An important part of what makes your story fit into the Science Fiction and/or Fantasy genres is an element of the fantastical. This comes in either advanced technology for Science Fiction or a magic system for Fantasy.
For this discussion, we are going to treat the exotic magic of fantasy as simply a flavor of the advanced technology of science fiction. As Arthur C. Clarke famously said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” They are one concept, but one that it is critical to speculative fiction.
Systems need rules
Readers need to understand your magic and technology and must believe it’s at least plausible within the world you have created. If they don’t, they can’t suspend disbelief enough to enjoy the story. Real-world systems have limitations, and your magic and technology should have them as well to give them a real-world feel. Here are some examples from popular culture: The Ghostbusters can’t cross the streams. The Delorean has to get to 88mph to achieve time travel. A wizard must be able to enunciate the words of the spell properly for it to work. The ritual must have the ancient artifacts to the open the gate to another realm. No one can defeat an Agent inside the Matrix.
These limitations can become the engine for tension and drama in your story. The heroes must find the sacred artifacts before the villain so he can’t open the portal to bring in his other dimensional army. The villain gags the wizard so he can’t cast. Now, how will he win? The engine breaks and the car can’t up to 88mph. How will Marty time travel home?
This also opens up great opportunities for your story when your villains or heroes have to break the rules. Spoiler alerts for a thirty-plus year old movie, but to win in the end, the Ghostbusters must cross the streams. No one can take on an Agent and win… until Neo does.
Your rules need to be integral to your story and not a simple plot device. Let’s say your character has a superpower gadget that needs to be recharged. Needing to be recharged can be a good rule and open up story angles for you. What if the hero doesn’t have enough power to defeat the bad guy. Should the hero use this powerful attack that will drain half his energy? What if the villain takes control of the charger? But you have to be careful. If you’re not consistent with how much power the gadget can hold or how much power each element of the suit takes each time, it will push your story past plausible in your reader’s mind and you’ll lose that all important suspension of disbelief.
Making it part of your world
One of the major challenges is explaining your magic or technology to your reader without resorting to long passages of expositions or telling through dialog. This is a crutch wherein the author slips an important piece of information into dialog so the reader will know it, but it’s a piece of information the other character already knows. If you can start the dialog with “As you know…” it’s telling through dialog. This should be avoided.
Your characters wouldn’t feel a need to explain their technology anymore than you feel a need to explain your mobile phone to your best friend. It’s simply part of your world. One way authors have solved this is by having characters brought in as students or neophytes who require training and therefore explanations. Even in this case, though, avoid pages of exposition and keep the story moving forward.
Think about how your magic or technology would affect the culture of your world. “Necessity is the mother of invention” but a magic spell that can solve the problem removes the necessity. Why spend years developing a telegraph if a wizard can cast a communication spell.. Why work on a steam-powered engines if a spell or artifact can teleport someone across a great distance in seconds? Why spend countless hours perfecting a light bulb if a Bard can sing a spell of illumination.
The real world gives both you and your reader a baseline for expectations. Science Fiction writers tend to be future focused, but looking at history is instructive. Over the twentieth century, we went from newspapers, to radio, to TV, to the Internet. Each advanced increased the speed at which information flowed and how many people any one person could communicate with. Vietnam was unlike any other war because, for the first time, the general populace could see it. People who heard the famous Kennedy/Nixon debates on the radio came away more impressed with Nixon, but those who watched it on those early TVs thought Kennedy would be the better leader. Whatever incredible technology or magic you create should have seismic effects on your culture as well.
This is also true as it relates to the speed at which technology develops. We’ve gone from the first powered flight to space travel in under a century, but we still haven’t successfully taken humans beyond our moon. Your story must explain whatever technological leaps exist in your world and give a plausible timeline.
How much to explain
Fantasy explains less than Science Fiction. It’s magic, right? But without defined rules, it can become wish fulfillment and whatever the writer needs for the story at that specific moment. Without rules, you can write yourself into a corner. Invariably, your readers will ask, ‘why didn’t they just do X’, and they will lose that all important suspension of disbelief.
Magic and technology is another of those goldilocks tightropes writers must walk. Reading widely in the genre is a great way to see examples both of the tightrope being walked with skill and also watching some authors flail right off.
F. Ted Atchley is a freelance writer and professional computer programmer with a passion for reading and writing speculative fiction. Whether it’s words or code, he’s always writing. His latest short story, The Preponderance of the Evidence, will be published by Havok Publishing on December 20th.
He writes the monthly Science Fiction and fantasy column for AlmostAnAuthor.com. In addition, he is a staff writer for BlizzardWatch.com, a premier fan site for the games produced by Blizzard Entertainment.
He lives in beautiful Charleston, SC with his wife and children. When not writing, you’ll find him spending time with his family, and cheering on his beloved Carolina Panthers.
You can find more about Ted at his website: https://tedatchley.com/
We love helping your growing in your writing career.
No Comments