Fantasy Vs. Reality

I spent a brief stint cruising around writing and fan groups, trying to gather popular and unpopular beliefs in everything from writing to content to subject matter. While there is little of it that can actually be substantially helpful in a themed post, I was thinking about one subject in particular that solidified why I like to focus on made-up places.

Even I had the faux confidence of a world traveler, researched a place top to bottom and/or wrote about any place I've actually lived, people seem to trip over the fact that any perspective is still an experience limited to that person. Rather than taking it as such, I've seen people over-dissect writing to confuse the lines between fact and opinion. You might remember a trip to a deli on the corner of 7th and Elm in a town you lived in five years ago, but write a present day piece, not knowing that deli either closed or relocated somewhere in between. Someone will always fixate on it to the point where you try to steer clear with a polite thanks but it's not the feedback you're looking for.

These examples aren't personal, but the and again, a writer looking for specific feedback on style almost always needs to type up a paper on what they're actually looking for. A fictional story, even set in a real place, however badly remembered, tends to attract the geographically obsessed. Immensely helpful if that's what you're looking for, but when the comment thread blows up in a million wrong directions, sometimes I just can't blame a writer for deleting the thread and starting anew with tighter requirements.

Really, it's okay to just loosely base most fiction on real places. The Simpsons never specified which Springfield it was supposedly based off of, so it's no wonder fantasy so often uses crazy naming convention to avoid real-world distractions, so to speak. Even so, I've still seen enough fantasy forums where people conspire over what parts of Europe a map resembles or what Russian family certain characters mimic. While some of an author's parallels are deliberate in which models they use, sometimes they can't say for certain where they drew the logic. It's just as likely that they watched another fictional movie based off of a real history. Histories, especially the most intriguing events, seem to inspire many an artist to exaggerate over an exaggeration many times over.

While I certainly use deliberate models, they tend to be isolated to a place or a person while any extending parallels happen to be a natural coincidence of the logic. Psychology and human potential is not limitless and there are simply actions that are more likely than others. Even the unlikely follows a natural logic.

There's no real way to wholly avoid speculation (and as a writer, it is certainly flattering to inspire a talking point at all) but I like the freedom of not being restrained to recorded fact. I do have some stories that touch down on Earth from time to time to time, but I try to steer away from current settings or politics because I find those shouldn't be confused as central to the stories I'm writing. Once people can nail down a place or person, the race to find the flaws begins.

Fantasy is never immune, especially when you pull in a mainstream audience. Though I can certainly understand why popular writers often avoid these forums or even come into Q&As with a specific list of questions they aren't going to answer. By all means, speculate away but in all honesty, most prolific writers have moved on to another story, another world, and even when they're still working on a spanning series, there's very little chance they're going to backtrack over a perceived error, no matter how big. There are few things that survive a long editing process that weren't skipped over time and again for a reason. 

I don't do fantasy just to avoid researching real world places. Rather, I don't use real world places so I can focus more on the themes. There plenty of times where I have to leave scenes thin until they are better researched or thought out. That isn't truly minimized even in total fiction. However, I find it more fascinating to focus on the potential of a place rather than a prefab one.

That's not to say I'm not up to the challenge of that someday. My Dreampunk Chronicles dance between this world and another. As a fairly new published author, I'm not niched into anything just yet. However, I still like this playground and, considering the amount of work that goes into each book, I could very well be in fantasy land for at least another five years. I'm not aching to use our world as a primary setting and even then, I'd have more fun with historical time periods rather than anything too current.

There is no serious book effort done without challenge. I'd never assume fantasy or reality or their hybrids are somehow on different difficulty levels. It's just different and the main difference, the reduction of established parallels, is my main temptation.

New to Me

While it's almost impossible to make an idea wholly original, most of us actually aren't looking for that anyway. In the many books I've read, the many words I've filtered through me, there are a lot fewer moments of profound change in my thinking or mood by comparison. I pore through entertainment of all types rarely expecting a revelation anymore--sometimes I'm just banking on a nostalgic high.

I didn't get into Game of Thrones for being original. For all of its taboo topics, it wasn't even shocking. If anything, it took all the parts that people were already writing about throughout human history and stopped letting powerful prudes cut them out. It's not some morally depraved trickery on the part of modern times but at some point, we stopped seeing sense in protecting grown-ass adults from controversial topics. They are still rated and able to be kept from children with the ease of technology but they aren't stricken from consumption by people who have every right to make that decision for themselves. 

GoT, however, was still original in a sense that today's trends are not. It's not a remake of a story already done, sometimes in the exact same media as before, ten or more years later. The characters and names and specific plots are not suspiciously or even blatantly mimicking something else.

My own stories? After not looking at them for a few years, those are new to me too. I rarely ever replay a game, reread a book, or rewatch a movie... Or rather, I don't ever plan to. The tendency I have is to think of something I once consumed and, if I can't think of it right away, it only builds this insane need to re-experience it when I can remember.

This can go badly. While I haven't yet cringed at my published stories, I've certainly murdered the magic of nostalgia by attempting to revive it. Instead of always insisting I relive it, sometimes I do look for something similar.

With a caveat. I will almost always ignore any attempt by authors, reviewers, etc. to compare it to a popular title. It's one thing to list inspirations in a bio but I am naturally suspicious of anyone who uses the popularity of something else to sell a story. In my experience, the ways it is 'like' something are not at all the ways I have hoped it was. The problem with telling me your work is like Stephen King is that the man is prolific and his own work isn't like the rest of his work. J.K. Rowling? If you mean it's set in a magic school, I've already read (and not finished) about 50 stinkers with that theme. I'm interested in knowing if it's a light or heavy read and, as for the nostalgia? 

