Slowly returning things to "normalcy".

I suspect I'm going to have to do something like I did the last time I got a mass of email all at once and make a "FAQ Post" addressing the bulk of them, so I can focus on the things that require attention: paying customers, sponsors, the artists of various media who contacted me and never got a reply, etc. And of course, the writing. It's been a busy week but I'm trying to make sure each story gets some attention, since I know they each have their supporters now.

Anyway, on writing...

yuki_onna recently linked to an older blog article of hers that included these quotes:

Most literary rules are better off bent, and combining the ritualistic self-flagellation of confessional poetry with genre tropes makes a much more delicious cocktail than either the bucket of emo-blood or elven mead alone.

and

If there is no emotional core, I don’t care how many tribes of elves you’ve invented. The fact is, none of y’all know what it’s like to be a young, blond farm boy dreaming up at the stars when a wizard shows up to dump the fate of the world on your shoulders and also hands you a crown and a girl. Life doesn’t work like that. The best books serve two masters: they show us what life could be like if everything was different, and they make us recognize ourselves with a start. They make us say: yes, that’s what it’s like.

To strike that balance, you must be like unto a World of Warcraft heroine: wear sparkly, leathery, fantastical armor that nevertheless shows all your secret parts.

Aside from being clever as fuck (and extremely clever fuck at that), that resonates with me. A lot of what goes into Tales of MU is "inventing tribes of elves", i.e., what's thought of as world-building. I like world-building as an intellectual exercise, whether it's coming up with fantasy civilizations on fantasy worlds or peopling the modern world with superheroes or envisioning fantastic vehicles and new technologies that could drive a story, but however much detail I invest these creations with, I never take them down off the shelf to show to company unless I feel like I have something to say with them... not just "this might make a good story" but "I myself have a good story to tell using these".

It's not enough to chart dynasties or map trade routes. Unless your imaginary world happens to hit on somebody's specific area of interest, there's no reason for anybody to care what you say happened in a made-up place that has nothing to do with them. If that place is Awesome!!! enough, you'll get some people who care by simple virtue of giving them a place for them to imagine themselves being Awesome!!!... and, y'know, I suppose there are worse levels on which a work can engage someone, but there are also better and stronger ones.

Most writers recognize this, which is why at the very least they provide you with a viewpoint character and put someone into some sort of peril (these may or may not be the same person) and do their best to give you some reason to care about them.

Of course, in this... as in all things... your mileage may vary. I've certainly received my share of "Enough of this emotional core crap, tell me more about your elven tribes." comments on Tales of MU, just as I've been told that The 3 Seas is less engaging than my other works because it lacks their heart. I've also been told (just today) that they read as though written by different people and both are enjoyable.

But, to bring this around to something resembling a point, while I've never been much of a confessional poet myself (I'm more of a limmerickist), Cat's blog post neatly describes my general approach to fantasy and why Tales of MU will probably remain my personal favorite of my works for a good long time, being such a heady mixture of emo-blood and elven mead, of personal reflection and world building, cultural examination and culture creation.