As I've been pecking at it and refining it, my first pentology is getting better and better. For one thing, I found out that the first one is novellette length so far. A novellette is 7500 to 20,000 words in length. I'm at almost 14,000 words so far, and I haven't even gotten to the main confrontation yet.
Since this is my first story in my series, I'm going to use the thousands of words I need to delineate between magic and psionics, explain my magic concept, and explain why not all galactic societies use magic or psionics.
I like writing the character development, as opposed to writing a bunch of cool ideas. It's like deepening the acting in the movie, without relying on special effects to carry it through. It's cool to have my favorite elements and science fiction and fantasy combined together and given my personal touch, but it's really just the backdrop. I'm making it more than just the brainchild of a Trekkie/Star Wars fan who plays D&D and Magic: The Gathering. It's about a family who may fight and struggle, but faces dangers together; about an aging politician who's torn between duty to his people and possibly marching to his own death; about two ethically opposed men who find themselves on the same side of a conflict; and about living under fears versus finding the courage to face them down.
I published the first part of this entry at 4:23 this morning. But, as I went about my day this afternoon, I thought about more stuff to add. I mentioned the Qauthi, the nominal bad guys of this galaxy (at least for this pentology).
I've spent years learning languages. Language and culture are intertwined. For example, a group of missionaries visited a tribe and saw that they lived from day to day, in the moment; so without the ideas of future context and the idea that things either are or aren't, they had no way of constructing a future tense in their language.
That was an example from half a world away. What would the wholly alien symbiosis of language and culture be like when both language and culture are so vastly different from humans? What would the concept of future tense be like for a society where clairsentient seers are part of their lives? Spanish conjugates verbs so that future tense becomes part of the words; "I am watching", "Miro", becomes "I will watch", or "Miraré." Russian has declension, where nouns change their ending, depending on how they're used in a sentence; "river" is "reka"; "in the river" (static location, where something is currently) is "v rekye"; "into the river" (motion, where something is going) is "v reku". With that in mind, I have to ask myself, what would declension be like for such an exotic species?
That's not to say that I'm going to create a new language. I'm just saying that, for example, Yoda spoke to Luke, but used his grammar of his own language. "This blog entry I am typing" for example. That was the grammar structure of his people showing up in his English (Basic, actually). So, basically, I'm going to have any translator take a while and go haywire during conversations. Maybe "I am typing this blog entry" would be "At this current point in this timeline, I am presently George and I am typing this blog entry temporarily."
I'm actually surprised I haven't thought of it earlier.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
The damned dam broke.
Lately, I was going through writer's block with my project, "Across the Multiverse." It's the science fantasy project I started a few years ago. I've started to revamp the concept. Also, I've started to sit down and calculate technology levels, empire sizes, etc. I do this for posterity and consistency; if I establish in one that humans are faster that this species or that other species, it will stay that way.
The problem now is that I've been restless in my sleep, and the headaches have come back before I got sick. It's like this stuck dam broke and all this stuff has come through.
The setting will stay the same, but the way it will be written will be different. In the original layout, the first story seemed so disconnected from the others. So, I will write it as a series of pentologies. Each pentology will be called a saga; like "_______ Saga" or "The Saga of the _______". There will be a unifying theme through each pentology; for instance, the characters in one story will be looking for an artifact, they lose track of it, then the characters in the next story will find out about it and go looking for it. In addition, as a neat little quirk, a character from one story will have a brief, inconspicuous run-in with someone from the previous or next story. This strengthens the unity of each pentology. This also emphasizes the fact that, no matter what a person or people go through, everyone else has adventures, too; including bit players in one's own life.
This first pentology will revolve around a diplomatic issue with a species called the Qauthi. They're an empire obsessed with garish opulence, and revere their rulers with awe. They're technologically advanced and highly psionic. But their weakness is that they hate magic.
Now, to some, psychic ability and magic are the same. To me, they're not. Magic is a supernatural force manipulated by formulae, words, and gestures. Some mages are inborn (like Harry Potter or the sorcerers from D&D/Pathfinder). Other mages study (like Gandalf or anyone in a pointy hat with a wand and spellbooks). Use of this supernatural force is distasteful and considered unethical by the Qauthi.
Psionics/psychic abilities are solely the power of sentient thought influencing the world around a person. No words, formulae, spellbooks, etc. Just thought. There are several wide range of types of thought-power, like telekinesis (Carrie), clairsentience (ESP), telepathy, etc. These powers are wielded well by the Qauthi, and fully integrated into their society.
The way I figure out who's more magical, or who's more psionic, or who's more technologically advanced is to list the different species and their aspects. Then I try to come up with a balanced system of rating them on a scale of 1-10.
Humans, for example, have mostly 5s in everything, as they are - like in every fantasy and science fiction setting - the average Joe everymen of the world or galaxy. But humans are proficient with magic and spiritual forces, are partially psionic, and have among the fastest ships in the known galaxy.
The problem now is that I've been restless in my sleep, and the headaches have come back before I got sick. It's like this stuck dam broke and all this stuff has come through.
The setting will stay the same, but the way it will be written will be different. In the original layout, the first story seemed so disconnected from the others. So, I will write it as a series of pentologies. Each pentology will be called a saga; like "_______ Saga" or "The Saga of the _______". There will be a unifying theme through each pentology; for instance, the characters in one story will be looking for an artifact, they lose track of it, then the characters in the next story will find out about it and go looking for it. In addition, as a neat little quirk, a character from one story will have a brief, inconspicuous run-in with someone from the previous or next story. This strengthens the unity of each pentology. This also emphasizes the fact that, no matter what a person or people go through, everyone else has adventures, too; including bit players in one's own life.
This first pentology will revolve around a diplomatic issue with a species called the Qauthi. They're an empire obsessed with garish opulence, and revere their rulers with awe. They're technologically advanced and highly psionic. But their weakness is that they hate magic.
Now, to some, psychic ability and magic are the same. To me, they're not. Magic is a supernatural force manipulated by formulae, words, and gestures. Some mages are inborn (like Harry Potter or the sorcerers from D&D/Pathfinder). Other mages study (like Gandalf or anyone in a pointy hat with a wand and spellbooks). Use of this supernatural force is distasteful and considered unethical by the Qauthi.
Psionics/psychic abilities are solely the power of sentient thought influencing the world around a person. No words, formulae, spellbooks, etc. Just thought. There are several wide range of types of thought-power, like telekinesis (Carrie), clairsentience (ESP), telepathy, etc. These powers are wielded well by the Qauthi, and fully integrated into their society.
The way I figure out who's more magical, or who's more psionic, or who's more technologically advanced is to list the different species and their aspects. Then I try to come up with a balanced system of rating them on a scale of 1-10.
Humans, for example, have mostly 5s in everything, as they are - like in every fantasy and science fiction setting - the average Joe everymen of the world or galaxy. But humans are proficient with magic and spiritual forces, are partially psionic, and have among the fastest ships in the known galaxy.
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