Post by account_disabled on Dec 14, 2023 6:47:00 GMT
To complete the setting of a fantastic novel - fantasy or science fiction - we must take care of the spelling of the names of our characters and the places in which the events take place. For fantasies that take place in real-life times and places – like Zeferina , the Harry Potter saga, etc. – and for science fiction stories limited to our planet it is unnecessary work. In a fantasy novel, one of the classic ones set in a sort of parallel Earth, the world is to be considered as a real foreign country, or set of countries.
The writer will therefore have to take care of the nomenclature, paying attention that each state he creates will have to have different spellings, just as happens in reality. The same applies to science fiction, when we are dealing with other planets and galaxies and perhaps with extraterrestrials. In this case we must diversify the various names, as if we were to create Phone Number Dataone or more languages. Recreating a world and its language In my article on names, from the series of posts on documentation in creative writing, I underlined how essential it is to document yourself based on the historical-geographical context of the story before assigning names to the characters.
And this discussion is even more important in fantasy, since it helps to define a setting. Establishing a specific spelling for characters and places means recreating a world, it also means helping the reader, since he will be able to better understand this world thanks to the linguistic diversification that you have adopted. Reading the Shannara saga and observing the names of the places, I have the impression that each of the Four Lands speaks the same language, yet in some areas men live, in others the Elves, in still others the Gnomes, in others the Trolls. Only in a few rare cases had some attention been paid to diversifying the various ethnic groups and therefore the various languages.
The writer will therefore have to take care of the nomenclature, paying attention that each state he creates will have to have different spellings, just as happens in reality. The same applies to science fiction, when we are dealing with other planets and galaxies and perhaps with extraterrestrials. In this case we must diversify the various names, as if we were to create Phone Number Dataone or more languages. Recreating a world and its language In my article on names, from the series of posts on documentation in creative writing, I underlined how essential it is to document yourself based on the historical-geographical context of the story before assigning names to the characters.
And this discussion is even more important in fantasy, since it helps to define a setting. Establishing a specific spelling for characters and places means recreating a world, it also means helping the reader, since he will be able to better understand this world thanks to the linguistic diversification that you have adopted. Reading the Shannara saga and observing the names of the places, I have the impression that each of the Four Lands speaks the same language, yet in some areas men live, in others the Elves, in still others the Gnomes, in others the Trolls. Only in a few rare cases had some attention been paid to diversifying the various ethnic groups and therefore the various languages.