Does your partner understand sci-fi/fantasy?

I'm lucky enough that my husband and my son are both also SF and fantasy readers. We pass books back and forth all the time.

Do you have access to a writing critique group (besides here, that is)? Since your girlfriend can't help you with the genre, maybe a critique group would be a good way to go.

I got lucky (so to speak)... my wife has always had an interest in SF/Fantasy. She read Harry Potter long before I got near it and finished plowing through Ring series long before the movies came out. She builds her own characters playing NWN and she pulled off an awesome "Poison Ivyy" costume some years ago. That's cool.

Unfortunately, her level is more "consumer/fan" than "Original Content creator". She'll listen with interest as I blather on, and maybe provide a little feedback, but it's rare that something genre-ish grabs her enough to get philosophical over it. That's one of the reasons I'll orbit boards like this.

I know the feeling, my wife was anti sci-fi/fantasy. She had never even seen Star Wars! That's just unamerican!

Anyways I have slowly been converting her over the years. I still don't think she would go out of her way to catch a Sci-Fi flick.. Unless maybe i wrote it!

My roommate is a science fiction and fantasy fan but isn't interested in my themes and topics, and also maintains that he isn't creative at all and can't critique anything that isn't finished because he can't imagine what it would look like finished. We were just arguing about it yesterday because I was proud of having written a complete plot outline and he said a plot outline isn't a complete anything, and I spent 15 minutes explaining why it's totally useless to critique something after it's finished because the whole point of critique is to fix something up so that it becomes finished... Basically, I need to find a friend who genuinely likes my writing, and get a roommate who I actually have creativity and other interests in common with. There's a shortage of creative roommates who have enough income to pay for the rent and the groceries though.

newmod said:

I don´t know, I was just curious about everyone else, do you live in a sci-fi/fantasy house? Has your partner developed a taste for sci-fi because of your writing?

Cheers,
newmod

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My hubby usually doesn't bother me when I'm writing at home (I really need to be alone to get the ideas humming), but he happened to come by last week on one of those rare occasions he needed to bother me for something. Anyway, he took a quick look at what I was writing (a scene where my protag, a drug dealer, is "conversing with someone), and he sloooowly backed away. Not that he or I don't curse, but this character is almost a curse a minute - and I think hubby didn't think I could write like that!

Anyway, he was into LOTR (the books) before I was, and he made me a fan at 24 (that was 20 years ago, come to think of it, this Fall). I've since turned him onto Victoria Strauss' The Burning Land, and he's enjoying that immensely.

But that's about it for him. His eyes get tired very easily, so he can only read a few pages a night before he can put the book down. The LOTR books and The Burning Land are the only fantasy he's ever read.

SF? He doesn't read it, ever. Me? I usually don't (most of the fiction I read is fantasy). However, I'm currently reading Hammered, the 1st book of Elizabeth Bear's 3-book series.

So, the long-winded answers are...it's a fantasy house, and we helped each other become fantasy fans (altho I'm more of a voracious reader).

BTW, another poster talked about doing the critique thing. IMHO, using a family member isn't a good idea. I tried it with my hubby just once, and he was pained to do it. He didn't want to tell me it sucked because he didn't want to hurt my feelings, that sort of thing. I'd take up what the other poster said and join a critique group if you need that sort of thing.

There are several SF/fantasy/horror critique groups online, and most are free.

Good luck!

~Nancy

newmod said:

Okay here´s a quick one just to see what the score is for all of you. I mentioned in a post that although my girlfriend is supportive of my writing she has no interest in or knowledge of sci-fi/fantasy. So when I´m trying to explain things to her or get her opinions I can see she´s probably thinking "what the f*%! are you talking about?".

Also she can´t help by giving insight into the genre or bounce certain ideas or say "that´s already been done".

I don´t know, I was just curious about everyone else, do you live in a sci-fi/fantasy house? Has your partner developed a taste for sci-fi because of your writing?

Cheers,
newmod

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No. Wouldn't want to, either. I play with my toys, my wife plays with hers, and that's the way I like it.

