Resolving tension with integrity in Fantasy/SciFi

[JaiGuru]

Fantasy is a genre I've had a little experience with, though aside from staples like the Lord of the Rings books I can't say I'm deeply invested in the genre. I have an opinion that much of what we call science fiction is just fantasy with a "tech" wrapper or flavor. So often tech is used in fantastical ways and I suppose the motif may make these behaviors or phenomena, that once would have been written with magical language, seem more palatable to a modern audience. Point being, I'm not necessarily against such a usage.

But this does lead to some problems that beginning writers like myself tend to smash our heads against. For me, the biggest problem with any fantasy/soft sci fi story is that there seems to be this tendency to rely on cheap tactics to resolve problems. Deus ex machina? For instance: Good guy goes on quest, quest puts good guy in troubling situation, good guy uses MAGIC!!!!!!, everything works out.

So, my question to everyone one is how do you write magic or magic-level tech in a way that doesn't end up cheap? Are there methods I can employ? How do you avoid overly simplistic resolutions to tension in a narrative while having characters that can wield fantastical power or technology?

I have seen some discussion on this which pointed out George Martin's approach in Game of Thrones whereby magic is sort of a rumor and its influence is pretty minimal. (Might have even read that on this forum.) But the trick eventually shows up where the reader is unimpressed with the way tension is resolved because either the author used a cop-out and just deployed magic, or the author attempts to circumvent that trap and the reader ends up saying "why didn't he just use magic?" There's some trickery afoot here and I want in on it.

Thanks for considering my question! I can't wait to hear what others think.

 

[Mirannan]

Magical or technological arms races and dei ex machina tend to be problems in roleplaying contexts, so some of the advice given about that in various places might be helpful.

One way that I am beginning to find useful (I'm a beginning writer!) of averting this sort of problem is to set out the limits and basis of the magic and/or tech, preferably in a documentary format for your own use, beforehand; and if you step over those limits in the actual work, ask yourself whether it's really necessary or the problem could be solved another way.

You're quite right, BTW, about tech often being magic with a different wrapper. Star Wars is the classic example of that. Slightly less common is magic actually being ultratech; I can remember at least one story (name escapes me) in which the natives of a particular world thought they were using magic items that were actually technological.

Clarke had this one nailed.

 

[BetaWolf]

I think that the point is to keep the resolution of the story within the rules that you have set up as the story's author. That is Rule#1. The crucial plot devices in Star Wars is (1)the Force--that lets Luke pilot his X-wing better than any of the other Rebel fighters; and (2) Han Solo arriving in the nick of time. And these are fair in the movie's established universe--that the Force is a mysterious and powerful, well, force for those blessed with the right ability; and second that spaceships are really useful and that Han Solo is a great pilot.

Rule#2 is that you have to set up a problem for your character(s) to solve that is actually a challenge for that particular character--something that this particular character needs to overcome.

 

[RoninJedi84]

While I'll readily admit it's never really been expanded on, one of the rules regarding magic in the Shannara world of Terry Brooks is that every use of magic exacts a price - which is a concept I personally think could work.

Despite one's level of power, they must be wary of using that power because it will drain them - physically, mentally, the whole nine yards, and leaves the user powerless.

As I said, in Shannara this isn't expanded on much, but it often happens that shortly after an expense of great power (usually a battle or some other such struggle for which magic was the only solution), the user is clearly seen to have physically aged.

Perhaps in your world magic is a last resort - not because of any moral stance, but because using that magic will literally kill the user (eventually) - which would cause magic users of good and evil to be a little reluctant to use their power?

Just wanted to throw out my two cents. Hope you found it helpful.

 

[BetaWolf]

Good point, RoninJedi. In addition to Brooks, Jim Butcher has 'death curses' in the Dresden files series. Basically, a wizard with enough power left who is on the verge of death can curse the one who killed her.

 

[Drakai]

Deus ex machine isn't always bad, it can be good too if used properly. Other than that, I think rather than giving the main character an ability to save them from the difficult position we put him/her in putting them in positions depending on what ability we gave them can be a helpful method.

 

[Tyburn]

Sometimes the answer will just come to you out of the blue. A good way to help this happen is to write short scenes where you put your protagonist in a situation that seems hopeless and trying to figure out a way to get them out of it. With enough tries you will come up with one that just makes you go 'wow, where did that come from?', plus you'll have a nice little store of situations you can throw at characters and ways they can get out of them.

