McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Common knowledge in fantasy
sluice:
--- Quote from: Roaram on April 05, 2008, 07:17:18 AM ---I have never seen this really addressed in the boards, so I thoought I would bring it up.
when writing a story set in a fantasy world, or reading, how do you do common knowledge stuff like measuring time, or days of the week. or distance. and how much gold/silver/copper/seashells does it take to buy a horse anyways? I have seen it done a lot of ways, but I find that my friends and I differ a lot with how we like to read it. for example I would be completely thrown off if some arcane text told the wizard hhe would need to open the portal to the demon plane TUESDAY after next(unless humor was the object) while at the same time I hate it when armies march for ten leagues, because leagues is so over used in actual distances I never know if its a mile or three or something completely different. and if you do create something different, how should you catch the reader up without making the characteers discuss plain knowledge? any thoughts
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In my opinion this is one of the biggest mistakes in fantasy. Take the Battlestar Galactica route ad try to bring in as much realism as possible. What, the system of measuring "feet" wouldn't exist on this world? Neither would the word "measuring." There are languages no which have no articles, no "a," "an," or "the,"
and that's on our planet. Just don't name the months and days after our pagan gods (unless those gods exist in your world).
AverageGuy:
--- Quote from: neurovore on April 07, 2008, 06:57:27 PM ---On the other hand, you can just snark about it. There's a lovely line in one of Steven Brust's fantasy novels to the effect that "Fortnight was an Eastern word, though why they needed a word for a chunk of time one day shorter than three weeks is beyond me"; which tells you that either fortnights or weeks in this world are not what you expect them to be.
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A Denarian Dragaeran week's five days in the Taltos books. The Easterners hold on to Earth traditions.[/tangent]
Edit: Ack! Been reading too much of this other, hack author. :P
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: AverageGuy on April 08, 2008, 07:19:19 AM ---A Denarian Dragaeran week's five days in the Taltos books. The Easterners hold on to Earth traditions.[/tangent]
Edit: Ack! Been reading too much of this other, hack author. :P
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I know that, and this is true and in elsewhere in the series; I was just pointing at this specific sentence as an example of communicating part of that information very precisely and elegantly.
comprex:
And to make you wonder at the role of the Jenoine in early settlement.
hamiltond:
Just put a glossary in the back of the book. It worked for Jordan and Herbert.
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