I thought I liked SciFi/Fantasy. I called myself a fan. Then I met my hubby. I am not a fan. No. I merely dabble. The man has so many books just in SciFi/Fantasy (not to mention the rest of them) that I could never buy a book again and not run out of books to read, ever. And then we go buy more on payday. The thing I like best is that he is an eclectic geek. He isn't one of those exclusive types that only likes StarWars and thinks Star Trek sucks. No, he likes it all. SW, ST, LOTR, Vampires, X-Files, D&D, any variation on other RPG's, Firefly/Serenity, Westerns, Westerns with SciFI elements, Evil Dead, oh and comic books, Batman, Superman, Justice Leage, stuff I never heard of. I live in a geek mecca.

I don't have an S.O. at the moment, but my roommate is as big a Sci Fi fan as I am. Sometimes I think she's a bigger fan, because she has shelves of fantasy novels, and she didn't watch any TV that wasn't sci fi before we moved in together. I got her to watch shows like 24 and The West Wing.

Growing up, my sister and dad both liked sci fi, but my mother didn't. At least, not to the same degree. She likes Star Wars and The Sentinel. That's about it.

I have no partner, I live with my sister (no wonder * shut up! * well it's true* moron) But I'm lucky in that my sister and I share the same tastes in everything. She loves Science Fiction/Fantasy - and adores everything I write. We read the same books, see the same movies. (okay, sure, I see now why I have no significant other - but shut up)

My SO really likes LoTR and Harry Potter (she read both in Portuguese and English).

Beyond those, I think she doesn't realy want to get into the genre. She's content with my geekery, and claims she doesn't like to read.

I've been a closet fantasy fan, but have converted one of my past roommates from Anne Rice to GRRM.

Mrs. Chunky is a Star Wars nut, loves Babylon 5 and the Lord of the Rings movies. But she hardly ever read fiction of any kind before she met me. Last Christmas I bought her the complete Chronicles of Narnia in a limited edition hardcover, beautiful book. She treats it like a baby. I've converted her, bwuahaha!

She actually will give me input on my stuff if I ask, but she's not tech oriented at all, so it's just on whether she thinks my protag is a goof or not, that sort of thing.

Mind you, it's good to know your protag is coming across as a goof.

Jamesaritchie said:

No. Wouldn't want to, either. I play with my toys, my wife plays with hers, and that's the way I like it.

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Huh. If I was in a situation like that I would feel isolated. Probably because I spend every scrap of time I can get playing so if no one plays with me I don't get any socializing in.

Let me put it this way . . . we're going to the World Con together.

It's our third World Con.

When we got married, during the first two years we engaged in The Merging of the Books, wherein we mingled our collections and attempted, because of the enormous overlap, to decide what to do with the extra copy; sometimes we kept it, but mostly we got rid of it.

We had lots of duplicate books.

ChunkyC said:

...She actually will give me input on my stuff if I ask, but she's not tech oriented at all, so it's just on whether she thinks my protag is a goof or not, that sort of thing.

Mind you, it's good to know your protag is coming across as a goof.

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I hear that... and I've got a similar arrangement. The wife likes to read my stuff and although she's not overly technical*, she can catches the occasional dropped word and can tell me if my occasional woman characters ring true.

*"not overly technical" being a relative term. We dive together and her aquanaut and U/W naturalist skills may be better than mine.

I consider myself a lucky guy in this regard.

I don't have an SO at the moment, but I always try to land nerdy roommates. At home, our parents have simply resigned themselves to the fact that they live in a nerd house. It's their own fault, after all. They were very big on educating through example when it came to the value of reading. Family time was TV off while my mother read us a novel (usually Redwall, with liberal dashes of other classic series and good YA titles).

Then my oldest brother became a geek. Everyone knows that it is the first duty of every geek to assimilate their younger siblings into the collective. Peer pressure, targeted book and game hand-me-downs, and forcing channel changes (from stupid sitcoms to good SF shows) are all acceptable strategies, and my brother mastered them well. He gave me my first fantasy novel, showed my my first episode of Babylon 5, took me to my first convention, and installed my first adventure game. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be the social outcast *cough* I mean the geek I am today.

My wife reads F&SF, Asimovs and Andromeda Spaceways. She prefers short stories, I prefer novels. Neither of us are big on fantasy trilogies - I read fantasy books written by authors I've come into contact with, she doesn't read them at all.

Oh, he understands it. He just doesn't understand why people LIKE it.

He liked LOTR the movies, but if it doesn't have battles, munitions, aircraft or wear a uniform from this real world, he doesn't read it.