One I'm going to do when I have some spare time is a story where in the first paragraph the protagonist is about to be hanged for piracy. Giving myself the rules that he can't use any form of magic, and the 'bullet or arrow cutting the rope' thing, apart from being done to death is physically impossible (or may as well be)

Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat is a good series to read if you want to get an angle on a wily and cunning character. It might give some inspiration.

 

[mm1145]

I always find the best sort of use of this to have the limits of your magic/tech explained to begin with and established through the start of the story then when you need to get your good guy (or even bad guy) out of a bind you can ether use a loophole nobody spotted before or if you have him break the established rules you can then spend a lot of time on him or others investigating why he is special. I have injoyed a lot of sotries that follow this sort of setup

brendon sanderson's mistborn series has good examples of both

 

[Brian G Turner]

So, my question to everyone one is how do you write magic or magic-level tech in a way that doesn't end up cheap? Are there methods I can employ? How do you avoid overly simplistic resolutions to tension in a narrative while having characters that can wield fantastical power or technology?

Easy. You kill or maim the characters.

That makes the stakes more real.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Brian, that's something I agree with.

I'd also say that internal consistency regarding the laws of super-technology or magic and some sort of price (for magic especially) helps to keep things balanced.

 

[Hex]

This feels a little like saying: "How can you have any kind of tension in a situation where a character gets ambushed by bandits? The character has legs, doesn't he? He can just run away."

OK I'm being a bit obtuse, but only a little -- it's to do with the rules of the world you write. Magic can have a price (like in The Curseworkers), it can be hard to access (like in Poison Study), it can be forbidden or life-shortening, or -- as in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:

“But for heaven’s sake – you’re wizards! You can do magic! Surely you can sort out – well – anything!”

"The trouble is, the other side can do magic too, Prime Minister.”

 

[Venusian Broon]

This feels a little like saying: "How can you have any kind of tension in a situation where a character gets ambushed by bandits? The character has legs, doesn't he? He can just run away."

OK I'm being a bit obtuse, but only a little -- it's to do with the rules of the world you write. Magic can have a price (like in The Curseworkers), it can be hard to access (like in Poison Study), it can be forbidden or life-shortening, or -- as in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:

I agree Hex (and others before who have said roughly the same thing), it's part of worldbuilding and therefore giving the reader a world that they can believe in that doesn't yank them out of the story.

For example imagine a 'Jack Vance-type' situation where magicians can only hold three spells in their memory and once they're cast they dissappear and they can't be used.

I'd feel cheated if at a showdown at the end I'm told, after the hero and the villian have both cast their three spells, that 'amazingly he (the hero) found a fourth spell intact and waiting to be cast'. However if we have good foreshadowing throughout the book, that most magicians can only hold three spells, but once in a blue moon a master magician comes along that can actually hold four, oh and our hero discovers he is a master...then that'd be better. It really does depend on how you set your world up.

p.s. I'm going off at a tangent here, but I've not read any of the Harry Potters, although I've watched a fair few of the movies. Is it explained why the magic world of Harry is not completely dominant and ordering the muggles about? Why do they hide? Why aren't they in charge?

 

[JoanDrake]

I agree Hex (and others before who have said roughly the same thing), it's part of worldbuilding and therefore giving the reader a world that they can believe in that doesn't yank them out of the story.

For example imagine a 'Jack Vance-type' situation where magicians can only hold three spells in their memory and once they're cast they dissappear and they can't be used.

I'd feel cheated if at a showdown at the end I'm told, after the hero and the villian have both cast their three spells, that 'amazingly he (the hero) found a fourth spell intact and waiting to be cast'. However if we have good foreshadowing throughout the book, that most magicians can only hold three spells, but once in a blue moon a master magician comes along that can actually hold four, oh and our hero discovers he is a master...then that'd be better. It really does depend on how you set your world up.

p.s. I'm going off at a tangent here, but I've not read any of the Harry Potters, although I've watched a fair few of the movies. Is it explained why the magic world of Harry is not completely dominant and ordering the muggles about? Why do they hide? Why aren't they in charge?

One possibility, and it's hinted at in some Potter books, is that they are, they just don't let anyone know

Or it could be, as I think Larry Niven noticed, magic is actually pretty useless. It seemingly can't stop thousands of people hearts from beating, (though you'd think that would be among its first uses, and pretty easy if you can affect small things at a distance without touching them) It can't cause a nuclear explosion. It can't blow things up, (well, not as reliably as a charge of C4 or an artillery shell.) It's effectiveness depends more on being used in secrecy and even then it's not that powerful

OTOH it CAN produce nearly unkillable warriors of superhuman strength and abilities, so it gets hard to say.

