Blog Archives - Allison Symes - This World and Others

Escaping...

31/5/2015

Eileen is the Fairy Kingdom's bete noir when it cames to people escaping that it would rather had not escaped at all. But there are many in the realm who escape or at least try to do so without going the whole way by leaving the magical world altogether.

Hanastrew hates paperwork, focuses on the practical side of her work leading the fairy squad, and delegates the paperwork to her deputy, Wandarox. The latter gets extra pay for doing this and Hanastrew gets away with doing very little in the way of office work so everyone wins here. L'Evallier escapes the Queen and the formality of Court by spending as much time with his wife as possible. Indeed L'Evallier and Melanbury are planning to return to his country estate during the quiet holiday period to recharge their batteries and to get right out of the public eye for a while.

The Queen escapes by going to her holiday estate every summer. FNN are banned from going anywhere near here. Roherum did try to get near to the place once only to have tinned salmon rain down on him from the sky and he ended up suffering from mild concussion as several tins hit him. This amused his rival, the weatherman, immensely, but has left the friendly journalist with a phobia of anything tinned and he has not been near the Queen's holiday home again.

When Life Gets Too Much...

31/5/2015

One of the few things Eileen has in common with Fresdian (later Rose) is the wish, when life becomes too much, to get right away from it all by retreating to the natural world. Both fairies love walking long distances (they see flying as part of the job description and both have been thoroughly annoyed on those occasions when wind speed is so strong they get sent off course). Fresdian tends to prefer woodland, Eileen loves the coast. And for both just being in the natural world is an antidote to the problems of the magical one.

Eileen loves walking along the coast. She likes it when the tide is out and has a very soft spot for rock pooling.

Fresdian's Favourite Haunts

30/5/2015

Fresdian (later Rose) is the nearest the Fairy Kingdom will ever get to Sir David Attenborough. Fresdian loves all flora and fauna regardless of what world or dimension she is in and for this she is generally considered weird.

Practically everybody in the magical realm finds Fresdian's fascination with dragons both dangerous and nuts. They consider them as overgrown lizards with a bad attitude problem. Fresdian insists they're misunderstood though her case is always undermined when one of them goes on the rampage and destroys a village somewhere. (Fresdian quickly got the hint she should not visit places like this after she went once or twice after a dragon attack and was run out of town for her pains. Her wish to "understand where the dragon came from in terms of what he/she needs" was as popular as a dose of the plague).

Fresdian has written several text books which are used in colleges and schools as they are useful for anatomical descriptions. To her annoyance, the fairy squad use her books to work out the best ways/places to attack rogue dragons, ogres and so on.

Still the plus side for Fresdian is she gets to explore the Kingdom. One of her favourite haunts is below.

Fresdian loves her woodland walks.

Getting Away From It All

29/5/2015

Eileen liked to get away from it all whenever possible and had several favourite places to retreat to in the Fairy Kingdom, which were off the beaten track. There would be no chance of seeing the Queen in those places given she liked staying around the Palace or on her holiday estate. The one risk was running into the Witch given she too liked to get away from it all but Eileen refused to be intimidated by that. Mind, Eileen refused to be intimidated by anything.

One of Eileen's favourite walking areas.

Eileen's Kingdom Retreats

28/5/2015

Prior to Eileen's defection to Earth and when she was busy being the Kingdom's one-woman deal with problems for the Queen team, Eileen would find places where she could relax. She found this useful after tackling say the latest monster but before going back to the Palace to issue her report.

Eileen would spend hours here recuperating from tackling the latest monster before heading back to the Palace.

Eileen always did love the coast and on Earth enjoys visiting the remoter beaches of Britain. Her other favourite kind of terrain is anything that could be described as wild and a bit bleak. She sees it as reflecting her own character to an extent!

A heavenly view regardless of what dimension you're in.

The Art of Surprise

25/5/2015

The art of surprise when writing, for me, is to come up with characters you know well enough to write about but can still come out with actions/words that come out of "left field" but are still consistent with the character you've portrayed.

Even better is when the character can surprise themselves and achieve more than they ever thought they would. There is a negative side of course - that is when they prove themselves to be, say, more cowardly than they thought they would be.

But every character must have a positive and negative side if there is to be any hope of producing characters that are realistic. Even fantasy characters have to have some element readers can identify with or where they can see why the character acted the way they did.

