So this year it was off to sunny
Brighton once again for FantasyCon, another excellent opportunity to
immerse oneself in the publishing industry and catch up with the latest and
best in genre fiction. If you haven’t been before I highly recommend this
opportunity to meet fellow writers, publishers and editors, gain a stack of
industry insight and motivation as well as having a good time.
For me the best panel this year
was Fantasy Fiction: Keeping it Real? moderated
by Adrian Tchaikovsky, with guests Brent Weeks, Jasper Kent, Juliet McKenna and
Benedict Jacka. The panel examined the balance of the reality vs. the fantastic
in fantasy fiction and looked at how far the author needs to go to make their
fantasy landscape seem real.
The ever-entertaining Brent
Weeks, who works in imagined worlds, said that the worldbuilding needs to
‘look’ real, so an examination of the world is necessary to explain any
questions that may arise in the reader’s mind. Juliet McKenna, who also works
in a secondary world, summed this up by saying the need is with the author to
look at how things happen and why and ensure that the characters’ actions are
plausible. Benedict Jacka said he decides on the rules of the world at the
beginning of the project and later adds detail to make it believable. Weeks
said that “like a magpie” he takes the best and shiniest bits of reality and
puts them into his worlds to give them grounding.
The discussion went onto to discuss
trends in the genre and in particular the shift towards more emotional realism
in fantasy. From the mid-80s style that was ripe with character archetypes and
often implausible or predictable characters, fantasy has evolved to a genre
that focuses on more complex characters with greater psychological depth. They also discussed the widening of cultures
represented within fantasy and the use of a broader scope of historical
resources to shift away from the traditional medieval-based world.
This panel was rich in motivation
for the aspiring writer and packed full of tips that may help beginning writers improve their craft, characters and fantasy worlds. It was a great way
to start the day and gain insight into how established authors approach the writing
of a new novel. It was definitely an inspirational start to the Saturday.
That’s about enough information for one blog. More from the
convention to follow.
Elloise Hopkins.
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