Sermons

One thing that is not a good sign in a book is if the author decides to give out a short sermon on a topic that ends up coming across as stupid and an annoyance. I'll give a few examples. In one book, the author did a couple of not-so-subtle sermons on how vegetarianism was right (though this was recanted a book later) and on atheism; readers leapt all over this, as it came across as the author shoving his own views on them. In another book, a different author let out a couple of anti-technology and anti-killing animal views that were not subtle and did not add to the story at all; and not only that, but the sermons did not fit the personality of those who said them, which made it even worse. And these sermons were minor, an add-on to the story. Things can really get bad if you decide to have a sermon as the major part of the story; for example, Pullman's "His Dark Materials" were well-written stories (except for the last one), but the whole anti-God, anti-Christianity message oozed through to ruin it completely.

If you want to use your story-writing attempts to teach your readers a lesson or a "sermon", as it were, I've learned that being subtle yet relevant is the best way. If you want to write a Christian fantasy, you don't have to be too open about it (a minor note here: I appreciate LB Graham for writing his "Binding of the Blade" series and its blatantly Christian themes, but I think a little more subtly could have also been better... among other things). I consider "Lord of the Rings" a very Christian novel series even though there is virtually no mention of God or of organized religion, but it has very strong Christian allegory and themes seen in the characters' morality and in objects like the lembas bread; another novel series I would consider Christian to a lesser extent is Stephen Lawhead's "Pendragon Cycle" (even though the whole "holy grail" thing I think could have been left out), as it does mention God and Christianity but they are not the central part of the story. If you want to write a pro-life message, you can be subtle in mentioning how precious life is. There are other examples, but my mind can't think of them at the moment.

A History Lesson

World building is always fun to do, creating names, cultures, geography, history, etc... But one thing that I have discovered to make your world more believable is to add some history. Don't panic. I'm not suggesting you create a vast history like Tolkien did, but adding a bit to the background makes your world look better.

What inspires me most when adding a background to this fantasy world I've worked on for several years is real history, because it is so complicated. Wars do not happen for one reason; very often, there are several different ones that all collide and explode with deadly results. Rulers battle their own personal demons and troubles within and without their own realms. Kingdoms rise and fall. Scholars study and argue over what they believe is right. One little event over generations leads to something much bigger than anticipated. The list goes on and on. There is plenty of opportunity to explore these various areas, even in bits and pieces, so do so. It makes your world more alive and realistic, and it makes you look like you actually labored over your world building attempts.

Borrowing a Culture

A common thing to do when you world-build, especially in fantasy stories (I've seen it so far in one sci-fi series) is to borrow from a real culture when creating your own. Now that's all well and good, but this can often cause issues and make you look unimaginative. I'll give you two examples of how it can be abused.

First, the Icemark Chronicles (a series of three books so far... the first is the best, the second was absolutely horrible, and I've yet to read the third). The author Stuart Hill has several different races: the people of the Icemark (clearly Nordic/ Viking), the Hypolitia (Scythians, more specifically the Amazonians of Greek legends), and the Polypontians (clearly the Romans of the Roman Empire). Even though these peoples are clearly cut out from history, it truly becomes annoying in the second book with the addition of more human races that are clearly based off of the people of Venice (the name of their city is Venizza or something like that), Middle Easterners, and then at last African tribes. The problem that happened here was absolutely no imagination. Nothing to separate these peoples from their real-life counterparts except for the fact that they're in a fantasy world.

My next example is from a book I'm currently reading called "Shadow Magic." You basically have two races who are trying to make peace after a looong war, which makes for interesting culture clashes (more on that later). While one culture is nonspecific, the other, known as the Ke- Han, are clearly Japanese. I'm not familiar with that culture, but from what I've read so far (and I don't expect a change by the end of the novel) the Ke- Han, like Stuart Hill's races, are basic cardboard cutouts with nothing new or interesting to differentiate them from the Japanese.

Borrowing a bit from a real-life culture is fine, as long as you add your own touches to make them realistic and recognizable but at the same time different. A good example of this is the Fremen from Frank Herbert's "Dune" universe. They live in the desert and have a language similar to Arabic, but these two people are very different. The Fremen don't have the physical characteristics of Middle Easterners, they ride giant worms and not camels, they live in stone houses and do not appear to be nomads, and several other differences. The point is, these people were clearly influenced by a real-life culture, but they are not the exact same; and there are more than just three or four differences between the two.

Not everyone bases a fantasy or sci-fi culture on reality, but for those who do, what you can do to prevent from having an unimaginative people is to let them grow. Add differences between the real thing and yours. Make a different history for them. Change their religion and names. I could go on and on. Over the years, I have discovered that one of my races that has played a predominant role in my story attempts, while being based off the Celts/ Scottish/ Irish have developed into their own people, as they are more literate, have a different history, and live in very different buildings. Those are only a few examples, but do not be afraid to let your culture/ people evolve into something complex and unique.

A little note here. I mentioned above a culture clash in "Shadow Magic." One thing I have rarely seen in stories that require extensive world-building (I am sad to say even Tolkien, for his amazing detail, could have done so much more with his various races in a culture clash) is two different peoples looking at each other and their customs. "Shadow Magic", despite the fact I think it's only an ok novel, does add entertainment with the interaction between the ritualistic, clean Ke- Han and the visitors who view them and their ways with a cool disdain. I myself had a great deal of fun using this in my second novel last summer when I had my Celtic race interact with the clean, poised vampires. It was entertaining to write about the "Celts" trying to use silverware, feeling dirty in the clean and polished palace, and just how they view each other. I highly recommend using this in your novel, because, as I said earlier, it's not used nearly enough and because it also adds a bit of conflict between your characters, which is always a good thing.