But he's a great guy, anyway. I'm with him because he's NOT alot like me but enough that we can communicate in English. Or the "wordless language."

Medievalist said:

When we got married, during the first two years we engaged in The Merging of the Books, wherein we mingled our collections and attempted, because of the enormous overlap, to decide what to do with the extra copy; sometimes we kept it, but mostly we got rid of it.

We had lots of duplicate books.

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So did we! Lots of duplicates. Some triplicates. Four. Copies. Of the first Miles Vorkosigan book. We both had loaner copies...
We have a book of dupes in storage now.

And the closest thing we've had to a honeymoon is going to MiniCon together.

But then in my case this is no coincidence. I got interested in him because he liked cool books! I have never fallen for a guy who I couldn't talk to about books. Also, I bore people silly if they don't read.

My brother reads some SF/fantasy, my father introduced me to Asimov, and I've coerced my mother into reading some fantasy and watching Star Wars; but none of them are big SF/F readers, which I think is sad. My husband's whole family is though. Happy me

I turned my wife on to sci-fi and fantasy when we first met (she auditioned for lead singer in the band I played guitar in--and got the job). She read all of my considerable collection of books and then went shopping. She turned me on to Orson Scott Card, Piers Anthony and Asimov. She's my first and most frequent beta-reader, and without her encouragement I would have given up ages ago.

Fahim, the dh in the equation, and I both scored. We're both scifi nuts going way way back and we both write scifi to boot. In fact, that was a huge part of the attraction between us.

I do critique his stuff, and I don't hold back. He hasn't critiqued my stuff, but that's because I haven't really shared. We play in the same universe and he's a huge help with my plotting and character development and improving on my original ideas. So, you know, we've got a pretty good thing going.

My Beloved Sweetie hasn't read any SF/F other than LOTR, as far as I know--but he's a fantastic beta reader nonetheless. He's great at pointing out parts where the story drags or doesn't make sense, which are the parts that need most desperately to be fixed before showing it to a Wider Circle.

newmod said:

A critique group is a good idea as none of my friends or family like sf/f.....Maybe I´ll check that out.

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I was a member of a critique group for nearly six years (we ended up disbanding when too many folks were relocated for jobs.) It was an incredible resource! Friends and family don't always tell you the truth, since they want to make you happy. But a good critique group will be brutally honest.

Be prepared, though - if it's a general writing group, not genre specific, you may have people who don't understand what you're writing immediately. In the beginning, there was an older gentleman, a writer of westerns, who always looked at me and asked, "What drugs were you on when you wrote this?" But after a couple of months, he got past his initial confusion, and was able to give me helpful suggestions.

newmod said:

And welcome to the board

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Thanks! I'm happy to be here!

My opinion is that a person who doesn't like sci-fi or fantasy just hasn't seen something that appeals to them. They are too baffled and frustrated with the superficial aspects of the genre (space, aliens, neutrons, magic, metal bikinis) to get into the genre, like somebody who might play video games if the controls weren't so hard to learn (thank you Nintendo Wii for making a difference!) or who might like to learn an instrument but has trouble reading notes.

SO...what you have to do is expose her to something that is first and foremost about characters and/or story. Unfortunately this cuts out a lot of beloved sci-fi and short stories that are all big on concept or technology but short on the good stuff. I suggest starting with film and tv before trying to get her to read Dune or Silmarillion. Once a person breaks through the barrier, they are more willing to give other things in the genre a try.

I suggest starting with Star Trek II or Star Trek IV, explaining whatever basics you need for her to understand (the Federation is like the United States in space, Spock is telepathic and emotionless, Starfleet is like the Navy, etc.). Or you could try Red Dwarf. I'm serious. It makes a great stepping stone to serious sci-fi, includes a lot of standard sci-fi elements without requiring them to be understood, is drop-dead hilarious, and seems to appeal to the ladies (probably because it's such a male-dominated show, they can see how we think and behave without them).

For fantasy, try Labyrinth, Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa, Time Bandits, The Adventures of the Baron Munchausen. IMO, the Lords of the Rings movies are masterpieces but are best seen when after the books have been read, because the books are better (though this is mainly because the movies had to cut lots of stuff out). I'd start her off with reading The Hobbit, or the Redwall series (which some people don't consider fantasy because there is no magic, just anthropomorphized talking animals).