to have something freash and different and makes you think! As for the strong sense of place- I haven’t yet come across a book that has the sort of ‘non-descript-ness’ that you’re mentioning…
Can you tell I have a lot of physics homework to do?
I was going to have sled dogs in the sequel to my new novel, only then I realized that it is pure fantasy (in a bad way) to place sled dogs in Lapland, they have them for tourists but really it was traditionally all reindeer, all the way!
Hey, I (Scott) wasn’t saying Europe is always bad! And believe me, Miri, we also both love the Bartimeus books. They’ve got Golems in Prague, levantine Djinni, Ptolemy, and are set in a weird sort of late 1900s. That’s totally different than swords and castles.
I’m not against Europe. I’m against lazy.
Nancy Farmer’s The Eye, the Ear and the Arm and A Girl Named Disaster, and Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu’s Zahrah the Windseeker, are very place-grounded fantasies set in alternate Africas.
I have to say I’m a sucker for fantasies set in imaginary Scandinavias, like Meredith Pierce’s The Woman Who Loved Reindeer.
And Tui Sutherland’s recent So This is How It Ends incorporates gods from a number of different cultures, including Mayan and Pacific Islander.
But there’s still too much fantasy being written by people who took The Tough Guide to Fantasyland as their rulebook. Horses, check. Stew, check.
Hear, hear! Laziness makes not-lazy writers look bad.
Well, why don’t you write this book, Scott Westerfeld. I’m positive you would do very well!
Anyways. Abarat by Clive Barker stands out. I mean, it isn’t the most interesting or fast-paced fantasy novel out there. But the world of Abarat is so vivid in my mind. Clive Barker is a beautiful writer.
Holly Black’s Tithe, Valient, Ironside is a great fantasy not set in Europe (as far as I know, I am now in the middle of Valient).
Sure I can think of some good books. Unfortunately They’re all writen by you guys. Tehe. So thanks for the Fawsome books you guys!
scott, if you dont want a story taking place in europe, china, or japan then why does extras take place in japan? when i read that i asked myself, then why does extras take place in japan? please answer my question scott.
Addie: Scott wasn’t specific enough. When he said “fantasy” he really meant “high fantasy” like Lord of the Rings. Books set in entirely different worlds usually pre-industrial worlds. He didn’t mean contemporary fantasy books like Holly Black’s awesomely wonderful Tithe, Valiant and Ironside.
I don’t know why but most contemporary fantasy is much more adventurous than high fantasy.
The two that first spring to mind are “East,” by Edith Pattou and “The White Darkness,” by Geraldine McCaughrean.
Man, I’m screwed. Unicorns AND set in Rome!
Abarat is a great fantasy because it starts out in America, modern day, but leads to a completely separate world like nothing ever imagined before. No horses or swords, just magic that you have to learn by studying and practicing, no waving of wands or fingers. Glyphs and little red boats, and mantizacs, and an almenak that isn’t all that trust worthy but is reffered to all the time. This book is true fantasy because it is unique and beautiful and makes sense.
Me heart this post. I love you guys.
Okay, off the tip top of my head recently? I’d say Elizabeth Knox’s Dreamhunter books and Ysa’s Flora Segunda do place and details most excellently and seem like they sorta fit the bill if you squint when you say high fantasy. Other than that, Paul Park? But those aren’t truly YA.
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull (first published in 1987): A faerie fantasy that takes place in the 1980’s music scene in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and really gives you a sense of the time and place. I have a soft spot for magic happening in urban settings–and Bull’s love for the city is palpable.
one book that i can think of would be A Girl Named Disaster, which Suzanne already mentioned, but that’s one of my favorite books. it’s definitely descriptive!