One anime, Fullmetal Alchemist. I think explores this paradox pretty fully. The magic they use is a combination of science and mysticism, while ordinary guns, and all other tech operates at a very near modern, (it's set in an Alternate 1914,)level

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Deus ex machine isn't always bad, it can be good too if used properly. Other than that, I think rather than giving the main character an ability to save them from the difficult position we put him/her in putting them in positions depending on what ability we gave them can be a helpful method.

I find that, generally, deus ex machina leaves me feeling cheated and ready to throw the book across the room. When I got caught out with it by a beta (rightly, of course), I was pretty horrified. Mostly, I think avoid at all costs.

Power can always be outgunned. So long as the odds present a challenge to that power, I think it should be okay.

 

[Tyburn]

I always liked the idea that with the martial art Aikido, the focus is on using an enemy's strength against them. While that may sound a bit off-topic, if you apply that principle to story-writing, you can nearly always find a way for someone to defeat a numerically or technologically superior foe.

In other words, research everything, even stuff you think won't have any bearing on anything. Become a goldmine of trivia and, with a little lateral thinking you can pull solutions out of thin air.

 

[BetaWolf]

I think that the best resolution tends to come down to wits, not technology (however defined). Or a unique perspective that the protagonist brings to a dire situation.

 

[Tyburn]

Exactly. Some of my older scribblings I've had massive armies facing off against one another and just hoping that it sounded believable that the good guys would come out on top - then if they didn't I'd have reinforcements arrive at the last minute.

On reflection that must have seemed like lazy storytelling. Most recently I've had my hero perform the galaxy's first zero-gee spaceship Judo throw in order to cripple a battleship easily twenty times bigger than his own vessel. It felt good coming up with that, especially the little joke I tossed in at the end about the names of the throws.

 

[Toby Frost]

Unfortunately I think the answer to "How can I avoid magic becoming a get-out clause for everything?" is "Don't let it happen". That means establishing clear rules pretty early on as to why characters can't just do anything they like.

This doesn't have to be too heavy-handed, either: a literal setting out of the rules, as per Van Helsing's speech in Dracula, isn't really needed. If a character lights a fire with magic early on, it might require intense consideration, complete silence, the holding of a piece of coal, or whatever. If it happens once, readers can expect it to happen that way again - and, more importantly, you're building up a tone or sense in the book overall of how magic is generally encountered and performed.

Often the problem with magic is the same as that of any equipment: once the excitement of the new equipment fades, the sense of peril becomes harder to maintain. A character who falls down a well is in trouble. A character with a rope and grapple who falls down a well is in less trouble, and one with magical jumping boots is in no trouble, no matter how cool the boots may have seemed when he first got them. The trick is either to not give the character that escape route in the first place (he's exhausted himself by using up all his magical power earlier), or to take it away from him (he's gagged and can't say the magic words). It's probably a matter of setting up and managing the reader's expectations.

 

[Tyburn]

Again, good point. Which is why someone should take Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver away, at one point he was using it for everything except screwing things (innuendo not intended)

 

[I_Voyager]

I completely agree about your consideration on lots of sci-fi using the magical solution to a problem. Think about Star Trek: maybe we can use an inversed poleron beam to this and that the flux of their shields!

I think what differentiates fantasy and sci-fi is the potential for rational, scientific solutions to problems.

When I write science fiction, I just try my best to invest myself into finding solutions which could be possible given my understanding of science, and I push myself to have as good an understanding as possible.

I'm working on an idea for time travel, for example. Rather than saying "They travelled back in time with a magical poof!" I've come up with a fictional device that relies on the very real principle of quantum teleportation. If a machine can create a passive connection between two non-local subatomic particles, and if other quantum phenomena can occur on a scale larger than subatomic particles, then an advanced quantum computer could use millions of individual scanner-heads to create billions of molecular-level quantum teleportation connections without regards to distance. So the machine reads all the physical data of the world, creates a holographic model of the particle mass, uses simulations to trace back the movement of matter, compares the state of the holographic earth to what historians know and then transfers the data back into the matter of the earth, thus changing the entire earth. My magic, then, lies in the scientific method and its ability to determine these extensions of real technologies, and not in technology itself.

Of course, whenever I do this to explain some important sci-fi element I come up with many other problems... But by solving these problems, I flesh out a story I am satisfied with.