Thursday, September 18, 2008

Eggs or Live Birth?

I belong to several on-line groups of artists. I was once involved in a “fairy wing” discussion on a sculptor’s site. The discussion was about where fairies wings were located anatomically. It seemed to me the correct answer would be, “Anywhere you want them. It’s your fantasy.” But, then they got into how a fairy has babies: eggs or live birth and was it like a sea horse?

They could totally suspend belief to accept little flying people, in our world, but they drew the line at where the wings went and live birth or eggs. Everyone had their own idea of what was “correct” and good, logical reasons why. I began to take the whole issue a bit more seriously.
I, for one, feel that a fairie's wings need to be between the shoulder blade to balance the body weight. Maybe I’m just a klutz, but if I was hanging by a harness and it wasn’t at shoulder blade level, I would probably be upside down most of the time.

I’m not too far into Terry Pratchett’s, Color of Magic, but I want to totally believe in a world that resides on the back of a turtle. By page one hundred and twelve, I'm not sure what the laws are, but I'm pretty sure he has them. This may be the worse example I could give, but hey it's a really fun book.

Readers will suspend their belief for your world, as long as you make your rules and stick to them; or make the world so wild they just don't care anymore. These rules do not have to be complicated, just logical.

Think of all the things we need in our world and how would your magical world handle it?

EXAMPLE:

Food: In Harry Potter’s world, J. K. Rowling does now allow food made out of thin air. Her characters are, however, allowed to take food and enlarge/multiply it. That is but one of her rules.

So, start with your world, from brushing teeth in the morning to getting into bed at night, and decide the rules you need to create to make your magical world believable and stick to them.

A discussion of Eggs or Live Birth anyone?

2 comments:

Crabby McSlacker said...

It's funny how you can cruise along and be totally fine with fantasy elements in a book and then suddenly something just seems arbitrary and "wrong."

I think that internal logic and rules and consistency adds an element of realism. If something totally arbitrary is created simply for the writer's convenience it takes me out of a story.

And hmm, somehow live birth seems more "realistic," but I kind of prefer the fairy eggs.

SAVanVleck said...

It's funny but fairy eggs seems to be a popular version. I suppose it is difficult to think of a pregnant fairy flying.

I agree though, I want my rules all in sync with the world.