The other act of surprise for the writer is when the story takes off in unexpected ways. I love this. It gives me a real buzz. I outline stories so add the new idea into my outline so I can see what is better - what I originally had or the new idea. Often it is the latter and I happily write it up, knowing I'm not going off at a tangent.

So surprises can be a good thing for writing. Now back to my short stories... I wonder what surprise(s) they'll have in store for me. The great thing is it is always fun to find out!

TIRED CHARACTERS

25/5/2015

Unless your character really is some kind of superhero, they should get tired, make mistakes, be ground down and so on. They should also overcome these things, have good days and bad ones.

Characters should have enough good points to make you sympathize with them (or at least understand why they are the way they are in the case of villains). Everything about a character should make sense for that character. (Even crazy characters have reasons for being that way and showing those reasons will help foster sympathy for that character).

Characters with a good sense of humour go down well, as do characters who can recognize their own failings and recognize where they need to improve.

Characters should have their own distinct voice. My Eileen is crisp, clear and blunt. The latter trait of course lands her in it time and time again, also can cause problems for her with regard to her daughter, Jenny, who is as blunt back again.

THE ROYAL LIBRARY

23/5/2015

One of the views from Eileen's Palace quarters. And yes, the Fairy Kingdom also "borrowed" electricity from Earth. It saves a lot of magical energy being wasted.

Eileen, while in the Kingdom, loved three things about life in the Palace. These were:-

The Palace grounds which are beautiful and has a wide range of landscapes.
Her luxury quarters. Eileen likes her creature comforts.
The Royal Library. Eileen always did like a good read. Sometimes she liked a good write and it is only because of her status that her volumes, depicting Kingdom history from her perspective, saw the light of day at all and ended up in the Library. Anyone wanting to borrow them has to give their name and contact details to the Librarian. Much to Eileen's annoyance, this did put people off, which was the idea.

CREATING A NEW WORLD

22/5/2015

This is fun to do. I started by working out a system of government, a heirarchy for the various magical ranks and looked at what magic each group could do. I also looked at if a "magically low" group like the sprites could improve their score here and yes they can but have shown no inclination to do so. The other groups are not sorry about that.

I use our system of doing things as a kind of template. Some things in the Fairy Kingdom follow the Earth based ones (again no male in the Kingdom ever likes asking for directions!) while others take the opposite approach. I didn't work out everything straight away and I think the most important thing for me was to work out the system of government. That has been the main thing that has helped me visualize my world and so write about it.

LIMITING THE USE OF MAGIC

21/5/2015

Magic has to be limited to a certain extent in any fantasy story. If magic can solve everything, then there is no story. In my novels, the differing magical species have varying amounts of magical capability. This gives rise to clashes and tensions between the groups.

Also the use of magic by any of the groups in my stories comes with a price. The more you use, the more energy you drain away from yourself. This leads to the Kingdom nicking good ideas from Earth and other worlds it watches as where it can use machines to save magical energy, they will.

With the Fairy Queen in overall charge, partly because she has the most amount of magic, that allows for the Witch being envious and plotting to steal the monarch's crown and magical powers. Because the Witch knows the Queen, and Eileen, would be able to challenge her successfully, the Witch has to use guile to bring about her wishes. I think that makes for a more interesting story as guile can succeed or go wrong and there are then consequences for the character to deal with.

THE FAIRY SQUAD

21/5/2015

This was started by Eileen and taken over by Hanastrew. The squad keeps itself fit and practices magic regularly, often going into the more remote regions to do so. This is partly to ensure nobody can get in their way but also ensures secrecy as the squad develop techniques for dealing with the magically villainous. There is no secret about their exercise regime though and this includes:-

Long distance flying. This is practiced to build up stamina and to make the squad immune to "broomstick bottom". It is not comfortable sitting on broomsticks for any length of time and the body has ways of making it clear it isn't happy. Pressure sores are just one aspect of this. So the squad practices its flying skills and extends the length of time anyone in the squad can stand being on a broomstick as well as toughening the fairies up so they can withstand broomstick bottom.
Physical exercise on the ground. This includes running, swimming and long distance walking, all with the idea of building up muscle and stamina.
Healthy eating and drinking. It must be said Hanastrew does not always set the best example here given her famous love of all things chocolate but she burns the calories up easily with her personal exercise regime so there is no risk of her becoming fat. She does eat plenty of fibre, protein, fruit and vegetables and drinks lots of water and encourages the squad to do so. She also encourages the squad to share any chocolate they might have on them!

