The Distance Between Here And There

THE DISTANCE BETWEEN HERE AND THERE Okay, everybody, “insert paragraph concerning my love of maps right here.” I’ve said all that earlier than. I love maps. I like to make maps. I like to stare at maps. Got it. Touching again on the subject of worldbuilding, although, let’s talk about why you might no less than wish to sketch out a map or two for your self to guide you as you’re writing, regardless of your capacity to attract. Why does it matter what the world appears like? If for no other cause it helps you, and by extension your reader, perceive the gap between here and there. You would possibly nonetheless be asking, Why does that matter? Well, if it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. Does the truth that the castle is three miles from the tavern make any difference to your story? No? Then it doesn’t matter and also you won’t need to specify that. But the area between issues can have and large impact in your story and characters. If you’ve obtained a medieval fantasy world and the hero is in one m etropolis and the villain is in another, and the Stone of Amazingness is somewhere in-between and whoever gets it first will either destroy it or open the Gate to Elsewhere, then how far it is from City A to the stone vs. the gap between City B and the stone, and how briskly each of your characters can journey, issues a fantastic deal. True, if each are capable of instantaneous travel, it doesn’t matter. Okay, nice. But in any other case . . . ? Plot is all about tension. There needs to be some query as to who will win the day, the hero or the villain, and finally this dramatic rigidity comes from what you may name “the operating clock.” This can be expressed outright, with some sort of deadline: Blow up the asteroid before it crashes into Earth in three days. Or it may be somewhat extra vague: Someone appears to be trying to open the Gate to Elsewhere and if he does, wow, will that be unhealthy. So if the hero has to get to the place the stone is, how far away it's and how br iskly he can get there makes all of the difference in the world. And it’s not just travel time, but the velocity of communication we have to consider. We’ve all turn into a bit spoiled since the invention of the telephone. It’s not bizarre for us to be in immediate two-means communication with anybody at any given time, however from the broader view of history this can be a very new invention. For the overwhelming majority of human history communication was restricted by the velocity of travel, or at the very least, the boundaries of line of sight. Even as late because the nineteenth century right here in America, the Pony Express literally hand-delivered messages over great distances by driving as quick as they may on a horse. Native Americans famously used smoke alerts to speak brief messages over long distances, but you continue to needed to be close sufficient to see the smoke. Someone in New York couldn’t wave a blanket over a hearth and talk with somebody in Seattleâ€" at least not with out a unprecedented sequence of intermediaries placed at intervals in-between. And the traditional children’s game of Telephone can let you know why which may not be essentially the most reliable system. This thought of the velocity of communication is important to each science fiction and fantasy. Let’s have a look at both individually. Starting with fantasy, what's your fantasy world’s obtainable communications expertise, both man-made or magical? If anyone and everyone can use magic and there’s a spell that lets you primarily name somebody and have a real-time dialog then you definitely’ve simply invented the magical equal of the cellphone, and your world will have to change accordingly. If you’re working from a usually medieval thought with much less pervasive magic then possibly only a few folks, and even just one, has the power to communicate over lengthy distances. If so then that individual has an amazing benefit. If the evil wizard can use his enchanted mirror to contact his agent in City A and warn him that the hero is about to depart to go after the Stone of Amazingness, and have to be stopped, the evil wizard may need at least a head start if the hero doesn’t have entry to that magic and has to only journey out to the place the stone is hidden without being able to “name forward.” The possibilities for story are infinite. I recently re-watched the sensible HBO collection Rome again, which included an interesting sequence during which Titus Pullo was sent to assassinate Cicero, who was warned just ahead of time by a runner. Cicero then sent the identical messenger back to Rome with a letter of warning, but that messenger was waylaid along the street and the letter lost. How would the whole story have modified if Cicero might have just picked up the phone? How many stories, for that matter, would come to a screeching halt the second someone referred to as 911? But before we get to that, let’s look at communicatio n and travel instances in science fiction. Science fiction comes in many flavors and there’s basically an infinite number of the reason why communication could be instantaneous, painfully slow, or somewhere in-between. I actually have a cell phone and most probably in a hundred years, individuals could have even more advanced communications gadgets that received’t abruptly get slower. Unless, of course, there’s a terrible apocalypse within the meantime and the power is turned off to the cell towers. Now I actually have a useless hunk of plastic in my pocket. And what if I’m trying to name the Proxima Centauri Colony, about four gentle years away? Via radio that means I say, “Hello Proxima Colony, that is Phil calling,” then wait four years while that radio signal travels on the pace of light to Proxima Centauri. Only then will someone on the Proxima Colony hear me say that then answer, “Hey, Phil, what’s up?” Another 4 years later I hear that response and answer ag ain, “Not much. What’s up with you?” And it goes on and on like that with 4 years between every station. Not a very environment friendly approach to have a conversation. It’s been twelve years and the Proxima Colony has only just heard my second sentence. So in your future do you have one thing like a “subspace radio” so your characters can simply call up and discuss in real time with a colony 4 mild years away? Okay. You set the rules, but that means that when the horde of insectoid aliens attack the Proxima Colony the colonists can name for assist. Everyone on Earth knows what’s happening and may a minimum of put together for a attainable invasion if issues go poorly on Proxima. But what in case you have quicker-than-light starships however no quicker-than-mild radio? Well, then you’re again to the pony categorical. Need to tell anyone one thing on Proxima? Write a letter and the common resupply ship will get it there in, say, per weekâ€"or nevertheless fast you de cide your starships can go. Slow by telephone requirements, but sooner than the eight-12 months turnaround for a radio sign. Back to that query, then: How many stories would come to a screeching halt the second somebody called 911? Well, plenty of them, really. And that is why authors like to isolate the action. Let’s set our story in an arctic research base throughout a blizzard (The Thing) or deep under the ocean during a hurricane (The Abyss). In both of these tales the characters on website should fend for themselves. They need to make the right selections and battle the good battle without recourse to the correct authorities. This is the disconnect on the coronary heart of the flicks Alien and Aliens. In the primary film it was a small group of unwell-ready space truckers vs. a terrifying alien predator. In Aliens we noticed what occurs when the proper authorities ship educated professionals to take care of a problem they've some prior knowledge of. It still goes unhealthy fo r our Colonial Marine pals, but then there was more than only one alien in the second. And even in Aliens, these marines had been on their very own, seventeen days away from reinforcements. If you look again at the improvement of know-how it’s fair to say that the longer term is fast and the previous is gradual. We travel much faster now that we did even just, say, sixty years in the past. The phone and the jet airliner modified the world. Every technology laments that their youngsters seem to be “growing up too fast.” Some individuals even long for “the good old days” when things moved at a=slower pace. In reality, I think, when you put any of those folks into that well-known Frontier House experiment they’d in a short time change their tune. But does this imply that your fantasy story has to be gradual and your science fiction story must be fast? No. You are in control of all of that. Magic can velocity communications and journey to even sooner-than-present-day standar ds. And huge interstellar distances can drag each to a digital standstill even in a technological future. I’ll end with a familiar warning: Whatever your rules are, both magical or high-tech, you set them. You determine how briskly your starship goes or who can cast a Place Long Distance Phone Call spell. But when you’ve set and established these rules in the minds of your readers, stick with them. It’s the constant software of those invented assumptions that may lend your fantasy world or SF future an air of authenticity, or dare I use the word plausibility another time? Oh, I dare! â€"Philip Athans About Philip Athans