780. S&F Clacks #7: The “Problem” w/ Worldbuilding
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/sand-f-780-clacks-7-worldbuilding/SandF_780_Clacks7Worldbuilding.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSTotalizing worlds, imagined cultures, and genre limits, oh my! Shaun Duke, Paul Weimer, and Stephen Geigen-Miller join forces to discuss the so-called “problems” with worldbuilding, the impact of worldbuilding obsessions on story, and what SF/F could be without so much worldbuilding! Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoy the episode!
Book Review: The High Sierra: A Love Story by Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson’s THE HIGH SIERRA: A LOVE STORY is a large and somewhat rambling depiction of the favorite place of SF writer Kim Stanley Robinson, through a variety of lenses.
Guest Post: Stay With Your Story by Betsy Dornbusch
Today on Skiffy and Fanty, Betsy Dornbusch, author of the Books of the Seven Eyes trilogy and the soon-to-be-released The Silver Scar, talks to us about the books that influence us and how writers have to find their own stories. “Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.” Most American readers will recognize that as a climactic line from The Outsiders by SE Hinton, which happens to be my favorite book. I met SE Hinton when she came to Oak Park Elementary in fourth grade. My recollection was that we talked about that book a lot and that she was nice enough, but also that her books were about teenagers, so they had nothing to do with me. My brothers were teenagers, and they were WAY older. Never mind that Nancy Drew was a teenager, and the Hardy Boys, and the older Pevensies, and really, when you get down to it, Frodo in his way. But as life goes, I didn’t actually read The Outsiders until 7th grade. Reading it changed me into a writer.
346. Myke Cole (a.k.a. Sergeant Tibbs): The Armored Saint
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode346MykeColeTheArmoredSaint/Sandf–Episode346–MykeColeTheArmoredSaint.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadMecha, the Nascent Church, and invented fears, oh my! Myke Cole, one of our most frequent guests over the years, joins Paul and Shaun to talk about his new fantasy novel, The Armored Saint. Over the course of the interview, Myke discusses what it meant to him to write and publish this book that allowed him, as a military SFF writer, to prove that he’s a “Writer” with a capital “W”, the challenge of writing in a voice that is the exact opposite of his own, and some of the influences on his Mecha. Bonus: We all learn how to properly pronounce Heloise. We hope you enjoy the episode!
Month of Joy: Falling Snow and Rising Spirits by Phoebe Barton
Every December, a holiday-themed zone opens up in Star Trek Online: Q’s Winter Wonderland, a place where players can forget about spatial anomalies and chroniton fluxes and enjoy themselves in a place where no one ever dies, where the only enemies are made of snow and candy, and where it’s always winter. I found myself spending a lot of time there in 2017, even if I no longer have any real in-game reason to, and not just because it was 2017. I wondered why until it clicked — winter, a proper northern winter, is one of my sources of joy.
The Intersection: Blackthorne and the Importance of Secondary Characters
There are many tools one can use for worldbuilding. A lot of them aren’t obvious to the reader—and in fact, I’d venture to say that the most effective techniques are those the reader doesn’t notice. This is how real life works. For example: events and cultural distinctions clearly affecting the world and those living in it but no one openly discusses are a big factor in everyday life.[1] Another of these hidden opportunities for worldbuilding involves secondary characters. One of the things I aspire to do is to populate my stories with any number of interesting characters capable of taking over the narrative. (Not that I let them.) Not only does it give the main characters people to interact with and thus further the plot, it’s realistic. Each of us thinks of ourselves as the main character of our story. Point of view characters in a novel are no different. However, we aren’t the only main character. Every “secondary character” we meet—doctors, neighbors, people on the street—is the main character of their own story in which we are the secondary character. That’s reality. In addition, well-developed secondary characters will sometimes alter the main character’s perspective of the world. This, too, is how the real world works. How many times have you encountered someone whose perspective on a situation altered your own? If you’re like me, quite a few. None of us operates in a vacuum. Characters in a narrative shouldn’t either.
