We're very pleased to have Shaun Eyles here with us today at The Speculative Salon. He's going in-depth on an interesting topic--the voice of your fantasy world. Please check out his latest releases below.
THE VOICE OF YOUR
WORLD & CHARACTERS
When a writer begins writing fantasy fiction, it is akin to
opening a huge birthday gift that you just know contains the best and biggest
new toy. Fantasy fiction means imagining what could be, and what could never
be, and it is ever so tempting to run wild and forget that what you right is a
reflection on the world you are creating.
However, approaching fantasy fiction, or any type of fiction,
without considering a more careful approach can lead to trouble. One of the pitfalls
that many writers appear to fall into is a belief that fantasy fiction must
always be laden with poetic language and that they must describe every place,
every object, every person and every emotion in what I refer to as unnecessary
flowery terms. In itself, these two elements of writing – poetic language and
heavy detail – are not bad writing, but they should suit the novel you are
writing and not be used in a way that confuses the voice of your world and
characters or disrupts the flow of your work.
Before I continue, let me explain what highlighted the
importance of world and character voice to me. One day I decided to listen to
an audio version of the Wheel of Time series. It was the first time that I had
listened to an audio book, and I immediately noticed one thing. The careful use
of detail and voice.Listening to the words spoken out loud emphasized what I
believe many writers already understand. Every element of a story, from
descriptions of your world and characters to dialogue and all elements in
between, are linked to one central world. Something else became apparent to me
then. The world you create has a voice. I don’t simply mean the voice of the
characters, but also the voice of the overall world in which your story is
situated.
Voice is a term that I think many new writers often confuse
with another writing term, flow. The flow of a novel is how it read as a while,
while the voice of a novel is how well the writer expresses the world and story
they have created. Each is important and each depends on the other to some
degree in order to be successfully accomplished. If the voice of your novel
becomes bogged down with excessive detail or pages of unnecessary flowery
language, then the flow will suffer as the reader struggles to work through
your work. If the flow of the novel is disrupted by too many unimportant scenes
or storylines, then the voice of your novel will suffer as a result. A confused
reader will not be receptive to the voice of your world or characters.
Let’s now dive into as aspect of a novel’s voice, one of
characterization. As an author, you’re writing in the point of view of somebody
else, who exists in a particular place at a particular point of time. The
character lives amongst a community, a world, full of customs and commonalities
in dress, language and other assorted social norms and nuances. They do not
exist in a vacuum. Their voice in not only of who they are, but of how the
overall structure of your world deems they behave. For example, you character
may be a thief, somebody who is street smart and hardened by life. It does not
make sense to write descriptions or dialogue for your thief that includes
poetic metaphor or romantic language or imagery. Your thief would not think in
that way. It makes more sense to have the character think sharply and see
things as they are, without frills and frippery. Conversely, in the same novel,
you may have a character raised within money, somebody who had the benefits of
education and the opportunity to travel or spend time reading or relaxing in
quiet contemplation. This character may see the world through romantic eyes and
therefore would speak or describe their surroundings and events in more poetic
detail.
How your characters describe their world should depend upon
the situation you create for them. For example, your well educated and wealthy
character who describes and speaks about your world through a romantic’s eyes
may find themselves thrown into peril, stalked by a killer or hunted by
sinister beings or magic. How does this change their view of the world? Think
about how you would react in a similar situation. Would your mind see things in
crisp and sharp detail, or would you continue to see the world as romantic or
poetic? When your character’s heart races from fear or anxiety, their
perception should shift for they may suddenly become hyper focused on the
smallest sounds and flickers of light, or easily startled by new situations or
when confronted by other characters. As writers, we need to remember that
characters, just like people, are complex and will react to certain situations
in different ways. In one moment, your use of poetic language or heavy detail
will suit the voice of your world, and then in the next scene you may need to
strip out the heavy detail and poetic language to make way for sharp sentences
and straight forward descriptions.
In this way, the change in your novel’s voice has also hastened the flow of the novel. Both voice and flow work together to suck the reader into a feeling of urgency or fear.
Writing is hard work and from experience it is all about
patience and practice when you are developing your skills. When it comes to the
voice of a novel, I think the following holds true. A character that reacts to
their world and perceives it differently in different moments in time will
appear more real than a character written without a flexible voice. Your novel
will have many characters, each with a unique view of life. Throw in some
personality, alter the way in which they describe the world or speak when life
throws them a curve ball, and your novel will shine.
AUTHOR BIO:
Shaun Eyles writes novels that twist genres and blur
boundaries. The first two novels of his contemporary vampire fantasy series,
The Novels of The Second Coming, are available from Amazon and the third volume
in the series, Nest, will be released shortly. This series returns the reader
to the vampire of old, the vampire that wants to kill humans and not take them
to the prom.
Never happy to wear the one hat, Shaun has also finished
work on the first “off-shoot” novel in the Novels of the Second Coming world,
and has also completed his first zombie themed novel.
When not writing, Shaun tends his gardens and spends time in
the online World of Warcraft community.
There are always multiple ideas in the pipelines, so keep an
eye out for the next idea to be planted in the garden.
BOOKS & LINKS:
Novels of the Second Coming
Website link: http://shauneyles.com/secondcoming/secondcoming.php
Book 1: Rebirth
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