GRUDGES, CHARACTERS AND SETTINGS

17/5/2015

Grudges cast long shadows. Things from the past affecting today form the basis of many a great story. Anything you can use here? And bear in mind that a character’s development takes time. Eileen has become awkward because she has become fed up with being “used”. The Witch wants to take the Kingdom to avenge slights, real and imagined, on her family by the fairy royals. The Witch “forgets” her own family attacked the royals, naturally the royals were going to fight back.

Have your characters got enough to play for? Their ambition has got to be strong enough. It’s no good just wishing for something to happen. Have they the means, or the ability to find the means, to achieve them? What will they do to achieve them? Have they got limits? Can they see to the end of the road? Do they know where they want to end up?

Does your setting have a history, which may well affect your characters? The Fairy Kingdom has a history of wars between witches, wizards and fairies, leading to barren areas, which in turn is leading to overpopulation in certain parts of the realm. This led to Eileen suggesting the more responsible magical beings living, in disguise, on other worlds. She got shouted down yet she knows this issue won’t just go away no matter how much the Queen and Council try to ignore it.

Has your world got issues it needs to face? What is its system of government? If your world seems real to you, it should seem real to your readers. And every world has to be run by someone - someone with a past, character traits that can benefit the realm/cause it great problems. There’s got to be some great stories in that!

Do your characters have depth to them? Do they fall in love, hold grudges, take revenge? Do they develop say from wanting revenge to finding revenge wasn’t as satisfactory as they thought it might be? Can you see why your characters act the way they do?

Do you show why your characters are villainous? Is the reason good enough to keep the villainy going or can it be overcome? Do you show how your world works? What’s the system of government? Are there those who resent the way things are run?

Keep your writing tight. No unnecessary adjectives etc. Can you justify every word you write? Tight writing leads to a good, quick pace and easy reading. Less tight can lead to a more flowing style, which could be appropriate for the pieces in between the moments of high drama. Don’t let such less tight writing go on for too long. You want to use it to serve you, not to unwittingly bring in a “boring” bit (it will seem boring if the slower flow drags on).

Can you picture your characters? I don’t have character biographies, though I can see the point of drawing them up, but I can see the type of being that L’Evallier is for example in my mind’s eye and it makes writing for that character a lot easier.

ELECTIONS IN THE FAIRY KINGDOM

16/5/2015

Elections in the Fairy Kingdom don't take place often (usually once a decade) and are mainly for people to go on to the local village associations. The use of magic is banned though when the poll has been conducted, it can be used to help with the counting.

The Queen appoints her own Council. One reform Eileen wanted was for this to go to popular vote but the Queen would have none of this.

The Fairy News Network tend to get thoroughly over-excited when an election is on and cover the story to death from the time of the announcement there will be a poll to the time when the result is broadcast. To date no candidates have agreed to Roherum's request for a pre-election interview. Nobody is surprised by this. There are plenty who wouldn't trust Roherum to give them the correct time of day!

MAGICAL CREATURES TO WELCOME

16/5/2015

The Fairy Kingdom has nicer creatures to its name too. And these come in particularly useful if you need rescuing (usually from a dragon). Those you would be most glad to see in an emergency are:-

Eileen in full action fairy godmother mode. Nothing and nobody will stop this woman coming to the aid of the severely distressed (this is usually dragon related. What Eileen does here is take the distress from you and give it in huge measure to the dragon instead!).
Hanastrew and the fairy squad. Having taken over Eileen's work given her defection to Earth, these are the people you are going to call when you need help.
The Fairy Queen. Does not like being listed. Dislikes being number 3 even more so. However, you are in with more chance of being rescued by the first 2, hence this listing. Eileen had long argued before her defection the Queen ought to keep her fighting and rescuing skills up. The monarch's reply was along the lines it wasn't as if she was idle, affairs of state kept her busy and so on, all of which is true but is of no use whatsoever if you are at the business end of a dragon looking for its next victim.

MAGICAL CREATURES TO AVOID

15/5/2015

There are many magical creatures to avoid but the basic list everyone in the Fairy Kingdom has drummed into them from an early stage (for health and safety reasons) is below.

