Mastodawn

People sometimes think writing #SciFi or #Fantasy is easy: You just make it up. How hard can it be?

Very, as it turns out. Because rather than being able to look up how it works, you need to built a whole consistent, complete, non-contradictory society that is still fun to read.

Show thread

Khleedril 1d ago

@erik This may well be your take, but I think many will disagree and say making up fantasy worlds is both easy and joyous, and others will say you don't need to even worry about it too much (ala Stanislaw Lem or Kurt Vonnegut). I'm kinda middle-of-the-road on this, to be honest.

Show thread

Erik Mercer

@khleedril It's easy to start with a fantasy story, true.

Writing a generic fantasy plot is simple enough. However, writing a _good_ one is hard.

How easy is it to write a world that is shallow? How easy is it to exhaust yourself in "cool ideas" that never interconnect and fail to come to a satisfying conclusion.

The real world is "hitting the heavy weights" daily, producing astonishing detail, depth, and consequences. To keep pace, our imagination needs training, like any other muscle.