Fantasy AUs
Oct. 19th, 2013 01:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Writers, please stop trying to be Tolkien.
The things you noticed about how Tolkien used language were the sticking out bits, the ones that didn’t just blend into the world he was making. Trying to copy him tends to amplify his worst tendencies. And without the linguistic knowledge that underlies a lot of his language choices the logic is lost and things just get clunky and inelegant.
Same with trying to make everything sound old fashioned formal all the time. Shakespearean English, like every era, had formal and informal modes, language appropriate to nobility and commoner, but most writers aren’t familiar enough with them to see the differences. Everyone just sounds ponderous. The more formal and rigid the language the more distanced the characters, and the harder it is to make a reader feel connected to them.
Fantasy AUs of modern fandoms are hit hardest by attempts at fantasy language. Once we’re using text to describe these guys the one and only thing we have to work with is the words they would use. Getting their voices right is the hardest part of any fanfic. Trying to crush them all into stilted mock-period formality irons them all flat, and suddenly they resemble themselves not at all.
Once you’ve messed with the spellings on their names, changed all the insitutions they belong to, and given them all the same monotone voices…
Yeah, no.
Please, make the characters the ones you love, bring the setting to life, find all the ways it’s very much like home, and then add dragons or swords or magic if you feel like it. Breathing beats conventional in characterisation every time.
There’s a whole seperate whine about AD&D-esque character classes and how their ridiculously restrictive rails have distorted the entire genre, but that is for another time. Some people like it anyway. Whatever.
But the effect of your language on the reader is waaaaaay more important than some awkward perceived genre limits. Reach your readers, then smooth the infelicitous anachronisms out. Works way better.
The things you noticed about how Tolkien used language were the sticking out bits, the ones that didn’t just blend into the world he was making. Trying to copy him tends to amplify his worst tendencies. And without the linguistic knowledge that underlies a lot of his language choices the logic is lost and things just get clunky and inelegant.
Same with trying to make everything sound old fashioned formal all the time. Shakespearean English, like every era, had formal and informal modes, language appropriate to nobility and commoner, but most writers aren’t familiar enough with them to see the differences. Everyone just sounds ponderous. The more formal and rigid the language the more distanced the characters, and the harder it is to make a reader feel connected to them.
Fantasy AUs of modern fandoms are hit hardest by attempts at fantasy language. Once we’re using text to describe these guys the one and only thing we have to work with is the words they would use. Getting their voices right is the hardest part of any fanfic. Trying to crush them all into stilted mock-period formality irons them all flat, and suddenly they resemble themselves not at all.
Once you’ve messed with the spellings on their names, changed all the insitutions they belong to, and given them all the same monotone voices…
Yeah, no.
Please, make the characters the ones you love, bring the setting to life, find all the ways it’s very much like home, and then add dragons or swords or magic if you feel like it. Breathing beats conventional in characterisation every time.
There’s a whole seperate whine about AD&D-esque character classes and how their ridiculously restrictive rails have distorted the entire genre, but that is for another time. Some people like it anyway. Whatever.
But the effect of your language on the reader is waaaaaay more important than some awkward perceived genre limits. Reach your readers, then smooth the infelicitous anachronisms out. Works way better.
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Date: 2013-10-20 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-20 06:31 pm (UTC)