One of the great Truths I’ve learned in life and in my quest to become a great writer is that people tend to put things in little boxes. I’m no better nor worse than anyone else in this matter.
The following essay, in combination with tomorrow's, is my thoughts on the various categories of fiction that I will be dealing with in this blog. They may not mesh with the ideas of other. They may not mesh with my own thoughts further down the road.
However, they are what I think now.
Fiction can be divided into two main categories: Ordinary and Fantastic. No one category is inherently better or more worthy than the other, but the difference between the two is distinct.
Ordinary Fiction is of this world, following, taking from, and guided by what is known of the laws of science and nature, as well as the course of history. It covers the present and the past and only slightly dips its toes into the future, if it does so at all.
In Ordinary Fiction the severed hand running around killing people is just the delusions of a madman. The dead husband haunting his wife turns out to be alive and seeking to drive her insane. The UFOs performing cattle mutilations are in truth stealth helicopters used by the government. If the supernatural is suggested, it is usually done ambiguously, or as a winking joke between the writer and those that know better.
On the other hand, Fantastic Fiction deals with situations that are impossible or improbable, or with possibilities that may or may not come to pass. Things like physics and history can be tossed out the window or altered to suit the creator’s needs. It can cover past, present, and future with a will, or invent other worlds and other histories.
In Fantastic Fiction, cities can be thinking entities, bent on enacting their will upon their citizens. A medieval town might decide they must be ruled by a magic lord. A world might exist as a disk on the back of a giant turtle. A future civilization come under the rule of the very machines they created to serve them.
As this blog is run by a Writer of the Fantastic (one who writes Fantastic Fiction), Ordinary Fiction will not be discussed more than in passing beyond what has been done in this essay. It should not be interpreted that there will be no Ordinary Fiction posted, nor will works of Ordinary Fiction be past up as matters of debate or review. It just won't happen very often.
The focus of the next essay will be devoted to detailing thoughts on the three basic subcategories of the Fantastic: Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy.
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