Jack Campbell | Keeping It Real

One of the strange things about writing fantasy and science fiction is the need to keep it all real. That sounds like a contradiction, because if it was all real it wouldn’t have to be fantasy or science fiction. But even the most fantastic story has to be grounded in the sort of reality that allows readers to identify with the characters and accept the setting and the things that happen. Keeping it real also forces a writer to write better.

Mark Twain described his writing technique as “chasing his characters up a tree and then throwing rocks at them.” (This is a secret that writers don’t share too often, because it sounds sort of weird that you create imaginary people and then find ways to torment them. But that is a critical element of writing. Every time I find myself stuck, the reason is because I’m being too nice to my characters. Throw some rocks at them and the story gets moving again.)

But what is the tree? What are the rocks? In the real world, we deal with those sorts of things all the time. The tree might be a job, and the rocks too little pay and an awful boss and mandatory overtime and the car breaks down and… That’s life. We all recognize it. And we all know how life events can stress people.

Which is why when fiction doesn’t work that way, it doesn’t feel right. When the characters can find an easy out that solves their problems without any tough choices, it feels false. We know things don’t happen like that. When the car breaks down, a gryphon nobody ever saw before doesn’t magically fly down to carry us to work (or to save that prince or princess we just met).

More important than throwing off the reader, that sort of miraculous salvation makes it too easy on the writer. A writer’s job is to keep faith with the readers, and to create story lines that stick to whatever reality exists in their story’s universe. When the Lord of the Nazgul threatened King Theoden, a Valkyrie didn’t appear out of nowhere to slay the Nazgul. Eowyn was there, and you knew why she was there, and why she could face down the Nazgul and do what no man could do. The writing works beautifully, because Theoden has been through hell and Eowyn has been through hell, and the Nazgul has seemed invincible except for an Achilles heel that was spoken of but cleverly concealed until the moment Eowyn pulls off her helmet.

And after Eowyn defeats the Nazgul, she doesn’t just smile and go to the bar to have a beer. She’s got post-traumatic stress. She’s killed. So do others. Tolkien did that on purpose. He had been through World War One. He knew what combat and killing did to people, and one of the strongest messages in The Lord of the Rings is that the War of the Ring left a permanent mark on those who fought. Like so many veterans, Frodo can never be at peace in this world because of what he had to do. The “people” in the mythical world of Middle Earth act like real human beings, not like robots marching through a plot in which good will easily triumph and bad will just wither away.

Great writing doesn’t rest on what the writer lets the characters do. It rests on what the characters cannot do, and the impact of that. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is so powerful because the hero cannot save an innocent victim. Right does not triumph, because the system is so heavily rigged against right. That was a reality, and it formed a cage that even Atticus Finch could not break.

That means world building is very much about the limits on what can be done, and on realistic constraints on the actions of the characters. In the real world, anyone driving or flying or on a ship worries about how long their fuel will last and how they can get more. Yet the default model for fictional starships is to never have to worry about refueling. One of the biggest concerns that drives the decisions of real people is eliminated, which certainly simplifies the lives of the characters, but as writers our job is not to make it easy for those characters.

Make it hard. Keep it real.

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About Jack Campbell

John G. Hemry (Jack Campbell) is a retired U.S. Navy officer. His father (LCDR Jack M. Hemry, USN ret.) is a mustang (an officer who was promoted through the enlisted ranks), so John grew up living everywhere from Pensacola, Florida to San Diego, California, including an especially memorable few year on Midway Island.

John graduated from Lyons High School in Lyons, Kansas in 1974, then attended the U.S. Naval Academy (Class of '78), where he was labeled "the un-Midshipman" by his roommates.

His active duty assignments in the U.S. Navy included:

* USS SPRUANCE (DD963) (Navigator, Gunnery Officer)
* Defense Intelligence Ageny (Production Control Officer)
* Navy Anti-Terrorism Alert Center (Watch Officer, Operations Officer) * Amphibious Squadron Five (Staff Intelligence Officer/N2)
* Navy Operational Intelligence Center (Readiness Division)
* Chief of Naval Operations Staff N3/N5 (Plans, Policy and Operations)

John speaks the remnants of Russian painstakingly pounded into him by Professor Vladimir Tolstoy (yes, he was related to that Tolstoy).

He lives in Maryland with a wife who is too good for him and three great kids.

Website

About THE ASSASSINS OF ALTIS

Trapped within the dead city of Marandur, Master Mechanic Mari and Mage Alain must escape both merciless barbarians and the pitiless Imperial Legion. Beyond those dangers lie the mightiest and most unforgiving powers in the world of Dematr: the Great Guilds that rule the world with iron fists.

Mari's Mechanics Guild and Alain's Mage Guild have always been enemies, but they are united in wanting to kill their rogue members before Mari can fulfill the ancient prophecy of being the one who will finally overthrow their power. Mari and Alain must risk those dangers because halfway across their world lies a place where truth has long been hidden. A place that could explain why their world's history begins abruptly, with no hints of what came before. A place where they might learn how the Mechanics Guild came to control all technology and how the Mages manage to alter reality temporarily. A place that might tell them how to achieve a task that appears to be impossible.

Never before have a Mage and a Mechanic worked together, and their combined talents offer their only hope. But she and Alain must first survive the deadly and implacable Assassins of Altis.