Writing Fantasy and Sci-Fi.

 

                                   By

 

                           Jon Aristides

 

  Author of THE MASK OF PRIAM and THE BLACK SCARAB OF AMUN-RA

 

 

Writing fantasy fiction, as anyone who has tried it will know, is not so easy. I would say that the most important qualification should also be the most obvious: the writer should have a weird and wild imagination. He should be open to all possibilities in life ( and beyond? ) and be willing to use them in his stories. However, next comes something even more difficult. He needs to also have a down to earth consistency and the ability to logically structure material that all good writers must have. This explains why fantasy writing is not for everyone. How easy is it to find the qualities of dispassionate logic and a wild imagination in the same person? There is also a further quality needed by fantasy writers. One that, once again, is necessary to all authors. This is a strong interest in humanity and the creation of character and believable dialogue. Oh yes…and there is one more other thing too: the fantasy writer must have a very high standard of literary skill and a long history of reading the kind of fiction he writes. The broader this reading history is the better. If you only read Frank Herbert, then anything you write is inevitably going to seem like second rate Frank Herbert. Read widely and be your own man.

 

What about the particular needs of writing science-fiction? I would say that all the above criteria apply equally to the sci-fi author. However, an extra quality is also demanded: a real interest in science and its application in the present and future world. You don’t have to be an expert like Isaac Asimov, or Arthur C. Clarke, but you do need to be an enthusiastic amateur, like Ray Bradbury for example. Bradbury tells us little about the science behind his stories. However, his ideas and concepts are usually based on sound scientific principles. If you break this rule, your reader will feel cheated and will never read you again. However improbable the central thesis might be, it should be possible—at least in certain circumstances.

 

I want to finally look at the particular problems associated with writing short fiction. The short story is an art form in itself and is certainly not easier than writing longer fiction ( as some new writers seem to mistakenly think ). First, and obviously, everything has to happen a lot more quickly in a short story. Short fiction still needs to have plot, dialogue, description, a beginning and an end: it’s just that everything has to happen faster. In a fantasy or sci-fi short story everything that’s included should have the function of moving the plot along. Of course, dialogue and description, for example, are very different forms of writing and to a large extent perform different functions in a story. Nevertheless, they should share in common this quality of moving forward the plot. The short story writer doesn’t have much time and he needs to double up on some of his techniques.

 

Okay…so you can do all of these things? Now comes the most difficult task of all. Pick up your pen and start writing!

 

 

Jon Aristides’ sites on the internet:

 

http://www.jon-aristides.com/

 

http://www.jon-aristides.com/Apollo.html

 

http://www.jon-aristides.com/aikido.html

 

 

 Dear Fantasy/Sci-Fi colleague,

 

You are free to use this article written exclusively by the writer Jon Aristides for your e-zine. The only return that we ask is that the links to the pages at the bottom are displayed live.

 

Sincerely, John Wallen.

 

PS. If you need the exact http addresses of the sites in order to link to them, they are respectively:

http://hstrial-jwallen.homestead.com/index.html

http://hstrial-jwallen.homestead.com/Apollo.html

http://hstrial-jwallen.homestead.com/aikido.html