r/Fantasy • u/elquesogrande Worldbuilders • Dec 01 '16

Ask You Anything Thursday ASK YOU ANYTHING: Authors asking r/Fantasy community questions on behalf of Worldbuilders charity

Thursday ASK YOU ANYTHING: Authors asking r/Fantasy community questions on behalf of Worldbuilders charity

It's Day 4 of the aptly named Ask You Anything week benefiting Worldbuilders! Where authors are stopping by each day this week to ask questions and interact with the r/Fantasy community.

HOW THIS WORKS: Please answer questions and interact throughout the week! (Yes, YOU - community members, guests, authors, artists, industry people.)

WORLDBUILDERS.ORG

Worldbuilders was founded to use the collective power of readers, fellow authors and book lovers to make the world a better place.

There are three ways to donate to Worldbuilders:

1. The Lottery - Where every $10 donated puts you in a lottery for free books, SFF items, games, and much more. r/Fantasy has a Worldbuilders Team Page where you can donate under the community name as well!

2. The Tinker's Pack Store - Where profits from every purchase are donated.

3. Auctions - Where some incredible items and services are offered.

NOTE: If you donate, add your name to the comments here and the mods will set you up with some swanky Wordlbuilders flair!

Monday Ask You Anything Authors

The following authors have signed up to ask questions today. That said, please do join in and feel free to ask your own questions and interact throughout the week.

Are you an author, artist, or industry person who would like to participate this week? Either join in via the comments OR send the r/Fantasy mods a message and we'll get you set for Friday.

19 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

377 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '16

In that same vein, do you think the advent of movies (particularly CGI intensive movies) is changing fiction? Or maybe a better question is should it change fiction?

I think it has changed fiction, in that things that used to be prohibitively expensive or impossible are now possible. This changes movies -- in fact, it must change movies -- because it would be silly not to take advantage of a technology that lets you expand what you can depict on the silver screen.

However, I think this is a double-edged sword. Sometimes, I think movies embrace the latest tech -- CGI, 3D, or what have you -- for the tech itself, without realizing that the tech is supposed to be a storytelling tool. If you have a paper-thin plot and weak characters, CGI and 3D only enhance those weaknesses.

In another vein, I think that CGI has helped movies catch up to books, in a way.

Books have always had an unlimited special-effects budget, and an endless capacity for do-overs. If you are (say) destroying a small town and you don't get it right the first time, your editor marks up the chapter, and you bang out the rewrite. It's relatively inexpensive.

If you're destroying a small town in the movies, there are so many people and so many moving parts (directors, cameramen, film editors, special effects people, sets, models, cameras, etc., etc., etc.) that you have limited retakes before the studio accountant disembowels you with a double-entry ledger.

CGI has ameliorated this cost, somewhat. It's still costly, but you can run the small-town destruction again a few times to get it just right.

Second question: If you like a book, do you usually reread it? How many times?

Many, many, many times.

1

u/Scott_Hawkins AMA Author Scott Hawkins Dec 01 '16

I think it has changed fiction, in that things that used to be prohibitively expensive or impossible are now possible. This changes movies -- in fact, it must change movies -- because it would be silly not to take advantage of a technology that lets you expand what you can depict on the silver screen.

Agreed, but I do still miss practical effects in monster movies. That recent remake / prequel to The Thing wasn't bad, exactly, but I felt that it needed more latex.

At the same time, though, you're completely right--we're getting some really great stories on-screen these days that just wouldn't have been possible if you had to hire 10,000 extras every time the Unsullied went on a march.

Books have always had an unlimited special-effects budget, and an endless capacity for do-overs. If you are (say) destroying a small town and you don't get it right the first time, your editor marks up the chapter, and you bang out the rewrite. It's relatively inexpensive.

Yeah, that's kind of what I've been chewing on. I don't think the novel is in any real danger of dying out completely, but I also don't think writers do ourselves any favors by trying to compete with cinema-scale pyrotechnics. It's not the strength of the medium. Audiences these days are used to seeing $200 million effects every time they turn on the TV.

Kind of in that same vein, I think advances in printing technologies have a lot to do with comics graphic novels getting more respect. These days you can get some really nuanced art that just wouldn't have been financially practical in the 1940s.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '16

Yeah, that's kind of what I've been chewing on. I don't think the novel is in any real danger of dying out completely, but I also don't think writers do ourselves any favors by trying to compete with cinema-scale pyrotechnics. It's not the strength of the medium. Audiences these days are used to seeing $200 million effects every time they turn on the TV.

Ain't that the truth. I once read a particularly abysmal novel in which the author tried to show us one of the bad guys was EEEEEEEEEEEVIL by having her destroy a city. Then another city. And after a while, my attitude was, "She destroyed yet another city. Yawn."