Fantasy writing...some help please

Ricardo Salepas

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Hey guys,

So the novel I'm working on is a fantasy. I just have a question and was hoping some of you would know how to go about it.

Is it okay to describe something in fantasy writing and liken it to a real world feeling?

So for example (and this is not in my book).... pushing against a magical boundary or wall, would have the same feeling as if you were to push against gelatin.

Would that kind of comparison work? Or would I need to look at making my comparisons as neutral as possible where I don't liken fantasy to the real world?

Any help in this would be great thanks!
 

neandermagnon

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It would depend on the point of view. If it's an omniscient narrator telling the story then the comparison would work as the omniscient narrator knows everything. If it's told from the point of view of a particular character (whether written in first or third person) then the comparison would only work if gelatin is a thing that this character would've heard of and had experience of. If gelatin's not a thing in the fantasy world you'll have to find another way to explain it.
 

Ricardo Salepas

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I'd be the one narrating the story. In this particular instance the character isn't thinking of the comparison, I'm just describing what the character would be feeling.
I suppose that would make me the omniscient narrator then.
 

Bufty

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Hi, Ricardo Salepas,

You don't say what POV you have chosen to use in writing your story.

The narrator - if you choose to write in Omniscient POV - is the all-knowing omniscient narrator, who is also the only POV even though the narrative may focus in on the perspective of different characters at different times.

The 'narrator' in Third person Limited POV is you, but the POV at any given time is always the POV of the chosen POV character for that particular scene or chapter or story.

The narrator in First person POV is the POV character.

I hope that's reasonably clear.
 
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Ricardo Salepas

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Yes it does thanks Bufty.
So then in this case I would be right to use a comparison such as the one above since it's my POV about the character and their experience.
This example I am using is not done from the character's POV. :)
 

lizmonster

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This strikes me as a fourth wall break, since you're deliberately bouncing out of the world of the story.

If you've got a narrator who's explicitly telling Me The Reader this story, you're fine. If you're not wanting to pull MTR out of your universe, you want a different analogy.
 

BethS

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Hey guys,

So the novel I'm working on is a fantasy. I just have a question and was hoping some of you would know how to go about it.

Is it okay to describe something in fantasy writing and liken it to a real world feeling?

So for example (and this is not in my book).... pushing against a magical boundary or wall, would have the same feeling as if you were to push against gelatin.

Would that kind of comparison work? Or would I need to look at making my comparisons as neutral as possible where I don't liken fantasy to the real world?

Any help in this would be great thanks!

Even an omniscient narrator--which sounds like what you're using--would probably not want to use terminology that's completely at odds with what exists in the fantasy world. To make a comparison using something that's completely modern would constitute a breaking of the fourth wall, I should think.
 

Ricardo Salepas

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Hmm...Maybe it's safest then to use something in the story's world rather. Just to be on the safe side.
 

bugbite

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You mentioned if yourself regarding things being as neutral as possible.

If this is a novel then you will need to inform the reader of how this circumstance works. But once they are aware of the environment you gain more flexibility.
 
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benbenberi

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If the fantasy world possesses meat and bones and cookpots, gelatin is right at home there, so nothing impermissible about the imagery that I can detect. Whether it works for the POV is another question entirely. Maybe, maybe not... I'd need a longer passage to get a feel for the tone and the voice before I could speak to that.
 

skylessbird2218

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I am juggling two stories at once(at times it seems genuine fun and other times the worst idea imaginable), both of which i'm writing in the third person limited. One of my stories is from the POV of a fantasy world character, and the similes and descriptions I'm using are consistent with that world and sometimes artistic. Another is from the POV of a character who stumbles upon the fantasy world and from a modern world, and the descriptions and similes are funny because my character thinks funny.
 

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Not at all basic actually. Plenty of opposing views on this. Many people frown on using examples inconsistent with the world youre building. Thus, i would caution against it regardless of narrator. Unless your mc is from the modern world or your setting has learned to process gelatin.
 

BethS

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I am juggling two stories at once(at times it seems genuine fun and other times the worst idea imaginable), both of which i'm writing in the third person limited. One of my stories is from the POV of a fantasy world character, and the similes and descriptions I'm using are consistent with that world and sometimes artistic. Another is from the POV of a character who stumbles upon the fantasy world and from a modern world, and the descriptions and similes are funny because my character thinks funny.

That sounds exactly right. Unless one is writing in the omniscient POV, the narration proceeds from the observations and knowledge of the viewpoint character. Historical (well, mostly historical) writer Diana Gabaldon does this wonderfully. Her main character is a woman who time-travels from the 1940s to the 18th century. The woman's POV (first-person) is full of her own voice and personality, and she makes observations according to her own experience and outlook as a combat nurse in WWII. Later, some third-person viewpoints are introduced and those who were born in the 18th century have observations appropriate to their own milieu.
 

PostHuman

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Does the fantasy world have a substance with similar tactile feel, say congealed lard or goose fat etc? Alternately if you described it as "gelatinous" personally I probably wouldn't bat an eye while reading, even if gelatin itself does not exist in your world (although in ours it dates from medieval era).
 

benbenberi

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Gelatin, as a natural by-product of cooking animal bones for a long time, has been around a very, very long time. The ancient Egyptians had it. The word itself is from a Latin word gelatus that means... jellied. It becomes increasingly prominent in cook books from the 15c on, though very labor-intensive till it was industrialized & mass-produced in the 19c.

Overall, I suspect using "gelatin" in a fantasy is probably another instance of the Tiffany problem -- a thing that is defensible as actually, provably period, but which readers who haven't done the research are likely to pounce on as obviously anachronistic.

"Jelly" may not have the same effect on people.
 

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Yes it existed pretty much forever, but "gelatin" as a word has a modern feeling. I think it's origin is 18th c somewhere from the french.
 

BethS

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Fwiw, the OP did state that the example with gelatin was not from his WIP. Although the history of gelatin as a substance has been enlightening. :)
 

jjdebenedictis

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People presumably do not speak English in your fantasy world, so you're translating everything that happens there into English for the benefit of your reader. For that reason, I think something like "gelatin" would be fair game. It's a translation of whatever they have in their world that is gelatinous.

That said, there are limits, depending on the world. I read a fantasy once where the technology level was definitely Ye Olde Tolkienlandia standard, but a monster was described as having "switchblade" claws. That really didn't work for me.
 

Ricardo Salepas

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I know what you mean JJ.
If I'm reading a novel with a description that takes me out of the book with a description I struggle a little. It all depends how it is done though.
What was that book you mentioned though with the monster and it's "switchblade " claws? what was it called?
 

BPhillipYork

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People presumably do not speak English in your fantasy world, so you're translating everything that happens there into English for the benefit of your reader. For that reason, I think something like "gelatin" would be fair game. It's a translation of whatever they have in their world that is gelatinous.

That said, there are limits, depending on the world. I read a fantasy once where the technology level was definitely Ye Olde Tolkienlandia standard, but a monster was described as having "switchblade" claws. That really didn't work for me.

Tolkien himself kind of blows it a few times, fireworks, umbrellas, stuff about trains, "meats back on the menu boys". That stuff always takes me right out of the story, even if it's an omniscient narrator.