Fantasy Fiction Exam

Ha, that was funny. I was actually able to truthfully answer "no" to every question, though. Whee?




-Michelle

Yes we have seen it, but it is still good to see again.

I only have 4 yeses.

I've seen it several times. The number of "yes"es involved for any of my stories is still two halves.

Hehe.

The closest one in my novel is number 19 :

# Would "a fearless warrioress more comfortable with a sword than a frying pan" aptly describe any of your female characters?

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Except my heroine isn't fearless (she's been killed once, isn't all-powerful, and is smart enough to know when she's out of her element), and she's more comfortable with a hunting knife than a sword.

Okay, I click on each of the 'this' thinking that they all lead to different pages.

I've been through it before. I would advise the creator of that list to go read Romance or Horror and to give up on Fantasy.

#45 gets me every time, heh.

-- Marcy

yes to

19
36
52 is stupid because plate mail exists, its short for Plate and Mail, which is chain mail with some metal plates
59 (it can be done)

post more latter, (curse you stupid bell)

i be back

66 (though they aren't nomadic, and don't drink massive amounts)

lol didn't find any more.

mead, isn't that fermented honey water?
i have a few places like 73, they aren't everywhere, and most have been looted. a few places in Tek aren't looted though, because they were forgotten in the collapse of civilazation

I score a zero, too! But that may be because this test totally ignores Lovecraft and urban fantasy.

Nivarion said:

yes to

19
36
52 is stupid because plate mail exists, its short for Plate and Mail, which is chain mail with some metal plates
59 (it can be done)

post more latter, (curse you stupid bell)

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There's "plated" mail, which yes, is chain with embedded plates. So I would just call this one an issue of laziness, not necessarily innacuracy. Not sure why people get so hung up on it.

Yes, mead is fermented honey and water. In general the mix is one unit of honey to four units of water. No other ingredients are required.

(except for the yeast, but no one knew what yeast was until 1850. Pious brewing monks in europe called the residue at the bottom of beer kegs 'godisgood', because they knew it had something to do with the fermentation. Ancient Vikings had 'magic' sticks that they would use to stir their mixtures prior to fermenting. This, of course, contained the yeast culture, but they didn't know it)

It is one of the easiest alcoholic beverages to make, which leads some to think that it was the first alcoholic beverages.

Yeah, it's interesting how the list says basically "If you have a fantastic element" it's cliche. Frankly, the list seemed a bit bitter at Robert Jordan. He purposely used familiar themes to Tolkien because he knew there was an audience there. Turns out he was right. Big time. Eye of the World was even inteded to resinate with the Eye of Mordor. So what. I think a couple of artists are jealous that they didn't become best sellers.

I do notice a trend in the Speculative Fiction arena: if you are a best-selling author, groups appear to tear you down. So far, the only bestselling authors of speculative fiction that I've seen with any imunity are Orson Scott Card, Steve Perry, David Gemmell and George R. R. Martin. Anyone else that hits the best seller lists--Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz, Terry Goodkind, Kevin J. Anderson, Frank Herbert, Tad Williams, L. Ron Hubbard, R. A. Salvatore, Michael Crichton, J. K. Rowling or Christopher Paolini (even Dan Brown)--are torn to literary shreds by some critical faction. Hey, if enough copies sell to merit NYT Bestseller status, they did their job. If I can't get into them, I don't read their stuff--simple as that. Seems hypocritical to go on a crusade condemning any kind of literature that makes readers by speculative fiction.

Here are my yes answers:

25) I do not know when the hay baler was invented. (This is irrelevant -- but it's a yes.)

28) It will likely be a trilogy.

37) I have a main character with a 4-syllable name. (But her nickname is 2 syllables.)

39) There are dwarfs.

42) It's not a shortcut, but several characters do, in fact, enter a dwarfen mine.

44) I must admit that, not only do I have full GURPS stats for all my characters, but should it ever be needed, I could crank out a worldbook fairly quickly.

51) Mana exists.

Some parts of it ARE relevant though. I don't blame an assault on Jordan because there ARE many similar parts between Eye of the World and LOTR, though these vanish quickly after the first book. He himself said that the beginning was meant to be very similar to LOTR- but I dislike his reason. He said that he wanted to 'familiarise' his readers with the world (and for that reason he started it similar to LOTR?)

As a writer, your readers should be naturally drawn into your world. If they're not, then you're doing something wrong. Copying another writer's beginning for the sake of 'making the reader comfortable' seems very.........unrealistic.

Despite all this, I'm a Wheel of Time fan and an active member on dragonmount.com (WOT forum). Primary reason= story is very different from LOTR after a few chapters. Jordan had a great story- but maybe he didn't trust himself with the beginning? I can't think of an reasonable explanation. His writing skills are very good, but the reason for starting it off that way remain a mystery- at least to me.