Eileen in a mood. This is not difficult to spot. Eileen's voice levels rise by several decibels for thing and she has been known to emit steam from her ears when really cross.
Dragons. There has been some debate as to whether dragons should really be at the top of the list but it was considered, after a poll conducted by the Fairy News Network, that Eileen should have the honour. Dragons do occasionally miss when firing flames at people. Eileen never does.
Ogres. Unless you are lucky enough to meet Shrek, ogres are all highly dangerous and not one of them is vegetarian.
The Fairy Queen. Is not best pleased to be in this list at all and resents even more being placed lower than Eileen. Eileen feels it makes a change and does not mind being considered dangerous. She sees it as a compliment.
Treacherous Wizards. For the avoidance of doubt, most in the Fairy Kingdom assume all wizards come into this category. Witches are automatically assumed to be evil and so people know what to expect but wizards are different in that some are good, others are not and there is no automatic way of telling just by looking at the blighters. By the time they have produced magic, it is too late to run away.

The Lonelier Areas of the Fairy Kingdom

13/5/2015

The lonelier areas of the Fairy Kingdom are appreciated by wildlife lovers, long distance walkers and flyers who want to practice speed flying. The latter sport is very popular amongst the younger members of society, amongst all magical species, but is banned from anywhere near the Palace and residential areas.

As with life on Earth, Fairy Kingdom pets also appreciate the great outdoors.

Fresdian, later Rose, the Kingdom's great wildlife expert, loved the great outdoors in the magical realm and later on Earth when she went to live there. She often struck up good conversations with fellow wildlife fans and walkers, but had no time for the outdoor sports people. To be fair they had no time for her!

More Lonely Places in the Fairy Kingdom

11/5/2015

Most of the "lonelier" places in the Fairy Kingdom are inhabited but it is more a question of "by what"!

In most places, the major magical species are represented but in vastly reduced quantities. In other places, the only residents are dragons, ogres and other monsters. There are usually lots of warning signs from about 10 miles out in every direction from these locations. The fairy government is keen that if people go visiting, they know exactly what it is they are likely to be facing. And you will always know if a place is really dangerous as the sprites refuse to go there. Given their liking for trouble and fighting, this is quite telling.

Lonely places have their secrets - and some of them are monstrous. Watch for the signs and don't take anything for granted!

Where Magic is Part of the Landscape in the Fairy Kingdom

10/5/2015

There is much that is magical inherent in the Fairy Kingdom's landscape without the actual use of magic being necessary. To a certain extent this is true for Earth as well. And as the Fairy Kingdom try to treasure and make the most of these special areas, so should we on Earth.

Beach walking is hugely popular in the Fairy Kingdom. Beachcombing is popular throughout all known universes and planets where beaches exist. Rockpooling is also hugely popular. Of course those living near the coastal regions benefit the most from this but in the Kingdom people do fly to the coast to have holidays. Their great advantage is they can go on their own broomsticks and are not at the mercy of the airports!

Views like this are hugely popular in the Fairy Kingdom. Beach walking and rockpooling are enjoyed by most magical species as a way to unwind.

WATERSIDE DAYS OUT IN THE FAIRY KINGDOM

7/5/2015

The Fairy Kingdom loves water, in terms of the sea, lakes, rivers, streams and so on. Those who live closest to these are considered lucky. While the realm does have piped water for houses and public buildings, as with us, this wasn't always the case so those living near water were considered to have a head start. Nobody likes lugging water for domestic use any further than they have to do so. As with us, it was a relief when piped water came in (and this was another idea directly lifted from Earth).

There is also a reluctance, even felt by witches and wizards, to use magic on water itself, given the latter is considered a magical substance in many ways and everyone knows what happened to the wizard's apprentice.

A typical scene around most Fairy Kingdom villages. Events are held on the green on the opposite bank. This is as much of a rural idyll for them as it would be for us.

COASTAL DAYS OUT IN THE FAIRY KINGDOM

5/5/2015

Glorious scenery and the timelessness of the sea is appreciated by most in the Fairy Kingdom.

Those lucky enough to live relatively close to the coastal areas in the magical world use less energy to get there but all cherish days out to the seaside.

Sprites especially love these days out and spend a great deal of time swimming, fighting each other on the beach, swimming, eating, fighting on the beach and a fantastic day out is had by all.

In sprite society, if you don't go home with at least a nosebleed, the day out failed.

