{"id":27055,"date":"2014-10-16T06:30:35","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T17:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=27055"},"modified":"2014-10-15T21:08:24","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T08:08:24","slug":"story-why-i-write-fantasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2014\/10\/16\/story-why-i-write-fantasy\/","title":{"rendered":"Story & Why I Write Fantasy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GatheringoftheLost<\/a>Yesterday I spoke to the University of Canterbury’s creative writing class about “story” and writing process—which was a lot of fun and I hope at least something in what I had to say was encouraging.<\/p>\n

In the susbequent discussion, one of the students asked me why I chose to write Fantasy and although I tried to say something eloquent and inspiring, the gist was, “because I love it.”<\/p>\n

But in 2012, I addressed this very question on SF Signal<\/a>, in what I feel was a reasonably eloquent and slightly fuller manner. So I thought I’d share some of what I said then with you today:<\/p>\n

“The reason I want to celebrate epic fantasy is fairly straightforward: I love the genre…I love big, sweeping, adventurous stories where there\u2019s a lot at stake and what\u2019s at stake matters. I love stories of heroism, and friendships that endure in the face of darkness and despair \u2014 but sometimes fail, too. I love sword fights, and glorious charges, and forlorn hopes, and \u201cbands of brothers\u201d holding together through the \u201cthick and thin.\u201d I love magic, too, and if comes with a thread of darkness, danger, and the surreal, then all the better. World building is also really important to me, and not just landscapes but cultures as well: I want the world and the societies to be real for me when I\u2019m reading and that\u2019s what I strive for in my own writing. And I like a bit of romance \u2014 not big R romance which has it\u2019s own genre, but what I call \u201clittle r\u201d romance, which is integral to all our lives and definitely has its place in big book epic. [My books]…may be about magic and danger, roof top pursuits and forced marches by night, tourneys and battles, bands of brothers \u2014 and sisters \u2014 but [they’re] also about love…So there you have it: epic and adventure and magic, battles and flights, world building and emotional power, friendship and love. If you enjoy any or all of these things in your reading, then you may just find something in…[my storytelling]…that you will like.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

So I guess basically, it still comes down to: “I write Fantasy because I love it.” <\/em>At the end of the day, what better reason is there to do anything?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday I spoke to the University of Canterbury’s creative writing class about “story” and writing process—which was a lot of fun and I hope at least something in what I had to say was encouraging. In the susbequent discussion, one of the students asked me why I chose to write Fantasy and although I tried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-about-what-im-doing","category-epicfantasy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27055"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27060,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27055\/revisions\/27060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}