Guest Post: Stuart Jaffe...

Welcome back to Stuart Jaffe! This is his take on World Building: Languages...

Invariably when talking about world-building the subject of languages comes up. Really the question has more to do with what level of detail should a writer strive for. After all, the godfather of the genre, J. R. R. Tolkien, created entire languages both written and verbal for more than one race of fantastical beings. If Tolkien is the gold standard, then shouldn't we all be doing this? The answer seems to be Yes even though many writers want it to be No. After all, that's a lot of extra work.

But if you think about language usage in terms of level of detail instead, the answer gets a bit more murky. How many times have you read the advice not to include every detail you've researched and imagined? Hundreds, probably. So, wouldn't language come into play with that level of detail -- as in, it's great research but too much detail for the book itself?

All right, enough with the rhetoricals. Here's the answer in plain English. Tolkien loved language, studied language, and understood language, so he used that knowledge in his literary creations. If you share that passion, then go for it. For the rest of us, don't worry about it. You don't need to do it like that.

All you really need to do it HINT at another language. That's really all we do with world-building anyway. We drop hints as to what the world looks, smells, feels, tastes, and sounds like. We can't possibly include everything. Besides, over centuries upon centuries, storytellers have learned that an audience's imagination will always be stronger than the author's of the story. Hint at things and the reader will fill in the rest.

When it comes to languages, all you really need to do is hint at the flow of the words. In most cases, that means you'll be dealing mostly with two senses and partly a third. The primary sense is sound. How do the words of your made-up language sound? Listen to the Klingon language. It's rough and harsh, filled with hard consonants and guttural noises. This fits their race perfectly. It wouldn't sound right if the brutal Klingons had a language that flowed like French.

The next sense is sight. A writer communicates with words, and most of the time, those words are read. So, a little care should be given to the way your new language looks on the page. For awhile, it was in writer vogue to use lots of apostrophes in names and languages. As in: K'larta said, "You are the chosen k'gla'tyu. We must all join the ch'hu in ten re't'oo for you to receive the magic w'w'a's'g's'a'wq." Like my last word in that quote, the usage got a bit out of hand and has mostly died away. It was popular though precisely because, visually, it hinted at a more complex and fantastical language.

The last sense to consider is the feel. Here I mean the literal feeling of the words on your tongue, teeth, throat, lips, and all other parts of your mouth. This one isn't as important unless the language is vital to the story beyond the world-building, but it can be fun and it can add another layer of texture to your world.

Just remember -- in all these cases, the key is to use the techniques sparingly. Hinting at things, giving just enough of a taste that the reader can make up the rest, will serve you infinitely more than all the cool descriptions you can think of.

Mel: I love Tolkien's languages and so glad he took the time to come up with them! Thanks, Stuart, for your time. Here is a look at Stuart's upcoming book, Available September 20, 2012:

Guest Post: Stuart Jaffe...

Thanks, Mel, for inviting me onto your blog. It's a pleasure.

Now, one of the old warhorses of advice given to new writers is Write What You Know. Even if you're not a writer, you've probably heard this one. For me, a lover of science fiction from an early age, I had one question: How? How do I write about aliens and time travel and dragons and magic when I don't know -- when I can't truly know -- about those things?

Nobody had a good answer for me.

Thankfully, I figured it out for myself, and today, I offer my solution to you. It's this: you already do know about these things.

Take my series The Malja Chronicles which begins with The Way of the Black Beast. In this post-apocalyptic, parallel world magic is derived from manipulating energy around the user much like an electric eel manipulates the tiny bits of voltage surrounding it in the water. Magicians are born with this ability, and as they learn to utilize it for a specific spell, a tattoo grows on their body. They use these tattoos to focus their minds in order to conjure. However, another group of people, The Bluesmen, have learned to use the sympathetic vibrations caused by their blues music to manipulate the energy in the air nearby and achieve a similar goal -- although they require more manpower and have less powerful results. The final aspect of this magic system is that using it takes a toll on the magicians mind. The more magic (especially the more powerful magic) one uses, the higher the risk of going insane.

.

So, what did I actually know in order to create this magic system? Well, I had learned (really re-learned) about electric eels at the Baltimore Aquarium several years back and thought that would be a cool bit of knowledge to hold onto for some day. Regarding tattoos -- I have a few, so I know about them firsthand. When it came to the Bluesmen, I had learned about sympathetic vibrations long ago in a high school music theory class, and as you might imagine, I love blues music. In fact, I've been playing blues guitar for about twenty-five years. I really love the stuff.

In other words, I took all these little bits of things I had knowledge of or a love for and smashed them together. It's part of the fun when creating things like magic. After all, no matter what the writing teachers say, the truth is that there are no real rules to any of this. In fact, it took me a long time to learn this, but as far as I can tell, the only true rule in writing is quite simple: If it works, it works.

Too often, writers get scared by the complexity of a magic system. Relax. It doesn't have to be that complicated. It can, if you like, be rather simplistic. Look at the magic in Greek mythology or Arthurian legends. There's barely any consistency to be had. Magic does what the author needs it for and that's all. Things like logic and reason show no part in the execution of magic in these tales. The key: they made it work.

We've all read stories where the magic doesn't work, where the use of it seems like cheating or makes us start to question things. But good writing can make magic work in the most unlikely situations. J. K. Rowling made a pretty good career out of making it all up as she went along. It's evident in the Harry Potter books that her magic system was fleshed out with greater abilities and depth as the series progressed. But we eat it up anyway.

Conversely, Brandon Sanderson appears to have had the complex and intriguing magic system found in the Mistborn novels completely worked out from book one. It's a fascinating system and he delves into all sorts of unique ways to use magic within the constraints he gave. And it works, too.

Those are the big secrets. Utilize what you know and what you're passionate about to make your magic come alive. Then, use your skills as a writer to make the reader believe it. If you want to create a magic system that requires the caster to dance ballet and sing show tunes which then bestows unlimited power, I say to go for it. If you can make it work, the readers will love it. The proof is right there in my own book. The only complaint I've ever received regarding the magic in Malja's story is that readers want even more of it.

That's when you know it's really working.

----

Stuart Jaffe is the author of Southern Bound, The Malja Chronicles, After The Crash, as well as the short story collection, 10 Bits of My Brain. Numerous other short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies. He is the co-host of The Eclectic Review -- a podcast about science, art, and well, everything. For those who keep count, the latest animal listing is as follows: five cats, one albino corn snake, one Brazilian black tarantula, three aquatic turtles, assorted fish, two lop-eared rabbits, five chickens, and a horse. Thankfully, the chickens and the horse do not live inside the house.

The Way of the Black Beast can be found here: http://amzn.to/blackbeast

Stuart's website: http://www.stuartjaffe.com