He must speculate. Perhaps he constrains his speculations in some fashion, with an eye toward the beliefs and preferences of his target readers, but nevertheless, he must exhibit imagination in his tales. His plots must embed original possibilities; his characters must confront the challenges they offer and labor to surmount them. All else is humdrum, boredom-inducing “mainstream” crap.
Imagination – creativity – can get you in trouble with the doctrinaire. Depending on whose doctrines your imaginings offend, the cost can be trivial or severe. There follow two vignettes from my experiences.
1. The “fantasy writer.”
I’ll call her Jane. I encountered her in an online critique group. She’d expressed admiration for my story “Equalizer,” and asked for my help in polishing her own fantasy novelette. I immediately said yes – I’m very easily flattered – so she sent it to me.
Jane’s novelette described a pre-technological society, which is common enough in the world of fantasy. She peopled it with a variety of characters typical of such societies. There was a love interest, and a clash between barons, and the usual sort of resolution. It was competently if not impressively written.
But it wasn’t fantasy. I had to tell Jane so:
FWP: I finished your novelette.
Jane: What did you think of it?
FWP: It has a problem. You won’t be able to sell it to a fantasy publication.
Jane: Why not?
FWP: There’s nothing fantastic in it. No magic, no non-human creatures with interesting abilities, no gods, angels, demons, monsters, or anything like that. No deviations from the world we live in. A fantasy reader won’t be happy with it.
Jane: Gene Wolfe writes stories like this and sells them to fantasy mags.
FWP: Are you Gene Wolfe?
Jane: No.
FWP: Then it’s a problem.
There’s not much of a market for non-fantastic fantasy.
2. The Orthodoxian.
A magazine publisher to whom I’d sold a couple of stories announced that he was interested in novel-length submissions. He and his publication were Catholic, as am I, so I thought I might have a shot at getting into print through him. (This was back when I still dreamed of conventional publication.) I sent him The Sledgehammer Concerto, which at that time was my freshest product. I thought its themes and sensibility would appeal to a Catholic publishing house.
Well, he bounced it. In his rejection letter, he stated outright that its speculations about magic and the afterlife are unacceptably outside Catholic doctrine. That made it unacceptable to him, as he is resolved to preserve 100% orthodoxy in his publications.
I found that curious, as he’d previously purchased my vampire story “Foundling” for his magazine. Catholic teaching doesn’t admit the possibility of vampires. But he appeared uninterested in discussing it further.
Speculation, which is absolutely required in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, can disqualify you from a market with doctrinal positions that it refuses to violate. Moreover, the doctrines need not be religious in nature.
Speculative fiction must speculate. If the writer refrains from doing so, he fails to meet the standard by which such fiction is judged. If he does speculate, he may violate the norms of some target publication or audience.
The duty is what it is. The requirement is enforced, in the main, by your intended readership. If you do meet it, it may limit the potential outlets for your tale. There are no guarantees. Unless you’re Gene Wolfe, I suppose.
