fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3115 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3115 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Tom Selleck]

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03.

[Kylie Bunbury]

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[My Life as a Teenage Robot]

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[The Raid 2]

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06.

[Ore Monogatari]

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[noel fielding]

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08.

[Matsumoto Jun, Arashi]

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[The Quiz Broadcast (That Mitchell and Webb Look)]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 027 secrets from Secret Submission Post #445.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I've wrote this long story a few years ago and now I would like to post it. But now I'm thinking there might be some unfortunate implications, and I'd like to see what people think.

Basically, part of the story takes place in Africa. In my story, tens of thousands of years ago there was a magic battle that upended the world. It occurred in Africa and left a scar in the magic there so that magic-wielders cannot live there easily. It can cause them to go mad. The disturbance in the magic meant that where magic is hard to use in Africa, it is too abundant in South America. So both places are devoid of magic-wielders. But in the modern era, the scar is healing and both areas will eventually be inhabited by magic-wielders again (though this is only beginning in the story and not really featured). So, does that have unfortunate implications?

The other thing is that there are only a handful of "houses" of magic-wielders. I had the only bad leader of a "house" hiding in Africa, where he is discovered, the rest of his "house" freed, and he is killed. I'm thinking this is another unfortunate implication. What do you think?

If magic exists and it's not the real world, why do these continents specifically have to be South America and Africa? How do you explain how South America and Africa became what they are today if such major magic-related events happened there? Wouldn't that have changed the entire course of civilization and industrialization, not to mention sources of raw materials like the rainforests, so that Europe, Asia, North America, and Oceania wouldn't be what they are today?

The magic is secret. That's why there are so few magic-wielders. The world appears to be the normal world we have today with secret magic a few people can use (like maybe Dresden Files?). And the magic is very specific in what it can and cannot do. It's kind of complicated and I'd have to go into a really long, detailed explanation of the world. But, think of it like vampires who have some special powers but must keep out of the public eye to keep from drawing attention to themselves. Only three people in the whole world have the power that was involved in the long-ago battle.

But, basically, everyone who lives in South America and Africa wouldn't feel or be affected by the magical scar. It only affects people who use magic.

Implications are all about interpretation, and you can't control how people will interpret your story. So if you like it, post it.

The problem is that nobody can tell whether or not your story will work regardless of its "unfortunate implications" just by a plot description alone. We can't tell how well you've used your setting and characters, or the cultures you've portrayed in your story. All you can do is think about some of the critiques writers who write stories like this often face.

* Does your universe draw from real life cultures? Do you do it with a knowledge and understanding of what they're like, or have you used it as an exotic seasoning for your fantasy story?

* Is your story set in Africa/South America, but all the main characters are white?

* If you have POC characters, are they cliched tropes (i.e. Magical Negro/Asian/Native American, etc.?) or complex, well rounded people who have flaws as well as strengths?

* Take a look at this: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RaceTropes - Does any of that sound familiar? This is not to say that you have to avoid every single trope, but it's smart to be aware of what you're writing and what tropes you're using, even if only to subvert them.

Those are just a few things to consider. It sounds daunting and I'm sure lots of people are wary of writing stories like the ones you mentioned because of it, but honestly, this is just part of being a good writer. Even if your story was all about white people in a magical white people land, you'd still have to address very similar issues if you wanted to write a good story.

This sounds like yet more YA tripe. At least you recognize how racist it'll probably end up being.

This seems like a completely unhelpful comment, but I'm sure you realized that when you posted it. Shine on, you cranky diamond of glass-half-emptiness.

Fuck off. YA as a genre is str8 garbo and pretty fucking racist.

right off the bat it worries me that your story takes place in "Africa," did you leave it intentionally vague for summary purposes or did you not pick a country from that gigantic continent?

No, it was just for summary purposes. There's a lot of travel involved as they go from one end of the continent to the other, but I did research to try to match up specific places for them to be.

[ SECRET POST #3115 ]

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