Monday, January 25, 2010

Crossing back into ...Earth.

We've been talking a lot about fantasy tormiction. (Okay, not recently. What was the last post? June 6th?) Stuff in our own worlds that we can tormictionitize a character with and still get away with (such as this) because in our world we can make the characters as insanely strong or enduring as we can want.
What happens when you bring the characters and/or story to modern times?
The most notable differences would be a) generally less endurance b) immediate and more advanced medical attention and c) staying within the realm of reality for diseases/injuries, their causes, and their cures. No more strange eel or flightless bird to heal you. Or poke your eyes out with its beak, as the case may be.
Which is what I've had to encounter with my journey into a story that's set in this world.
No, I'm not giving up fantasy. Not by a long shot. It was just that during NaNo and the following months, I've been working on a modern fiction (which still needs a great deal of editing, but still ... ;) while mulling over what to do with my fantasy. I've finished one of the books, which forced me to think everything over and set more things in stone. Such as cutting out three of the books, 'cause more would just be plain superfluous.
But that's off topic.
What happens to a character in the modern world?
Technically things are "safer", but I disagree with that. Greatly. Previous dangers have just been replaced with new ones.
And then there's the plot -there's got to be added danger there.
Generally, whatever the situation, in earth or on another world, the weapons I prefer to use are the ones that my people came with. Admittedly, I kind of tiptoe around guns, simply because I really don't know all that much about them. But fists in general is what I use.
Going back a few paragraphs ...
a) Okay, I admit ...a few of my characters could be compared to fantasy characters for levels of endurance. I try to stay in the realistic realm ...and though that might increase the tormiction, there's still ...
b) Supposedly more advanced medical treatments. I'm of the view that older medicines such as reformed diet, herbs, and other such things are more effective in certain cases -unlike the ones I use in my story, so then I use the 'conventional' medicine. That includes surgery, anesthetics, and other such things. Which incapacitate the character too much/longer than necessary ...leaving them more vulnerable, yes. Unless, of course, they can help it and refuse to seek medical attention ...like some of my more fantasy-like characters.
c) Staying in the realm of reality. This is probably the toughest. Of course, that just makes this fantasy writer go research the more uncommon problems (forget broken bones and pneumonia)...

And I'll attempt to update more with the progressive steps in this new realm. *grin*

~Tahl