Things in your work that are clearly non-sensical and inaccurate

Well, for an example, there's a counterinsurgent military force designed to subdue criminals using magic. I am doing research so the firearms and other military technologies used are accurate.

Also, there's a five centuries year old alchemist and I've consulted a couple of pharmacists to make sure that drugs he uses are accurate or at least plausible.

edited 19th Dec '11 10:49:06 PM by dRoy

That's not quite the same thing. If your question is "does the fact that my story has magic mean I should ignore researching anything else", then... no.

That sums my question right.

I feel like that is one of the few things Anita Blake does right, is mix accurate information about police work/military work (except the whole bigotted cops thing) with magic.

About your example, well, it depends. Does your magic work by strict rules or is it one of those things that's a bit more fluid?

edited 19th Dec '11 10:50:46 PM by NoirGrimoir

@Noir - I'm not sure. I was originally considering making it a Minovsky Physics, but after someone who has a physics major...it gives me a splitting headache and I'm considering just taking it easy.

edited 19th Dec '11 10:53:49 PM by dRoy

For starters, treating magic as "physics" might not be a great idea. There's a big difference between making it internally consistent and actually trying to integrate it with real science.

edited 19th Dec '11 10:56:47 PM by nrjxll

That was exactly what I was trying. I wanted to create the setting where magic coexisted with science but it proved to be too much work.

This thread is a pile of noise so it's not really a good place for an in-depth discussion, but for dRoy? Noir? nxj? You may want to research Hispanic writers and magical realism for examples of a straightfaced take on fantastic elements and the thematic potential therein. Gabriel García Márquez (might be mangling the accents there, I don't actually speak Spanish) and Franz Kafka are both good places to start. One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of those novels I've always meant to read but never got to.

edited 19th Dec '11 11:03:28 PM by AManInBlack

Magical Realism is interesting because it adds the surreal and the magical elements in like it ain't no thang. A prime example was in one of GGM's books (I don't remember which one, but I am fairly certain it was Cien Años De Soledad) it uses raining flowers as powerful imagery to represent hope (Forgive me, it has been a while) but it is integrated so well and is just passed over that it feels natural. It retains the suspension of disbelief despite being so unusual. He is a really interesting writer.

Would it be all right to have a completely magical object on one hand while accurately portrayed technologies on the other hand?

that would be as bad as murdering a newborn baby.

edited 19th Dec '11 11:09:56 PM by joeyjojo

@joey - Well, crap. :/

The thing about magic in a universe that also has science is that a lot of the time 'magic' is pretty personal, like a lot of it has to do with things going on inside your head (unless it's more ritualistic, rather than directly controlled by the mind) and would be difficult if not impossible to really measure well with scientific instruments, so even if it could be studied, it would probably be like Psychology, or full on pseudo-sciences, only sort of taken seriously by other sciences because it's so difficult to really apply the scientific method to.

edited 19th Dec '11 11:23:36 PM by NoirGrimoir

@D roy: If it makes you feel better I pretty sure that baby would been Hitler

edited 19th Dec '11 11:20:07 PM by joeyjojo

^^ The way I like to play it is differing paradigms with little overlap—studying magic reveals one set of truths, studying certain branches of science reveals truths that contradict them, and nobody's quite sure why the truths for magic are different than the truths for everything else. (Then again, the lightspeed thing I mentioned in my earlier post does tie into the closest thing that setting has to magic, despite being something that my scientist characters are capable of studying.)

edited 20th Dec '11 12:06:14 AM by feotakahari

Re: magical realism.

I honestly have never really enjoyed it much, because basically, it's not that realistic, and it isn't even really supposed to be. The whole "supernatural elements seamlessly integrated into reality" thing is more for thematic purposes then anything else, and that isn't something I particularly like in fiction.

One of the main characters in my work is a Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot Mage Super Sentai who wields a weapon that is known as the Shadow Magic Cutlass Shuriken Blaster. He specializes in transforming.

In fact, he is part of a clan of Ninja Mage Super Sentai people, and works for a company that only employs Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot Mages to protect the citizens.

Of course, this is likely the most ridiculous thing in my entire work, because it simply makes people's heads turn to jelly when trying to think of how that's even possible.

edited 20th Dec '11 2:14:22 AM by burnpsy

@burn - NPZR as in...literally NPZR?

Well, technically he's a Ninja Mage Super Sentai who can use magic to become a literal Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot Mage Super Sentai.

His weapon should have told you I was being literal. He calls it the Shamakashubu for short.

edited 20th Dec '11 2:12:18 AM by burnpsy

My protagonist dreams in a very linear way. A series of dreams she has over several nights has an overarching plot and are all set in the same place, with the same characters and themes. Not to mention whenever someone says something that doesn't make sense, it usually turns out The Cuckoolander Was Right. Although there's a lot of Rule of Symbolism, Eldritch Locations, and their living counterparts, it's still pretty structured.

I admit it's unrealistic, especiallly since the rest of the story is a Slice of Life that tries to follow True Art Is Realistic.

edited 20th Dec '11 2:41:57 AM by Wheezy

Energy shields.

hmm...

the lore character who retgone's herself without actually doing it, in the process screwing the world over really badly and powering herself up to being a god mode sue and immortal.

plus the time travel outside this one little groundhog day loop sidestory doesnt have any framework so its really just me make making shit up because i know what i want, but not how to get there. i also know that it really doesnt matter because this character only appears in person in the verse epilogue where time travel isnt supposed to work properly/make sense.

Though the fights in the last story I finished never reach "Hurricane kicks and evergy blasts oh my" levels, apparently, you can cleanly straight punch or uppercut a kid clean enough to send them careening five feet backwards of upwards respectfully.

In one of my longer works, the entire plot kicks off when the best paper pusher in the world burns off his hands from working too hard.

Make of that what you will.

IJD antigravity.

It Just Does.