Marketing doesn't nail that. It's kind of a weird set of feelings. It could be some element of a book cover, a font, a description or it could be the first book we dig out of a church sale crate. I'm not looking for a shiny bestseller, but a secret treasure. Not new, but new to me. 

And here's the thing: the next Tolkien will always be a man. We're a long way from a world that stops passing a gendered torch. That's not to say it wouldn't be flattering to be called the next Ursula Le Guin or Anne McCaffrey but those aren't household names. J.K. Rowling? (Again, she's a question; sorry, Joanne.) Go into purist fantasy circles and while, she's a token name to say 'see, a woman's successful in fantasy', she's also more deeply excluded on a list of 'serious' fantasy contenders. 

So I'm not going to navigate any genre by its bestsellers. While Netflix and Hulu are making bolder, sexier, more diverse choices (not always successfully, but gotta love them for going for it), there are many creatives struggling for a fair chance. While I'm not a fan of identity politics putting the squeeze on entertainment, it's just as true that perspectives of all kinds (and not at the expense of the white male) need to be observed.

However, some attempts are laughable. The insurgence of corny 80s style family comedies featuring people of color are terrible. They weren't good when it was white people and it's not less disturbing that these are all-black, all-Asian or all-Latin casts. It's too on-the-nose segregated in a way that backpedals on being 'woke' (and fuck that stupid term). There was a show on Hulu, I think it was called Here and Now, with a hippie white couple that adopted kids from all races and despite my initial wariness that it was going to be another on-the-nose heavy-handed toddler-lecturing hot mess, I was surprised to find a lot of cultural honesty, human fallibility and even a suspenseful fantasy element. Look it up and watch it. I'm disappointed it didn't get at least one more season.

Not every trip into diversity will be amazing. It's going to have a lot of clumsiness to start. It's not proof it's all terrible. However, diversity for the sake of diversity shouldn't be the rule either. Not all same race or same gender casts will be glaringly awkward. Some do work without a forced element of biased education or flatness. I don't care for Lena Dunham but I did enjoy what I've seen of Girls. It's not even a requirement to like the actors or anything else they've done. When I'm looking to bond with an idea, I'm not the sort to let hangups lead me. Perhaps this is why marketing is so lost on me. Not only does it not influence me, I can't commit to anything that assumes other people are that easy.

I just want people to know I'm an option. You may or may not like my work. It may remind you of something you've read. Whatever the case is, it will be new to you and original in its own way.

Bonus points if it resonates with you.

Hooray! First World Problems

I know. I'm first-world broke, not third-world. I have basic needs covered and then some-- not just food and water (and coffee), not just electricity and sanitary, not just technology and time to chase dreams. But it did take me three weeks to save up Amazon giftcards, small royalties, and a few bucks I had on my dresser for the $40 I needed to use my laptop, scanner on my printer and make sure I don't starve my fish.

Can't say it doesn't wound me that I don't have a reliable income for working. That I can't brag about being a steady entrepreneur or a successful freelancer, that my contributions are still in infancy even though I'm a workaholic towards my goals. It does suck and it isn't a place that people really relate to (never mind that they also can't claim working 15 years in retail hell like I can). Even though I can say I avoid disability and welfare and only have health insurance (at least until someone butchers healthcare again), I don't pay taxes. Not as fun as you think since my city still requires me to file with my zero taxable income (you have to make at least $3000 a year to be taxed-- I don't come close). I don't even get the excuse of being a housewife, just a caretaker of two young boys. Like a parent but without the legal perks. I'm pretty much an au-pair that is related to my charges. 

While I don't like excuses, I don't have neat little labels. I even brag about how well I avoid them and adapt to what I am without resting on any laurels. I don't even know how to classify my health. While my work is sedentary, two hours of every day is dedicated to brisk walking and I mind my diet (while not restricting that either). When something isn't flaring up, it's good/great. When it's bad, I still want to say average/fair because I've known worse.

On a scale, we're always kind of fucked. There will always be someone who has it better and worse. It's actually possible to be grateful it's not worse but wishing for something better. I once considered myself a liberal because of this variable thinking and in the purest form, I am. However, moderate is what I call it since the far left and right have ruined what it means to be conservative and liberal, even for themselves. I haven't gotten narrow-minded, I'm just less tolerant of thought-policing for some perception of the 'greater good'. I'm not intolerant, just not willing to accommodate the power dynamics of complete strangers. 

As a writer, original pronouns best serve their purpose. Throw on some more adjectives and I'm good, but pronouns don't need more distinctions. Stranger, you are that person over there. First world separations are not being inclusive but creating exclusivity, demands that require people to perform mental and social gymnastics to accommodate you. To someone like me, (and to use one of your stupid fucking words) YOU are an ableist. I can't wrap my literal fucking head around it and it's just NOT useful to anyone.

Of course, I can be a dreadfully passive writer at times to form the general example. (Although 'you' is mistaken for direct, it's one of the subtleties I CAN wrap my head around.) 

People should not support your delusions though and it's something I came to understand when battling my own mental issues. If people had always just waved off my bullshit, supported it, I never would have learned how to confront it. Being completely intolerant was hurtful, but there's a difference between what you put your family and friends through and what you expect from strangers. We, as a society, should understand the presence of mental illness but it is still partially the responsibility of the affected to genuinely attempt to adapt to it themselves, not place that burden solely on the world around them.

I know. First world problems are laughable in comparison. They're still a real aspect of the individual and it's not too much to allow each person some sense of dignity and benefit of the doubt without expecting the world to bend over backwards and kiss your ass. I did not save up $40 the smartest and fastest way possible. But I fucking did it and I'm psyched that small things can feel good too. Easier writing, easier scanning, happy fish. One to three things at a time.

And a happy birthday to my 13-year-old nephew Dameon who changes my life daily and someday may change the world. I'm so proud of him.