Roherum loves visiting the coast, as part of his FNN work and relishes going over how dreadful the sprites have been, someone really ought to take them in hand as a species and so on. Fresdian, later Rose, relished her official visit to other parts of the Kingdom, and loved the sea for its timelessness.

WOODLAND WALKS IN THE FAIRY KINGDOM

4/5/2015

Most of the villages and towns in the Fairy Kingdom have their own woodlands near by and walking through them is an enjoyable hobby relished by most. The main difference between walking in woods there and on Earth is the range of creatures, magical and otherwise. Also the trees have been known to talk in the Fairy Kingdom. Some of the older specimens are feeling their age somewhat and have been known to swear too!

Fresdian (later Rose) wrote many pamphlets to help villagers get the best out of their local woods and these are well read. Every library carries an entire stock of these covering most of the realm. Fresdian was never much of an artist so the illustrations were provided by the Queen's official artist, an elf called Mathfillion, who loves nothing better than spending all day with her paint box.

NATURAL APPRECIATION

3/5/2015

Most species in the Fairy Kingdom have a deep appreciation of the wonders and beauties of the natural world, even if the reasons vary somewhat.

The Queen, the elves, Eileen and the higher ranks generally appreciate the natural world for what it is, though orcs, dwarves and sprites, all renowned fighters, can see how certain attributes of the natural world help or hinder their fighting efforts. Huge rocks (for hurling on the enemy) are always considered useful!

The Fairy Kingdom itself is,mainly, beautiful. Nobody talks about, yet alone, visits those areas made barren by too much magic hitting them. There is a kind of collective shame about this but it is sensed rather than expressed. The vast majority prefer to think of something much more positive, such as the image of the woods below.

Fresdian, later Rose, loves walking in areas like the one pictured and writes in depth about the beauties and benefits of this. She is considered a fanatic but nobody ever says she is wrong!

Map Reading in the Fairy Kingdom

2/5/2015

Map reading in the Fairy Kingdom is a definite art given magical maps are always pictorial. There is also plenty of "unseen" material within the printed items, including curses on the more dangerous documents, and only the most stupid (usually the sprites) don't treat maps with the respect they deserve. Very occasionally a "bad" map has been known to swallow alive someone not reading and treating it in the correct manner.

The magical schools give intensive training to all species in how to read a magical map properly, avoid the curses and so on so there is no excuse for someone to be bettered by a map but it happens - usually to sprites (and it usually turns out at the inquest they never paid much attention to their school lessons).

The phrase "Dragons Be Here" is always taken seriously. The biggest fear for anyone reading a magical map is to come across the phrase "We didn't dare go here". The more thoughtful cartographer, lucky to escape with their life, goes into full details on the back of the map as to why they wrote this. Let's just say the description is best not read on a full stomach and makes Shelob from The Lord of the Rings look like a real sweetie.

Always Exercise Caution When....

2/5/2015

Offered to be shown a shortcut on any journey you undertake in the Fairy Kingdom. At best you will have to climb a treacherous mountain. At worst you will die. Horribly.
Inviting guests to the christening of your new baby princess. (Kate still hasn't given birth as I write this incidentally). Best invite all the fairy godmothers.
Finding a gold ring that you have had to dig out of soil to find yet remains strangely clean. There is something odd about it. If you don't fancy an epic adventure, put the ring back where you found it.
Accepting employment as apprentice to a wizard. You really must do as you're told and unless you're prepared to do that, you will endanger yourself and everything and everyone around you.
Banning a cursed implement. You must be sure you do get all the spindles to name one example.

CHALLENGES IN CREATING MAGICAL WORLDS

1/5/2015

There are challenges, of course, in creating any fictional world. Of course the fun comes from overcoming those challenges. For a magical world, I've found my challenges to be:-

It is vital to avoid using magic to solve every problem, otherwise it becomes boring. If all you have to do to solve anything is wave your wand after consulting your spell book, well there's no conflict and the story dies.
It is vital not to make the world too fantastic. I've tried to give enough physical details that people can picture (mainly in odd descriptions of the Kingdom's 7 main regions to show a contrast between them) but I have not gone into things further as these are not directly relevant to the actual story and would only slow it down.
Magic in itself should have a downside. My focus here has been using too much of it has made parts of the realm barren. Other areas have recovered but some are too far gone. Also I've shown the differing magical species having varying levels of magical ability as not only would this be accurate (there is no way a sprite would be able to compete with a wizard here), again these differences can lead to conflict and more stories.