Do inns in your book exist solely so your main characters can have brawls?

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This always makes me laugh. Have they never been to a pub at kicking out time? Brawling is what pubs are for.

Ok, so I have half a number one, a combo of 18 and 19 in one person, sort of a 21, 28 for sure though they will all be readable stand alone, 48 - well they travel a bit, it's hard to have an epic struggle in which the fate of nations hang in the balance in like one little village.

I'm not too impressed by this list, especially #4. Apparently every story ever made is derivative trash. The listmaker seems bitter, maybe he wrote a novel that didn't get published

The responses make me not want to bother looking at it (and I've heard of it before). Frankly, I find it terribly discouraging to be told that just about ANYTHING one puts into writing--whether on this list or not (TV Tropes is a good example)--is a terrible terrible cliche. In the end it seems to boil down to EVERYTHING being done to death. ("OMG! Your story falls into the fantasy genre and features somebody entering a fantasy world! CLICHE!") On the one hand it's good to know what's a cliche so one doesn't commit too many of them, or puts a unique spin on them, but on the other hand, there are lots of beginning writers out there who won't understand the humor involved and will think that just because something's been done before, they shouldn't go near it. As a result they'll be too petrified to bother trying to write anything, for the simple reason that ALMOST EVERYTHING already has been done in some way or another.

I find I always get irritated being told that something I write is something that's been done before. I'm probably being too defensive, but it's irksome, mostly because I haven't even READ all the works that some cliche plot elements are supposedly stolen from. So where did I pick up these cliches? There's a difference between bland cliche and time-honored archetype. I think a lot of "cliches" stick around so long because they really speak to so many people on some deeper level. They're archetypes.

That's just me and I'm always a wet blanket with such things, though. Obviously other people enjoy it.

What I like about this exam is less the cliched aspects, and more the basic knowledge aspects, like if the author understands how much a sword weighs. I agree that it is difficult to avoid all cliches and so long as they are done well, it doesn't really matter. But there are some questions in that exam I really approve of and do wish fantasy authors would ask themselves before writing. Even if the answer is yes, at least then we are aware what we are writing, that we are writing something extremely typical of the genre, and that we need to be aware, if we aren't already, to make it as unique as possible.

I agree with the following questions. They are worthy questions (though saying yes doesn't mean you should give up writing).

A) Does nothing happen in the first fifty pages?

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B) Is the evil supreme badguy secretly the father of your main character?

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(I can't take any more of this one)

C) How about "a wise, mystical sage who refuses to give away plot details for his own personal, mysterious reasons"?

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(Weak story in this case, if characters behave this way)

D) Did absolutely nothing happen in the previous book you wrote, yet you figure you're still many sequels away from finishing your "story"?

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(I can't think of any such book and hope I never will)

E) Could one of your main characters tell the other characters something that would really help them in their quest but refuses to do so just so it won't break the plot?

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F) Do you think horses can gallop all day long without rest?

G) Do you think swords weigh ten pounds or more?

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H) Is your hero able to withstand multiple blows from the fantasy equivalent of a ten pound sledge but is still threatened by a small woman with a dagger?

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I) Does your main villain punish insignificant mistakes with death?

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J) Is the countryside in your novel littered with tombs and gravesites filled with ancient magical loot that nobody thought to steal centuries before?

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Now, here are some things that I don't agree with.

I) Do any of your female characters exist solely to be captured and rescued?

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All characters have a purpose.

II) Did you make the elves and the dwarves great friends, just to be different?

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III) Is your novel thicker than a New York City phone book?

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So what?

IV) Does your novel contain characters transported from the real world to a fantasy realm?

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Are-you-insane?

I read this list and think, "okay, so what's left?"....!!! There are some good ones to be avoided, but I think it goes a bit to the side of "nasty just to be funny".

I agree with tehuti88 that many cliches last because "they really speak to so many people on some deeper level". It's what many people want to read about and want to experience.

I also agree with IB that many of the things that are listed can be found in the books of best selling authors...so what's so wrong with that? Obviously people enjoy it!!

I've seen this quiz a few times. It's rather like the Mary Sue/Marty Stu tests. I know there are writers out there who can answer yes to a few of these questions, but I'm not one of them. Although I do abuse certain genre tropes, I only write original fantasy.

Nivarion said:

yes to

19
36
52 is stupid because plate mail exists, its short for Plate and Mail, which is chain mail with some metal plates
59 (it can be done)

post more latter, (curse you stupid bell)

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Liosse de Velishaf said:

There's "plated" mail, which yes, is chain with embedded plates. So I would just call this one an issue of laziness, not necessarily innacuracy. Not sure why people get so hung up on it.

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when most people hear plate mail, they think of a suite of plate, which is metal plates and cotton pads that cover the whole body, with a small amount of chain mail around the groin and waist.